Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1902-03-07
HUNDREDS OF WILD PONIES.
Chincoteague Island, Off Virginia Coast,
Like South American Pampas.

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Like South American Pampas.
Next to the Natural Bridge and the
Caverns of Luray. the most interesting
place in the State of Virginia is Chin
cateague Island, lying in the Atlantic
Ocean and forming the easternmost
point of the Eastern Shore Of the Old
Dominion. Chincoteague Island is a
bare expanse of wind swept, salt marsh,
about one-fourth the area of the Dis
trict of Columbia, and is the home of
countless droves of wild ponies. These
ponies are the property of the island
ers in the sense that wildcattle of the
pa,npas are the property of a handful
of Gaucho rancheros.
The labor involved in raising these
ANIMALS amounts to nothing more than
once n year driving them into a coral,
branding the colts with the owners
mark, capturing and breaking few
for sale or individual use. and releasing
the rest of the herd to roam at will over
the island until the next branding
season arrives usually in May OIL the
early part of June).
No care whatever is taken of these
animals. The island is covered with
luxuriant growth of marsh grass upon,
which the Chincoteague ponies live
and thrive. In winter they are ex
posed, without shelter, to the cold
storms, but, having lived for several
centuries in a wild state, they have
become very hardy, and, like the moose
and reindeer of the North, have learned
the art of paving aside the snow to get
at the marsh grass, which forms their
sole subsistence. winter and summer.
They have also acquired the knack of
''yarding up" like the Maine moose,
in order to keep from freezing to death
during the fierce gales and billiards.
that blow down the Atlantic coast du-
ring the wintel months
The Chincoteague ponies are not in
much demand, for the reason that it is
impossible to effect their complete do.
mesticatlon, no matter how well they
are broken, and for this reason one
does not encounter them far from the
place of their birth and origin. An
oysterman who piles between this city
and the Pinkatank river, and formerly
operated vessel, transporting ponies
purchased on Chincoteague Island to
the mainland, in talking of the matter
at the Ninth street wharf, said:
"Of late years Chincoteague Island
has been visited every June by large
of New York and Boston
people. who come down on steamers
to witness the exciting spectacle of the
annual roundup, branding, breaking
and sale of the wild panies. Twenty
years ago very little was known about
the island and the ponies, until some
one wrote the place up for Harper's,
OF some other magazine, the name of
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people to coming there.
people have often asked me ques.
tions as to the origin of this race of
ponies, all of which is lost in the mists
of the past. The islanders believe and
maintain that the ponies were there
long before the advent of the white
man in either Virginia or Maryland,
and that they are an Indigenous pro-
duct, as much so as the rabbits and
coons of the island, but in this I think
they are mistaken.
1.-The animals are, as matter of
fact, not ponies, but undersized horses,
the prevailing colors being bay and
black. They lack that stocky build
which forms such conspicuous and
prominent characteristic of the Shet
land, Welsh and Iceland ponies, and
which no amount of breeding in
warmer climates will ever eliminate.
The Chincoteague pony is, therefore,
simply horse that has been diminish
ed in size through neglect and lack of
attention. w ashington Post.