Get a ring-side seat to watch the famous Chincoteague Ponies swim from Assateague to Chincoteague. We also offer charters for the return trip to Asseteague. The pony swim and auction are held the last Wednesday and Thursday of July. The excitement and anticipation of the events are felt all over the island.
Visitors begin to pour onto the island from all over the country and the world.
A tradition dating from the 1800's, the annual pony penning originated from the colonists practice of rounding up foals and yearlings for branding, and to renew their supply of workhorses. Today the penning draws some fifty thousand people. Legend tells us that sometime in the sixteenth century there had been a shipwreck of a Spanish galleon off the coast of Assateague. Aboard the ship was a cargo of mustangs. After the wreck, some of the ponies were able to swim ashore to safety.