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...

Photos of Chincoteague Pony Fall Round-Up

Folks, I have permission to share these photos.  Some are copyrighted and water-marked, some are not.  Please enjoy them, and if you wish to have a copy, contact the web site or photographer that is indicated...   Southern herds rounded up in afternoon on Friday; Northern herds in bright sunlight on Saturday.    Thank you, and enjoy.

Ace

Peace and dam ET

Anne Bonny

CLG Surfer's Blue Moon

Chief's herd

Don Leonard Stud II

ET

Misty Mills and Puzzle's filly

Unforgettable and her colt did NOT want to go into the corral.

Sweetpea, CLG Bay Princess and Goldie

DLS herd

Pixie Dust

Part of Legacy's herd

Jigsaw, Little Freedom, Sweetheart, and Precious Jewel

Gingersnap and Prince

Hoppy and Ken

Jigsaw and Sweetheart

Ken, Rumor, Kimmee Sue, Whisper, and Tuleta Star

Marsh Mallow

May's Grand Slam

Misty Mills, Seaside Miracle, and Unforgettable

Filly by Puzzle with dam Misty Mills

Moon and Summer (Misty descendants)

Prince

Sonny's Legacy

Tuleta Star

Wildfire

Wild Thing's herd - he's behind the foal

Life and Death Is Never-Ending....

The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company has lost a second foal  this season.  Yesterday was Mother's Day, and we were all excited that the mare Sweet Jane (aka Duckie) gave birth to a chestnut pinto foal, sired by Archer's Gambit (aka Puzzle).  The down side was that over on the Carnival Grounds on Main Street on Chincoteague, Bay Girl's bay colt, born on Friday, 4 May, passed away.  The colt was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, according to observers.  The foal just did not thrive.  He had difficulty in standing to nurse, and while he did nurse, he never gained much coordination, and never seemed to gain weight or grow like normal foals.  Apparently his brain was oxygen-starved in the womb, and did not develop properly.  Poor little guy is now gone.

Bay Girl and colt , 10 minutes after birth

   On Friday, 11 May, Misty Mills had a bay pinto foal and things seemed fine - at first.  But then the mare was seen to be avoiding the foal, and running from the baby when it wanted to nurse.  This was reported to the Pony Committee, who rescued the foal and began bottle feeding  it.  With the death of Bay Girl's foal, we are hoping that she will accept Misty Mills' rejected baby.  If not, the bottle feeding will continue.  Please keep the baby in your thoughts....

Misty Mills and foal

  And PETA is once again sticking its' nose into the Chincoteague ponies and Pony Penning.  PETA is once again trumpeting loudly that horses and ponies do not, naturally, swim.  With the death of Wild Island Orchid  and Surf Queen at the end of April, they are once again declaring that the annual Pony Swim from Assateague to Chincoteague is mistreatment and mismanagement of the ponies.  They cite the fact that Orchid and the Queen (and Randy, who survived) were trying to cross a stream (actually, what folks on the islands call a gut - a finger of brackish water) when they were caught in quicksand.  Orchid was already dead when the CVFC appeared, 15 minutes after being notified, and both the Queen and Randy were trailered back to Chincoteague and placed under care of the veterinarian on call.  Randy is recovering nicely, although she miscarried her foal.

   PETA has tried to shut down - stop - the Pony Swim since their second year of existence.  I remember one year when they came with a bunch of small motored rowboats and tried to take their boats into the swim lane.  Didn't the fools realize that the blades of the outboard motors would do tremendous damage to the ponies legs?  I have NEVER forgotten how angry I was with those idiots; and how happy I was that the Coast Guard caught everyone of them and made them pay fines.

  The Chincoteague ponies have lived on the island for over 350 years; they go into the channels and guts to escape the flies and mosquitoes when they swarm.  They foals are wading and swimming when they are a few hours old.  The salt water helps clean and heal cuts and scratches.  Sometimes the ponies swim around the fences that are supposed to keep them in their separate states - Dewey, a Maryland stallion, was visiting in Virginia a few days ago.  Horses and ponies swim naturally.  And the vet and his technicians thoroughly check every mare, stallion, and foal before the swim.  Any pony that anyone says is questionable - due to age, cuts, pregnancy, or any other cause - is taken by trailer and is nor allowed to join in the swim.

