Three New Chincoteague Foals - Two Wild, One Tame

After a few days with scattered intense thunderstorms, foal watchers were expecting babies - and there were three.  First, the Leonard family are celebrating the fourth generation birth of Honeymoon. She and her dam, Martha, are located in the pasture between the McDonald's and the Refuge Inn on Maddox Boulevard, just before the bridge to Assateague.  The Leonard family has been breeding Chincoteague ponies for generations, and Don Leonard was the man chosen to drive Misty back to the island from Fort Wayne, Indiana back in 1957...

Honeymoon and Mom Martha

 Yes, she's a blue-eyed baby...

Over on Assateague this morning, Captain Dan Davis spotted Leah's Bayside Angel in the last throes of giving birth to a large bay baby...  She's looked as if she was expecting twins for quite a while...  This is foal number 51, and the sire is Wild Thing:

Thanks to Captain Dan's Around the Island Tours for the photos!

Foal number 52 is a dark child, and was spotted by Darcy and Steve Cole about an hour after Captain Dan saw Leah's bay.  This foal is the baby of Black Pearl and Maverick and was born this morning.  The photo was taken looking into the light, so the color is difficult to ascertain - might be black, bay, or dark brown....  Time and a closer viewing will give us the answer.  The only photo so far is below, and was taken by DSC Photography:

Misty (the Movie) Shows Free Next Week

Monday through Friday next week - Pony Penning week - the Island Theatre  on Main Street, Chincoteague Island, will show the 1961 film, Misty, at 11 a.m each morning.  The movie showing is free of charge, and tickets are available on a first-come, first-serve basis.  I was 5 years old when Misty, the film, was released, and I don't remember any year that I haven't viewed it.   The four main human characters - the Beebe family - are portrayed by Hollywood actors: Anne Seymour and Arthur O'Connor play Grandma and Grandpa Beebe, while Pam Smith and David Ladd (son of Alan Ladd) played Maureen and Paul Beebe. Duke Farley appears as Fire Chief Eba Jones.  Everyone else seen on screen in the movie is from Chincoteague Island, or nearby.  A picturesque farm in Onancock, on the Chesapeake Bay, stood in for the real Beebe Ranch; and trained ponies were the fill-ins for the original Phantom, Pied Pier, and Misty.  Most islanders own a copy of Misty so they can view family members in crowd scenes - I always look for Louise Bowden Gaskins in the race scene - she's in a blue dress and is standing by the racetrack rail, until she gives way for Maureen and Paul...    Enjoy the movie Misty in the Island Theatre, or rent or buy it to watch at home.  It's a great movie, and it reminds me of the Chincoteague Island I remember growing up on.

Opening night for Misty at the Island Theatre in 1961.

Chincoteague and Assateague Views

Pony Swim Crossing sign on Chincoteague Island

An old map of Chincoteague and Assateague, showing the Carnival Grounds on Main Street, the path of the Pony Swim Parade to it, and various items of interest on Assateague.  This map shows the old draw bridge road to Chincoteague, and not the newer bridge that leads directly to Maddox Boulevard/Beach Road.

Misty of Chincoteague, being held by the gloved hand of Marguerite Henry (with Mrs. Henry's dachshund on her back, and wearing a horse shoe of carrots for her birthday).

Surfer Dude and two of his mares on Assateague

Two mares and three 2013 foals on Assateague

Misty Scotland Landscapes

Sunrise in Wester Ross

 

Fields near Galston

 Glen Coe

 

Rainbow in the Highlands

 

Chincoteague Ponies Now on Carnival Grounds

Slack tide occurred about 9 a.m. (EDT) this morning, and the US Coast Guard Cutter in the Assateague Channel sent up a red flare.  Seeing this, the Saltwater Cowboys of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company began to drive the combined herds of Chincoteague ponies into the Channel, to swim the 1/8 mile of water between the islands.  Taking approximately 3 minutes, all of the stallions, mares and foals that swam this year made it across safely.  After a rest on the east side of Chincoteague, near Memorial Park, the ponies were then herded down the streets of the island to the Carnival Grounds on south Main Street.  The ponies will stay in the pens at the Carnival until Friday morning, when they will swim back to Assateague. 
  Tomorrow morning, starting at 8 a.m. (EDT), the annual auction of foals will begin.  Normally, only foals born this year, and a few yearlings (late arriving foals from last year), are auctioned.  Most of the ponies go home with their new families Thursday afternoon or Friday.  A few very young foals will return to Assateague with their herds until the fall round-up, when they can be safely weaned from their mothers milk.  (Buyers of these foals will have to return in October to take their ponies home.)  Some of the ponies will be designated as "buy back" ponies - these are ponies with excellent bloodlines, confirmation, and, sometimes, unusual markings, that the Pony Committee wishes to keep as bloodstock (for breeding purposes).  If you purchase a "buy back" pony tomorrow, you can name it and have your photo taken with it, but then it is returned to roam free on Assateague ...

    Here are some photos of my favorite foals this year:

This colt is impressive from both sides:

He's from one of the northern herds.

I also like this splashy paint...

I'd take this bay with a star in a heartbeat...

This snazzy colt will probably get a lot of bidding - he'll be dark brown, almost black, with those white splashes

This little heart-breaker will a a dark-tipped tail

Any takers for a chestnut or sorrel?

Besides the nice buckskin and the chestnut paint foal, this palomino pinto is sure to draw heavy bidding, as most children (and grown-ups, too) will say that it's Misty reborn...

Rumors have it that 67 foals will be auctioned off tomorrow....