Chincoteague Pony Breed History

Long before Misty of Chincoteague made him famous as the lovable Grandpa Beebe, Clarence Beebe owned a considerable number of wild Chincoteague ponies. In 1952, the Suffolk News-Herald reported that Beebe had a herd of 200! Today, we’re going to explore two possible instances of outcrossing in the Beebe herd.  Pony management Let’s start with some extra context. Nowadays, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company owns and manages all of the wild ponies, who all live on the Virginia side of Assateague. That wasn’t always the case—historically, wild Chincoteague ponies have lived on Assateague, Chincoteague, and even Wallops Island and were owned by private owners. From time to time, those owners sought to improve their stock and added in horses and ponies from other breeds.  Beebe kept his herd on Chincoteague, but on Pony Penning Day, all the wild ponies were rounded up and the foals sold, and Beebe’s ponies mingled with the fire company’s and other private owners’ ponies. ...

The hurricane-strength Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 was one of the most destructive storms to hit the mid Atlantic, and it caused significant damage to Chincoteague and the surrounding islands. You may be familiar with the storm and its effects on the island from Stormy, Misty’s Foal , the Marguerite Henry book that tells a fictionalized tale of the nor’easter. Dozens of wild ponies died as a result of the storm.  Three years later and hundreds of miles away, Illinois was dealing with a flood of its own. In the spring of 1965, the Mississippi River rose about 22.5 feet, causing $125 million in damage to the Quad Cities region—the equivalent of almost $1 billion today.  Patricia “Tish” Hewitt of Moline, Illinois had read articles about the Ash Wednesday Storm and Chincoteague’s plight, but seeing the flooding in her own town spurred her to action. She reached out to the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company to see if they would be interested in using one of her Arabian stallions, ...

Arabian stallions have been introduced into the herd several times—like Al Marah Sunny Jim, who lived on Assateague in the 70s, and Skowreym, an endurance racer who was leased to the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department for two years in the 60s. Plenty of other stallions and their donors have been erased by time, but Stanley White’s contributions have left a very clear mark upon the breed. Stanley White got his start with Chincoteagues at a young age, as he grew up attending Pony Penning. In fact, his first horse was a Chincoteague: when he was seven, his foster father brought him a black mare named Doll Baby and told him that if he could ride her, he could keep her. White grew up to work for Al-Marah Arabian Horses, then he moved on to Lancer Arabians in Ocala. Eventually, he started his own operation, Grandeur Arabians, in Citra, Florida. It was a family affair on the 200-acre farm, as his children were heavily involved in training and showing. Though he built his career on th...