Chris and I had hoped to see the wild ponies that are on Assateague Island in Virginia. They are often called Chincoteague ponies but they actually live on Assateague Island and our visit in September was geared toward seeing them. According to their information on their website :
The Chincoteague pony is also known as the Assateague horse. They are a breed of horse that developed, and now lives, within a semi-feral or feral population on Assateague Island. The breed was made famous by the Misty of Chincoteague novels, written by pony book author Marguerite Henry, and first published in 1947.
Although these horses are popularly known as Chincoteague ponies, the feral ponies live on Assateague Island. The entire island is owned by the federal government and is split by a fence at the Maryland/Virginia state line, with a herd of around 150 ponies living on the Virginia side of the fence, and 80 on the Maryland side.
But it was not to be. When we arrived there was a lot of flooding that had occurred and it forced the ponies who you can usually see farther in away from their usual spots to avoid the water. We did see evidence of them but just never caught a glimpse of one.
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The good thing was that we were able to hike a few places and saw a lot of other great things including the Sika Deer (aka Northern Spotted Deer or Japanese deer) several times so that was pretty neat.
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I kept seeing bunnies and of course they always remind me of my mom so it was almost like she was on our trip with us.
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We hiked all kinds of trails including trails to beaches which were probably my favorite.
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There’s a crab in this picture someplace.
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Then I spotted this guy who scurried around trying to avoid me. I love ghost crabs and this was probably my favorite picture from the trip. He has personality.
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Nature is pretty amazing. Spiders hanging in the air.
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Finally, a nice view of some of the land where the ponies normally are with the lighthouse lit in the background. I am ready to go back — it’s a lovely place.