   The swim, just for clarity's sake, is less than 1/8 of a mile; most of the swim route is walkable for the adult ponies; only about 100 feet is deep enough to make the ponies swim; the Coast Guard uses marine equipment to notify the round-up men when the tide is not running in either direction, so the ponies will not get pushed or pulled by tides; and there are several boats manned by firemen and the Pony Committee that move alongside the swimming ponies to be certain none of them has any trouble during the swim.  The vet follows the ponies swimming in the CVFC barge, with the round-up men and horses.

Chincoteague Ponies

Tiger Lily - Ajax filly

Stallion Phantom Mist

Jessica's Sandy - Ace colt

Butterfly Kisses - Riptide foal; less than 8 hours old

Butterfly Kisses, her Riptide foal, and Mayli

Two-year-old filly Gingersnap

Carnival Baby-Prince filly stretching

Critters, Wild and Tame

It doesn't seem like a week since I sat down in front of a blank blog page...  All sorts of things are going on in the news and wildlife areas.  And I've been taking care of multiple houses full of critters, as people decide to vacation on a whim, without planning for pet care.  I've been running around like crazy.  I think I have two days off, Wednesday and Thursday this week, if nothing else pops up.
   I've started re-reading my Robin Hobb collection, and am currently reading Dragon Haven.  After I read her books, I'll hit my Rafael Sabatini novels, and then my un-edited editions of The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers.  That should keep me busy for a little while.
  I received my National Geographic DNA information back some time ago - my Haplogroup is J1c4.  But I have recently sent my DNA for processing to both Ancestry and to 23AndMe, also.  I'm waiting to see what is reported by the other two agencies...
   We've recently had moose in North Boulder - a woman was tending her garden on the edge of Wonderland Lake, and said she "suddenly felt a presence looming over" her.  It was a mother moose with twin calves, and the mother decided the woman was threatening her babies.  She was knocked down and walked upon.  Luckily, she only had scrapes and bruises.  And another moose with a single calf was reported at the Justice Center near the end of Boulder Canyon.
   Of course it's now summer, and we're having our usual incursions of coyotes, mountain lions and black bears.  The coyotes have been grabbing small dogs who are off-leash on walking, jogging, and biking paths, as well as cats loose in neighborhoods.  The mountain lions are grabbing the mule deer and fawns.  The bears are smashing bee hives and stealing honey, as well as raiding any bird feeders they can reach.  A friend has a one-inch thick wrought iron post for her feeders, and thought they were safe - this morning the post was bent at a 70 degree angle and the bird feeders were crushed and empty on the ground.  And folks around my sister and brother-in-laws house now have teen-aged bobcats out hunting with their parents, as well.  The fox are staying under cover as much as possible.  The cottontail rabbit birth explosion is feeding most of the smaller predators.
    Tess, one of the dogs I care for, is not doing well at the moment.  She started having seizures last fall.  They began occurring every 4 days a couple of months ago, and she has finally been placed on Potassium Bromide as a daily medication. (Her owner is a very firm believer in holistic medicine and diet taking care of everything.)  The K-Bro medication has increased her appetite amazingly, as well as her thirst.  But the main side effect is ataxia, her hind legs don't support her well...  The vet told the owner that once Tess reaches her optimal medication level, she'll return to normal.  The vet told the owner it would take one month.  I read the information, and it says the optimal level is reached in three to four months...  We'll have to see.  In the meantime, the dog who always bounced and danced on her hind legs is now shuffling with her nose to the ground.  It's pretty sad...
   Still at 59 new foals on the Chincoteague NationalWildlife Refuge - 56 after the three losses.  One foal died from an umbilical infection, one foal got stuck in the marsh mud and couldn't break free, and one had a congenital defect of the forelegs, which could not be healed.  All the others are quite bouncy and bold.  As usual, there are some really stupendous pinto markings, quite a few solids with great conformation, and a few real stand-outs.  I'm happy with the foals so far...
 

