Fifty-four Chincoteague Pony Foals So Far.... And Pony Penning Week Information

The annual Pony Penning on Assateague and Chincoteague Islands in Virginia will happen during the week of July 20th through the 27th this year.  The Chincoteague Firemen's Carnival will be open  every night except Sunday; and will be open on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons.  On Saturday, the 20th of July, the Saltwater Cowboys of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company (who is the owner of the ponies on Assateague Island in Virginia) will round up the herds located in the southern compartment of the island and take them to the main holding corrals along Beach Road.
  On Sunday, the Cowboys will round up the herds in the northern compartment, and deliver them to the north holding corral, about 2 miles north of the Wildlife Drive Loop, on the service road. Monday morning, at dawn, the ponies will be herded across the island to the Atlantic ocean beach, and walked down the beach, next to the surf, to the main parking lot and on down the Beach Road to the southern holding corrals.  On Tuesday, all of the ponies will be checked by the veterinarians.  Foals will have blood drawn for their Coggins tests so they can be transported out of state.  Any pony deemed too old, too pregnant, too young, too ill, or with any other mitigating problem, will be taken by trailer to the Carnival Grounds on Chincoteague.  (Unci, an older mare with congenital lordosis - causing a swayback - is routinely trailered over.)
   Wednesday morning, at slack tide, the ponies deemed fit by the veterinarians will swim the Assateague Channel between the two islands.  The crossing is about 1/8 of a mile, and the tide will not be running in either direction.  The swim usually takes less than 3 minutes, and the ponies are closely monitored by the US Coast Guard, the veterinarians, and members of the CVFC.  After resting from the swim, the ponies are herded along Beebe Road and then north on Main Street to the Carnival Grounds, where pasture, hay and water troughs await them.
   On Thursday morning, at 8 o'clock, the auction of the foals born up until that moment, are sold to the highest bidder.  Most will be leaving the island for the rest of their lives.  A few will be designated as "Buy Back" foals; these foals will not leave the two islands.  A person or group may bid on and purchase a Buy Back baby; they will have the right to name the foal and have their photo taken with it - but the foal will live out it's life on Assateague (with 3 days on Chincoteague each year) and all of that pony's progeny will belong to the CVFC for selling in future years.  (I purchased a pony in 2015; she had her first foal this year and the filly will be sold on Thursday, 25 July.)  If the foal is too young to be taken from it's mother, the new owner must return for the Fall Round-Up and pick up that foal.  Any foals born after Pony Penning are usually sold at the Fall Round-Up; this past year the foals were sold by a silent auction mail-in bidding system.
   On Friday morning, or early afternoon, again at slack tide, the southern herds are taken back to the Channel to swim back to Assateague.  Originally all the ponies of both the north and south compartments would make the return swim.  Since the CVFC, the National Park Service and the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge do not want any pony fatalities caused by crossing Beach Road, the northern herds are now trailered back to the northern end of Assateague (in Virginia) and released.
   *****   We have had fifty-four foals born so far, with only one fatality.  Kimball's Rainbow Delight was seen with a foal at her side on 19 May.  They were seen from a distance, and a photo was taken.  To me, the foal looked to be chestnut, but a few other people think it was palomino.  The foal hasn't been seen since that day, and Rainbow Delight was at the third equine pythiosis (aka "Swamp Cancer") vaccination without a baby.  So we seem to have lost it to unknown causes.
   Of the 53 foals living, there are 23 fillies and 30 colts.  There are 10 bay babies, 3 buckskin babies, 5 chestnut babies, 3 palomino babies, and there are 5 babies that other folks believe will be black.  I think there are definitely 2 black babies - but I'm not sure how the other 3 will shed out, once they lose their baby fur.  They might be black, a dark bay or brown, or possibly a dark, smoky buckskin... only time will prove the real coloration.  There are also multiple pinto babies - 1 buckskin pinto, 1 black pinto, 5 palomino pintos (one of them a perlino/cream with blue eyes), 9 chestnut pintos and 12 bay pintos.  DSC Photography has classified one of the bay pintos as a chestnut pinto, but the end of the foals' tail is black, not chestnut, so it is technically a bay.)
  How many more babies will be born before Pony Penning?  How many during and after?  Again, we can only wait and see...