Two Herds, One Barrier Island: The Wild Ponies of Assateague
Near Chincoteague, Virginia
The famous Chincoteague ponies do not actually live on Chincoteague. They live across the water on Assateague Island, a long barrier island that straddles the line between Virginia and Maryland. A fence runs along that state line, and it splits the wild horses into two separate herds that never mix.
The southern herd, on the Virginia end, is the one everyone means when they say Chincoteague pony. It numbers around one hundred fifty adults, and it is privately owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company. The northern herd, on the Maryland end, is smaller, around eighty animals, and it is managed by the National Park Service.
The two herds are controlled in completely different ways. The Virginia fire company thins its herd every July by rounding up the foals and auctioning most of them. The Park Service, on the Maryland side, uses a contraceptive vaccine instead of roundups.
These are not truly ponies in the technical sense. They are feral horses, stunted a little by a hard diet of salt marsh grass and by the constant work of drinking twice as much fresh water as a normal horse to flush all that salt. That is why they often look bloated and round bellied.
Please do not feed or pet them. They are genuinely wild, they bite and kick, and human food makes them sick.
