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.
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| 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 several studs. However, he is most notable for his mules–Washington is known as “the father of American mules.” Washington took great pains to import a Spanish jack he named Royal Gift, who he used to breed several donkeys. He bred his best mares to donkeys, and by 1799, he owned 63 mules. Washington also used his influence to promote mules for agriculture.
Washington’s pony
Okay, but did Washington actually own a Chincoteague pony?
Probably not.
Let’s look critically at the anecdote that George Washington owned a Chincoteague pony (“Chinky”) that he once rode from Mount Vernon to Williamsburg in one day.
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| Illustration from The Boston Globe (1893). |
There are not many sources about Chincoteague ponies before the mid 1800s, but a 1843 book, William Youatt’s The Horse, in England as America, describes the breed. Youatt writes, “Many of them are of perfect symmetry and extraordinary powers of action and endurance.”
One of Youatt’s contacts notes the Chincoteague pony’s speed–“He spoke of another that he believes could have trotted 30 miles in two hours”–but he also describes them as a children’s pony and notes that they are “so small that a tall man might straddle him, and with his toes touch the ground on each side.”
Six-foot-two George Washington riding such a pony would be quite a sight!
The claim that George Washington made the 147-mile ride from Mount Vernon to Williamsburg in one day is also dubious. Horses in modern-day endurance competitions are almost exclusively Arabians, and even at the highest level of the sport, an endurance ride is about 100 miles. It would be nigh on impossible to ride 147 miles in a single day; in the 2021 Old Dominion ride, located west of Washington’s supposed route, the winner clocked in nearly sixteen hours of ride time to complete 100 miles. For a pony not bred for endurance riding, there’s just not enough hours in the day.
In my hunt for proof of the pony’s existence, I’ve scoured not just Google, but databases like the National Archives’ FoundersOnline, George Washington’s digitized papers through University of Virginia Press, Archive.org’s complete library, and George Washington's financial papers. Though the island of Chincoteague is mentioned on rare occasions, I found no mention of ponies. I also reached out to several Washington historians, none of whom could give me a lead. The library at Mount Vernon, the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, told me that “We do not have any authoritative evidence of his ownership of a Chincoteague pony.”
Where did this story come from?
On the Internet, sources can be traced back to an article Sharon Cavileer wrote for EquiSearch.com sometime prior to March 2006. Though the article URL isn’t accessible on the EquiSearch site anymore, I found an archived "snapshot" of the article using The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.There are two sections of note in this article, so let’s look at each.
“A sturdy man who was comfortable in the saddle, Washington once rode his Chincoteague pony, ‘Chinky,’ 147 miles from Mount Vernon to Williamsburg in a single day.” This is the snippet that’s most often repeated!
“A typical entry in Washington's records read: plow horse mare, age 9, brown. However, he does mention several specific breeds: Narragansett, Andalusian, Chincoteague ponies and Arabians.” As discussed in the previous section, I haven’t been able to corroborate this information about the Chincoteague, nor has the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. For additional context, the Narrangsett pacer is an extinct breed of horse that originated in Rhode Island. Also, it’s a hunch, but I suspect that mentions of “Andalusian” is actually in reference to Andalusian donkeys–remember how Washington bred mules from Spanish donkey stock?
It’s worth mentioning that in a YouTube video produced by Mount Vernon, a livestock handler says that Washington rode a Chincoteague pony to Williamsburg in three days, his personal record pace. However, again, the library at Mount Vernon reports that they have no evidence that this pony existed.
Somewhat related anecdotes
This is the part of the blog where I start looking like a conspiracy theorist. From my research, I’ve found a few threads that relate back to this story.Firstly, the connection to the area through George Washington’s step grandson, George Washington Parke Custis. Custis owned several properties in Virginia, including Smith Island on the Chesapeake Bay. Custis was particularly interested in sheep farming. Custis raised sheep on his farms, and other islands like Hog Island and Assateague Island were used by others for sheep farming. Much like Pony Penning is a week of celebration nowadays, Assateague's annual sheep penning also had a festive atmosphere.
Secondly, George Washington’s supposed pony shares a name with a pony from a 1938 children’s book, Chinky the Banker Pony. The book is about siblings who visit Chincoteague Island and purchase a foal. Putting aside the fact that this children’s book pony shares its name with a racial slur, the book’s title conflates the Chincoteague pony with the Banker horse. Banker horses are the wild horses that live on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. Though they live over a hundred miles away, Banker horses and Chincoteague ponies have a similar origin, as both are likely descendents of Spanish stock from the 1600s.
Thirdly, while we’re talking about Banker horses, there’s the legend of thirteen year old North Carolinian Betsy Dowdy. Early in the Revolutionary War, Betsy’s father was told that British forces were moving in on Great Bridge, located in the Great Dismal Swamp between Norfolk, VA (occupied by the British) and North Carolina. The Great Bridge was the only place where people could cross the southern branch of the Elizabeth River by foot. Betsy’s father didn’t think that the American forces would be able to get there in time, but Betsy disagreed. She sneaked away at night and rode 50 miles, swimming her Banker horse Black Bess across Currituck Sound and riding her through marsh and forest. She managed to alert General Skinner, who mobilized his militia and defeated the British. The Battle of Great Bridge is considered one of the first strategically important battles of the Revolutionary War. As the story goes, Betsy was commended by George Washington for her bravery in this critical moment.
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| Illustration from Grandfather's Tales of North Carolina History (1901). |
Where did the story of George Washington’s Chincoteague pony come from? Could these three anecdotes–the connection to the Eastern Shore, the pony’s name, and the long ride on a wild island pony that was commended by Washington–become conflated over time? I can’t say for sure. What I can say is this: if you find any definitive historical proof that this pony existed, I would love to write an update to this article.
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