The Assateague and the
Chincoteague are basically the same pony, found mainly on
the Island of Assateague and on the neighboring island of Chincoteague,
which is off the coast of Virginia, America. The Chincoteague pony
is a registered breed that descended from the "wild" horses of
Assateague Island, a 37 mile long island off the coast of Maryland
and Virginia. The ponies are actually feral animals, meaning they
are only semi-wild.
The tale of the Chincoteague
pony is of the horses swimming to Assateague Island from a shipwrecked
Spanish galleon. However, the more plausible explanation is that
they descended from horses that were brought to Assateague during
the 17th century by mainland owners in order to avoid fencing laws
and livestock taxes. Today the horses are actually the size of ponies,
most likely due to their poor diet and harsh living environment.
Some of them, removed from
Assateague as foals and fed a high protein diet, grow to horse size.
On the islands, however, 80 percent of their diet is coarse saltmarsh
cordgrass, and American beachgrass. They also eat various types
of grass, bayberry twigs, rose hips, seaweed, and poison ivy. The
high salt concentration in their diets causes them to drink almost
twice as much fresh water as domesticated horses. This is why they
tend to have a bloated appearance. Despite the abundance of salt
water around them, they very rarely drink it.
The ponies are split into
two main herds, one of the Virginia end of the island and the other
on the Maryland end. There is a fence on the state line that separates
the herds. The population is controlled, keeping around 150 ponies
in order to lessen their impact on the island's ecology. The herds
have divided themselves into bands of two to twelve ponies. Each
herd occupies a home range. The National Park Service owns and manages
the Maryland herds, while the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department
owns and manages the Virginia herds. The herds are kept to about
150 animals in order to protect the existence of other natural resources
in the wildlife refuge.
The Virginia herd is the
herd commonly known as the "Chincoteague" pony, due to the fact
that they graze on land owned by the Chincoteague Wildlife Reserve.
Horse management programs have been instituted, even going so far
as to give the horses shots that prevent pregnancy by increasing
the amount of antibodies in the horse's immune system. The annual
Pony Penning Day is a big thing that attracts people to Assateague
Island to see the Chincoteague ponies swim across the channel. What
an awesome site....young and old alike forging the channel to solid
ground.
Return to Pony Breeds Page
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