Chincoteague Ponies and Views - Photos

Canada geese

Krackers, a five-year-old, by Surfer Dude, out of Diamond's Jewel

Baybe and Prince's colt   (Thanks to DSC Photography)

Sea Feather, a 22-year-old pony, who has books written about her

ET and Puzzle's colt  (Thanks to DSC Photography)

Chincoteague Channel sunset, 31 May

Surfer's Riptide, 8-year-old stallion; by Surfer Dude, out of Surf Queen

Pet-pourri

I have been laughing myself silly about a news article from the state of Oregon.  A pet shop reported the theft of a Galapago monkey, or Bush Baby, and a few days later reported the theft of a money jar with Girl Scout cookie donations inside.  Then a laptop computer was reported stolen.  The pet shop was owned by a couple - and, several days after the reported thefts, the male half of the couple was seen behaving erratically on a sidewalk, having just exited an adult pornography store.  The man was arrested after it was found he was high on methamphetamine.  The Bush Baby, named "Gooey" was found in a local motel room - having been given to the out-of-town renter as a "tip." The renter was a prostitute from another town.  Besides finding the monkey, the missing laptop computer was also found.  Police surmise that the Girl Scout cookie money jar was also a part of the tip the male pet shop owner had given the prostitute, but neither money nor jar has been recovered.  The wife of the man charged in the incident was a co-owner of the pet shop.  She is currently having his name removed, legally, from anything to do with what is now her business.  The shop's name?  The Zany Zoo.  Isn't that appropriate?

    As of last night, there were ten foals on the Virginia end of Assateague Island, and the colt on the Maryland end was showing his athletic prowess, jumping over car barricades.  I'll follow this written piece up with photos of the new foals....     For hundreds of years, people have used the words foal and colt interchangeably - but, in strictly correct usage, a foal can be of either gender, while a colt is a male.  Chincoteaguers, however, use the old-fashioned designations for the pony babies - you have either a "horse colt" or a "mare colt."  After working on a horse farm and at a thoroughbred breeding farm, I still cringe when I hear the word colt used indiscriminately, but - that's Chincoteague.  It goes with a lot of local Elizibethan-era words, like pitchpole and pizzle.
   And, speaking of Chincoteague words, I saw a perfect example of  "a scud of rain" yesterday, here in Boulder.  I had just returned to my apartment from picking up friends at the Denver International Airport, and I sat at my desk, as I am now, and looked out the window.  The Flatirons and the front range of hills are usually clearly viewed - but yesterday, as I watched, a wall of wind-driven rain came over the mountains and passed by with a good wind behind it.  We had, perhaps, five minutes of rain, and then the skies cleared behind the scud of rain, and we were dry again in less than 15 minutes.  I had forgotten how one can clearly see a line of rain coming at you when you're out boating, or just sitting on the islands.  Yesterday's scud made it's point.

   Originally, today was my only full day off this month - with absolutely nothing to do.  Well, I'm half-way through my job for today.  I've already been up to Githen's Acres and have released Chocolate and Blackberry from their hutch; I've refreshed their water and made certain they have plenty of food.  I'll need to go back near dusk and re-cage them (for their own safety).  That's my only job today....  I'll start over at Rosie's tomorrow, come home Thursday night, and begin Friday at Tess's.  From May 2 through 8, I'm scheduled only to walk Rosie and Tess daily; then I'm back at other houses until the end of the month...  And one of the couple I'll be house-sitting for (plus 4 critters) will be visiting Chincoteague.  Wish I was going with them......

Assateague Northern Herds Photos

 Surfer's Riptide (left) and Black Tie Affair (right)

Surfer's Riptide (left) and Black Tie Affair (right)

Ken