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The Wild Horses of the West Meet the Wild Ponies of the East: The Mustang Introduction of 1977

After they lost a large percentage of their herd to equine infectious anemia in 1975-76, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department sought to introduce new blood to their wild pony herds, so they brought nearly forty wild mustangs to the island. The goal, however, was not simply to replace the ponies that had died. 

"The wild ponies were weakened through generations of inbreeding. That's when we decided to add the bloodlines of the wild horses of the West to strengthen the wild ponies of the East," said Harry Clay Bunting Jr., pony chairman. He added, "I thought, here was 38 we could save from a can."

Bunting touched on the massive controversy over the management—or lack thereof—of the West's wild mustangs, a controversy that endures to this day. For hundreds of years, mustangs did not have legal owners, and until the early 1970's, that meant that there was little to no oversight on their treatment. Mustangs at this time were being rounded up, taken off the range, and sold for meat.  Many people spoke out, most notably Velma Bronn Johnston (aka "Wild Horse Annie"), who was the subject of another Marguerite Henry book. Johnston's activism lead to the passing of the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act in 1971. The act tasked the Bureau of Land Management (a part of the Department of the Interior) with the protection of wild mustangs as well as their management and control. 

The BLM began their wild mustang adoption program soon after. In the summer of 1977, Bunting, David Savage, and Pete Wilson flew west to pick out Assateague's newest residents and oversee their loading. The mustangs chosen were from the border of Nevada and California. Bunting selected solid-colored horses—chestnuts, bays, and some grays—because he wanted the Chincoteague herd to reflect the mostly-solid-colored herd of his youth. 

Harry Clay Bunting at the wild pony sale. Photo from Chincoteague Pony Tales. 

Modern-day mustangs from the Twin Peaks herd management area (HMA), one of the many HMAs on the Nevada/California border.
Photo by the Bureau of Land Management. 

The 38 mustangs were loaded into stock trailers and shipped the 2000-odd miles to their new home.

In October, the mustangs were still all traveling in their own bands. Bunting predicted that they would incorporate into the wild pony herds by spring, but that wasn't the case; they remained distinct from the "normal" herds for some time. 

Life was difficult for the mustangs. Ed Britton, a US Fish and Wildlife biologist, observed that the new horses "spook[ed] easily" and kept to the piney forests. The transition from their original home in Nevada to the marshland of Virginia proved to be difficult. They struggled particularly with the change in diet--there is more vegetation on the island than in the mustangs' Nevada home, but it is lower in nutritional quality. In addition, the water available on the island tends to be brackish (mixed fresh and saltwater), which is what gives the wild ponies their round, bloated bellies. The majority of the mustangs, though tough, couldn't adjust to life on Assateague.

Their numbers sank quickly. By 1979, fifteen mustangs were still alive: thirteen mares and two stallions. They had remained together, and that year they produced two foals, but over the following years, the majority of those mares passed away. Ronald R. Keiper, a Pennsylvania State biology professor who conducted an extensive study on the behaviors of the ponies of Assateague, wrote in his 1984 book The Assateague Ponies that the small handful of surviving mares had joined Chincoteague pony herds, and that the two BLM stallions had developed bands of their own. 

Bunting wanted new blood to strengthen the ponies' constitution, and the new genes did eventually spread. Unfortunately, the integration of the BLM mustangs did not happen within the timeline nor at the scale that was expected. While the introduction of mustangs did not happen as intended, it does show the immense hardiness that is required for ponies to live and thrive in the marsh. Assateague's ponies truly are an enduring and resilient symbol of the east coast.


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