Weather, a Midnight Raid, and Ponies

The foothills of Colorado have quirky weather - here it is, June, and yesterday the heat came on and I had to wear slacks to keep my legs warm. A cold front came through Wednesday evening, with heavy rain and hail. Then we had about 18 hours of soft rain. The land needed it. Our humidity level in Boulder is usually below 20%; people complain if it's higher than 30%. Yesterday the high temperature was 55 and the humidity varied from 100 to 67%. We were wet and chilled. Today the sky is blue, it's already in the 60s and the humidity is about 22% - quite a change - and quite welcome!

I was finishing some research last night and about to close down the computer just before midnight. I had filled the bird-feeders and placed peanuts out for the squirrels, so food would be ready at 5 a.m., when they usually start visiting. Silly me! I had forgotten about our maurauding band of raccoons. They arrived at 11:55; and were having a ball eating the peanuts. The kits and I crowded up to the window, and watched - and were watched back. Last night there were four in the group - a larger adult (?) with a bobbed-tail and three smaller ones. The kits howled and growled and spat; I knocked on the windows and made great exaggerated motions - all to no avail. The raccoons looked at us, and kept on cracking the peanuts out of the shells and eating. I told Lovey and Banichi that they were very brave to defend the home turf against 4 raccoons, and then went to bed.

My last two photo postings were of Paul and Maureen Beebe and Black Comet, and of Chincoteague ponies grazing on Assateague. Maureen told me that Paul was impatient that day and didn't want his picture taken - that's why her hand is on the bridle. Maureen and Paul are cousins of mine - of course, just about all true Chincoteaguers are related to each other. Ida Whealton Beebe (Maureen's grandmother) was my great-grandmother's sister.

Marguerite Henry made Chincoteague famous by writing Misty of Chincoteague. The story of brother and sister wanting a pony of their own, that wouldn't be sold, was a winner (as a matter of fact, it won the prestigous Newberry Award). The origin of the Chincoteague pony is "veiled in the mists of time." Assateague Island was used as a natural holding area for livestock by folks on Chincoteague and other folks up the Maryland coast. The ponies may be remnants of livestock gone wild; the other assumption is that they are descendants of a group of ponies that were ship-wrecked while on the way from Spain to the mines of Peru. There is a little bit of proof of this - a Spanish ship, with ponies headed for the mines, was lost in the 1600s along the Eastern seaboard. A surveyor on Assateague saw the remains of a ship on one of the sandbars to the east of the island in the early 1600s, and noted that there were several "blinded horses" on the island. - At that point in time, ponies or horses who worked in the mines were blinded before transport to the mines. This was to inhibit the ponies from straying, to keep them from having eye problems due to the dust and ores in the mines, and also for ease of handling. (Blind ponies would not raise a ruckus being put into a sling and hauled up into the air, then slung over to a ship, and dropped down into the dark, smelly hold of a ship.) The ponies only had to be fed and watered, and could otherwise be left to their work.

In any event, people moved onto and farmed Assateague and Chincoteague. Herds of cattle, sheep, goats and horses/ponies were roaming free on Assateague. They were herded together and marked or branded about once a year. Likely prospects for riding or work horses were taken from the herd for breaking and training. Most of the residents of Assateague and Chincoteague would get together for this large round-up of livestock of all sorts, and they would have a huge communal dinner together. This is how today's Pony Penning began.

The wild ponies of Chincoteague today are owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, and are grazed by permit on the Assateague National Wildlife Refuge. The ponies are rounded up four times a year - once for Pony Penning, the last Wednesday and Thursday in July - and three other times during the year. At each round-up the ponies are checked by a veterinarian, and have their blood tested for infectious diseases; a farrier/blacksmith is there to trim their hooves; annual vaccinations and worming treatments are given. The "wild" ponies are taken care of very well.