As an amateur Chincoteague pony historian, I’ve combed through a ton of old newspaper articles, book chapters, and magazine stories. Lots of people speculate on the origin of the breed—did pirates leave their ponies on Assateague? Is the Spanish galleon shipwreck a true story?
Here are four anecdotes about the breed that made me say, “Wait, what???”
Enjoy!
1. Fish-eating ponies?
This 1915 article in The Evening Star gets more wrong than it does right.
“There was at one time a peculiar breed of ponies to be found on the coast of the Carolinas. They were known as “Chincoteague marsh” ponies. They were, of course, in a very wild state, and it is claimed that they subsisted on crabs and fish. This probably would render their flesh unfit for food.”
The writer is confusing the Chincoteague pony and the marsh tacky, which is a very special breed of Colonial Spanish Horse from South Carolina that even has its own unique gait, the “swamp fox trot.” There are only about 400 marsh tackies left, but at one time, there was a large feral population in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.
On the other hand, Chincoteague ponies are connected to the rich seafood industry of Chincoteague Island. For hundreds of years, the island and the surrounding area has been known for its oysters and other seafood. The wild ponies don’t “subsist on crabs and fish,” but they do have a slightly strange diet. Because they live on a barrier island and spend much of their time on the marsh, they consume a lot of salt. Even their water supply is salty. This salt intake causes them to have a bloated appearance—even the stallions look pregnant sometimes!
As for the claim that eating fish “would render their flesh unfit for food”? Well, I’m no food animal production expert. For all I know, maybe that part is true!
One more fishy fact: in the long Icelandic winter, Icelandic horses are fed fish! Fish gives them a little extra protein.
2. A 60-mile return trip
A severe winter storm hit the mid-Atlantic coast in February of 1900. In Rehoboth, Delaware, a Chincoteague pony owned by James Moore broke free of its stall, “dashed away through the driving snow,” and headed straight for the water.
A news article says that the pony plunged into Rehoboth Bay. A patrolman at the beach’s life-saving station tried to intervene, but nothing could stop the pony as it “plunged bravely into the icy waters and swam to the other shore, a distance of ten miles.”
According to the story, a pony was seen tearing through Franklin City, Virginia later that day—some sixty miles away. After running through the streets, it “rush[ed] down to the wharf, plunged overboard, and swam across Chincoteague Sound, eight miles across. It joined a big herd of wild ponies on Chincoteague Island.”
Wild Chincoteague ponies now all live on Assateague Island, but at the time, they lived on Assateague, Chincoteague, and Wallops Islands.
The pony was later caught and identified as one recently sold to James Moore of Rehoboth, Delaware.
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| From Rehoboth, across Rehoboth Bay, to Franklin City, and across Chincoteague Bay! |
Is this story true? Horses are good swimmers, and wild Chincoteague ponies are particularly good—they get a lot of practice as they swim to escape bugs and to reach more desirable grass, and nowadays they all complete the swim at Pony Penning. However, swimming 18 miles and running 60 in one day would be an impossible burden for even the most highly trained equine athlete.
Also, that pony would have to have one excellent internal GPS to navigate all the way home!
3. Sharks!!!
This is the shortest anecdote and the one that might be the most realistic. This story also comes from a newspaper article from 1900, this one reported from the Philadelphia Record.
“Chincoteague ponies are great swimmers, and they have been known to swim a distance of ten miles. Owing to the scarcity of grass on the island the ponies daily swim to the mainland to graze, returning at nightfall.
Yesterday, while twenty-five ponies were swimming across the sound which is five miles wide, a
school of sharks surrounded them. The sharks evidently outnumbered the ponies for the latter
appeared unable to beat off their assailants. Every now and then one would disappear from
view, and when the mainland was reached five were missing.”
Yikes!
4. Chincoteague Ponies go West
Way back in 1893, an extremely long winded man named F. Lawley wrote an article about Chincoteague ponies for Baily’s Magazine of Sports and Pastimes.
In his rambling, Lawley tells us that he ran into Ben Ficklin in Richmond during the Civil War. (For what it’s worth, Chincoteague sided with the Union in the war.) Ficklin worked as a Confederate purchasing agent, and he was even arrested as a suspected accomplice in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.
Before the war, however, Ficklin and a group of others went on to form a mail service known as the Pony Express. Though the Pony Express only operated for a year and a half, it’s a part of American legend and lore.
Ficklin allegedly told Lawley that after gathering together a group of men to ride in the Pony Express, “The next step was to buy 600 ponies, among which several Chincoteaguers were included.”
The Pony Express was a relay system that used horses and riders. It was the fastest method of communication available between California and Missouri—mail took about ten days to reach its recipient. It was a brutal ride and a breakneck pace.
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| A 1961 poster for the Pony Express |
Lawley writes, “Let it not be forgotten that some of the best performers among its 600 ponies were Chincoteaguers and Assateaguers.”
This claim is pretty hard to verify, since it’s unlikely that the Pony Express took such careful records as to specify the breed of each of its ponies—and Lawley published this article over twenty years after Ficklin died, so the man himself couldn’t argue.
Fact or fiction?
Is there a grain of truth in any of these stories? I'll let you decide!
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