Just a few hours from the nation’s capital, on an island that straddles the Maryland/Virginia border, a herd of horses roams free.
Off the coast of Maryland and Virginia is Assateague, a barrier island that's been home to a population of wild horses for more than 300 years. The animals are often called ponies, even though they’re actually horses whose size has been stunted because of their diet—salty marsh grass and a lot of water, which also makes them look more bloated than their relatives. But regardless of whether they’re horses or ponies, the black, white, brown, and spotted animals have made the island famous.
There are several theories about how the horses got to Assateague:
•Local folklore claims that a 16th-century Spanish galleon carrying a cargo of horses sank off the Virginia coast, and the horses who survived the wreck swam to shore.
•Other people think early colonists or pirates brought horses to the island.
•But most historians agree that the horses’ ancestors were probably abandoned on the island in the late 17th century by mainland owners who didn’t want to comply with new fencing laws . . . and were also trying to avoid paying taxes on their livestock.
Today, the approximately 300 wild horses who live on Assateague are divided into two main herds, separated by a fence that cuts the island in half at the border between Maryland and Virginia.
Every July, the Virginia herd is rounded up in an event called “pony penning,” a practice that dates back hundreds of years.
Originally, farmers and ranchers penned horses, sheep, and other livestock to claim loose herds. Over the years, it became a social event: the farmers would pen the animals, and then the community would drink, eat, and celebrate together.
In 1924, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department—headquartered just across the bay from Assateague Island in Chincoteague, Virginia—added a pony swim and auction to the penning festival in an effort to attract tourists (and money) to the area. On the day of the festival, volunteers round up the Virginia ponies (the ones on the Maryland side aren’t included) and coax them to swim across the Assateague Channel to nearby Chincoteague. The “wild pony swim,” which was mentioned in Marguerite Henry’s novel Misty of Chincoteague, is a short swim of five to ten minutes and takes place at low tide for the safety of the spring foals.
While they’re in Chincoteague, the horses are corralled for a few days to give visitors and residents a chance to admire them. Some of the horses are also auctioned off, in part to keep the size of the herd manageable. All of the money raised goes to the fire department. Two days after the auction, the remaining horses are herded back across the channel to the Virginia side of Assateague.
Meanwhile, on the Maryland side, Assateague Island is a national seashore, protected and run by the National Park Service. Visitors can see the horses running or grazing along the shoreline, but there are strict no-feeding, no-petting rules. Beautiful as they are, the horses have been known to bite, kick, and charge after park visitors who don’t keep a safe distance. So if you go, it’s best to admire them from afar.