Chincoteague Pony Breed History

The anecdote goes like this: George Washington owned a Chincoteague pony named “Chinky” that he once rode 147 miles from Mount Vernon to Williamsburg in a single day. This information has been printed in several sources, both online and in print, but is it true? To answer that, let’s explore Washington’s equine history, the research behind this claim, and some ideas for the story’s origins. George Washington the horseman Washington was considered a skilled horseman: Thomas Jefferson once wrote that he was “the best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen on horseback.”During the Revolutionary War, he primarily rode Nelson (a chestnut) and Blueskin (a gray half-Arabian), both of whom retired to his home of Mount Vernon after the war. Washington depicted riding Blueskin in "Washington Rallying the Americans at the Battle of Princeton" by William Ranney (1848). Washington took great interest in equine breeding operations at Mount Vernon and offered ...

Some have dismissed the legend of the Chincoteague ponies’ origin as overly romantic, but researchers recently uncovered evidence that supports the story. As captured in the opening chapters of Marguerite Henry’s Misty of Chincoteague, the legend is certainly a dramatic one. The story goes that a storm ravaged a Spanish galleon, and in the shipwreck, only the ponies in the hold made it out alive, swimming to nearby Assateague Island. The ponies have called Assateague their home ever since.  1893 illustration of a Chincoteague pony published in the Abbeville Press and Banner. Alternative theories range from the equally fantastic (The ponies were left on the island by pirates!) to the utterly mundane (The ponies were left on the island by townspeople who didn’t want to pay taxes on them). Experts aren’t sure when exactly ponies began living on the island, though they’ve been written about for over two hundred years. Horses themselves are not native to the Americas. In his second trip...