Chincoteague Pony Weekend
We didn’t stay for the swim — someday I’ll do it! But we were up for the Blueberry Festival and stayed for the Northern herd roundup on Sunday, and the pony beach walk Monday morning.
I never thought about what happens before the pony swim. I was checking out the blueberry festival to see I wanted to participate in the future. But while we were up there, I saw an advertisement for one of the pony boat tours. They said they just added an additional boat, and spots were available to watch the northern herd roundup.
How awesome! We booked a ticket. We needed to be at the docks for a 6am departure.
There was a spectacular sunrise by the lighthouse!
We booked it out and up the island and found the first spot. There were a number of ponies, and a lot of cattle egrets in the trees. So we sat, watched and waited.
While we were there, one of the foals decided to get the zoomies.
After awhile, a few of the horses started looking very alert, and the rest started banding together. I assumed that we’d see cowboys soon. But the boat operator explained that the horses smell the cowboys and start moving down the island long ahead of the cowboys.
Skipping ahead to Monday morning. The pony walk started at 6am. The gates to the refuge open at 5am. So we figured we’d get in line about 4:30am. Luckily, there was a chincoteague native on the boat ride, and she told us to go earlier. We were in line at 4:10am and the line was already a little more than a mile long!
We assumed that we would just sleep in the car for awhile, but everyone started walking immediately, so we started the hike out. You could stay up by the main beach, or you could hike out to the swan cove path. We decided to do the hike. It was about 1.5 miles over the sand, but as we started the hike, we saw lightning behind us. Straight down bolts of lighting, lighting up a very dark sky. I was really hoping that it would continue at least until we got to our spot so I could try some lightning photography.
When we found our spot, the lightning had settled down, but then started up directly across from us, out over the ocean.
We watched and waited. The sky was a roiling wonderful art show.
And the the ponies came! We watched as they first appeared way down around the point.
What an incredible sight! And how fun to be a part of it!
Of course, after the ponies left, we had to kill some time before we’d be able to get out of the parking lot. So I did need to find something to do….
