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, ...

Welsh ponies dramatically rose in popularity around the 1950s, with many ponies imported to America from Wales to meet demand. Some pony breeders around this time decided to breed Welsh-Chincoteague crosses—in this blog post, we’ll look at three cases of this!  Bayside Farms Bayside Farms of Berlin, Maryland focused on what they described as "the development of a superior type Chincoteague pony."  They wanted a large children's pony, and the thought was that Welsh blood would add refinement to the "thriftiness, hardiness, and stature" of the Chincoteague. They felt that their 3/4 Welsh, 1/4 Chincoteague crosses achieved their ideal.  A pony they produced, Bayside Prince Charming, played the part of Watch-Eyes in the 1961 Misty movie. Bayside Prince Charming, Welsh/Chincoteague cross.  Bayside Farms started breeding in 1952, crossing their Chincoteague mares with Welsh stallion Farnley Morning Star. They soon purchased Farnley Sun Star and began breeding him as w...

It’s often been said that the Chincoteague breed’s beloved pinto coloring originated when Shetland was introduced to the wild herd, but mentions of Shetland outcrossing have been vague. I’ve found confirmation that at least one Shetland pony was released into the wild: in the early 20th century, Edward P. Timmons introduced Shetland to his wild Chincoteague ponies. Background: Early 20th century pony management Let’s back up and talk about herd management at the time–in the early 1900s, wild Chincoteague ponies were managed much differently than they are today. Nowadays, the wild herd lives on Assateague island and are owned and managed by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department, but back then, the wild ponies lived on Assateague, Chincoteague, and Wallops Islands and were owned by individuals on Chincoteague.  During the annual Pony Penning event, the Chincoteaguers came together to round up everyone’s ponies and sell the offspring for a profit. To keep track of whose ponies be...

For well over a hundred years, people have argued over the true origins of the Chincoteague ponies, so it's appropriate that the origins of the most famous wild pony are not completely known. The wild Chincoteague pony stallion Surfer Dude captured the hearts of thousands with his distinctive looks: his deep chocolate-brown coloring, his blonde mane, his partial blue eye, and the spot of gray below his '92 hip brand. Surfer Dude in 2010. Photo by Sarah Boudreau. Surfer Dude was born in 1992. The CVFC started freezebranding with the year of the pony's birth in 1991, which allowed for easier recognition and record-keeping. Two years after Surfer Dude was born, the Chincoteague Pony Association was formed. The CPA was organized by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department, and it was the primary pony registry for many years, keeping track of which foals were born to which parents. It is difficult to verify information on many of the ponies born before the CPA, because ...

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,...

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...

Bob Evans, the sausage-maker and restaurant-owner, lived hundreds of miles from the sunny, hoofprint-stamped beaches of Assateague Island, making him an unlikely ally in the fight to preserve the Chincoteague pony breed. Evans grew up near Gallipolis, OH, on a gorgeous farm tucked into the folds of the Appalachian mountains. Despite his success in business, he was known to be a genuine soul. His persona as an honest farmer was no fake—Evans was the real deal. He was also known for his giving nature. The Bob Evans Farm has long been stocked with educational materials, and Evans worked with Ohio’s 4-H program for years, even starting a program that gave away 44 quarter horse colts a year to deserving kids.  Bob Evans Farms in 2019 In ‘72, Evans got interested in the plight of the Spanish barb mustang, a subset of the mustang breed that was quickly declining in number. Wild mustangs descend from the horses originally brought to the Americas by Spanish colonizers, and tho...