The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1873-10-24
MISCELLANY.
Where Wild Ponies Gror.

Iy 10 be incredulous, A visit to Chin
colleague viii cure his skepticism. vii,
ponies are abundant here, and hun
dred of them may be seen in hal
hours walk from the Atlantic Hotel
Nobody knows how they got here. Th'
Oldest inhabitant remembers Of hearing
his grandfather say that they were OF
the island when he was boy. Proba
bly, they were careering over the sane
hills when the first settler crossed thi
sound There is a tradition that SONS
great Virginia gentleman, of 200 year
ago was bringing over a pair of ponies
from England, and that the ship which
carried them was wrecked off Assateagus
Beach; the ponies were washed ashore
and we're the progenitors of the little an
imals that now feed upon the marshes
of Chincoteague.
/ In the last century they were consid'
cred of no value, and it is not known
that the proprietors of the island ever
set up any claim to those which grazed
upon their lands When the herdsmer
became the owners of the soil they began
to lasso some of them, and to put a
mark on them by which they could be
recognized afterward A few were do
mesticated and used for riding. The
marking process went on from year tc
year, until forty years ago there was nc
pony OF the island that was not claimed
1 by somebody. Many were tanned and
taken over to the mainland.
There were about 500 ponies on the
! island, including those on Assateague
| They divide themselves into herds with
out regard to ownership, and each herd
confines itself to a particular ran &c
Sometimes herd will migrate from one
quarter of the island to another, but
this does not often happen. There are
about thirty persons who own ponies,
all of whom, with two or three excep-
tions, live on the island. One of the
large proprietors own hundred head,
but a person is considered well off if he
has his brand upon twenty or thirty.
Each herd is governed by a male-a sort
of equine autocrat-whose authority is
his way up to the position of patriarch
by thrashing all his rivals, sometimes
driving them into the sea, where they
were drowned. All usurpers we're re
{ cIv oxr,ollol fro,,, I1rA
if they were not killed they became bold
bandits, and hung about the marshes
capturing such unwary females as hap
pened to stray too far from their protec-
tors. With these they founded new
herds, and beanie prosperous patriarchs
themselves.
The great day on the island is "pen-
ming day." although of late it has lost
some of its holiday attractions. For
merly the women as well as the men
congregated at the Atlantic Hotel to as
sist in identifying the ponies, and the is
land beauties came because their fathers
and mothers and brothers and lovers
were there.
On Chincoteaugue Island the square
in front of the Atlantic Hotel is used
for pen, but on Assateague large pen
has been built on the shore of stout
pine logs. Men and boys mount tame
ponies and start out to bring in the
herds. They gallop to the pasture
grounds, and after much yelling, fast
riding, and some little swearing, they
manage to drive one of the herds down
to the shore. Nearly all the houses on
Chincoteague are built along the sound,
and the yards in front join each other,
thus forming continuous fence.
When the herds get started down the
shore the riders press Gloss after, yelling
and .whooping, and there is a lively
chase until the avenue that leads to the
pen is reached. Here a crowd of men
are standing, and they turn the head of
the flying column into the square. Some
of the ponies suspect treachery and run
into the water, but the riders dash after
them, and soon the whole herd is forced
into the pen. The colts stick close to
their dams, and in all the rearing and
plunging about through the pen they
never become separated. A stout man,
with a long pole in his hand, and loop
ed rope at the end of it, posts himself
at the mouth of the pen, and as the pom
les run past he drops the loop over the
head of one of the colts. The little fel-
low plunges about and shakes his head
most furiously, but all to no purpose;
! the men haul him out and throw him
down on his right side. All this time
the branding iron has been heating at a
fire near by, presided over by sundry
urchins who take delight in this part OF
the performance. The face of the iron
sometimes bears the initial letters of the
owners name, and sometimes it is a sim
pie monogram, such as a circle or square
TO which the owner lays claim.
| When the colt has been thrown a boy
brings an iron from the fire, and it is
stamped on the pony's hip. There is
no cruelty in the operation, because the
iron only burns through the hair and
scarcely scars the skin. / saw a two
year-old colt branded while standing or
his feet, and it did not seem to feel the
burning.
By the time the colts in the herd have
been branded the drivers have driven
another herd down to the shores The
first are allowed to run back to theil
pasture grsunds, while the next in or
der is driven into the pen and the colt
subjected to the marking process. Some
times the colts escape till they are two
or even three years old, and then they
are much harder to handle.
A recent dispatch from Bakersfield
Kern county, California, gives the par
ticulars of horrible affray near tha
place, on election day. Larry Watson
asked Moses Gilman whom he had vote,