| -- End Ad Box ---> | | | | strong enough to manage the Chincoteague Pony |
| If you go to Chincoteague Island during the last | | | | Swim are herded across the shallows each year. |
| week of July, you're probably there for the Pony | | | | One condition which can affect the Chincoteague |
| Penning and Auction, like approximately 50,000 | | | | Island mares with foals is hypocalcemia. |
| other visitors. You'll be in for an exciting time, but | | | | Hypocalcemia causes mares which are nursing |
| what you won't see is the sort of round-up which | | | | older foals to lose muscular control, and in hot |
| takes place on Federal grazing lands in the | | | | weather the condition is aggravated. It's easily |
| Western United States. There'll be no helicopters | | | | preventable, and in some years up to twelve |
| herding exhausted mustangs into waiting trucks | | | | mares have been treated for it and made the |
| from far above | | | | Chincoteague Island Pony Swim in perfect health. |
| The 150 ponies of the Chincoteague Island herd | | | | Before every Pony Swim the herd is examined |
| are such old hands at being rounded up (they are | | | | by a veterinarian so that both mares in the late |
| gathered twice a year for veterinary checkups) | | | | stages of pregnancy and those with very young |
| that on the Wednesday of the annual four | | | | foals are trailered to the carnival grounds. The |
| hundred yard Chincoteague Pony Swim from | | | | rest of the herd is rounded up by Chincoteague |
| Assateague Island to the Firemen's Carnival | | | | Island's famous Salt Water Cowboys, who must |
| grounds, most of them take the exercise "in | | | | time their efforts so that the Chincoteague Pony |
| stride." | | | | Swim occurs when the tide is lowest. |
| The Chincoteague Island Pony Swim has been | | | | Occasionally a foal will become separated from its |
| taking place since 1925, when the first was held | | | | mother during the Chincoteague Pony Swim, but |
| to raise funds for the Chincoteague Island Fire | | | | that's a rare occurrence and any stragglers are |
| Department. Two disastrous fires in the preceding | | | | picked up by patrolling boats. When the entire |
| five years had destroyed much of Chincoteague | | | | herd has made it safely to shore, the Salt Water |
| Island's business district, and the Fire Department | | | | Cowboys drive them to corrals on the Carnival |
| desperately needed better equipment. They held | | | | grounds to be examined once more before the |
| a Firemen's Carnival that July, featuring the first | | | | next day's auction. |
| Pony Swim and Auction. Fifteen pony foals were | | | | The second leg of the Chincoteague Pony Swim |
| sold. | | | | occurs on Friday, when the Salt Water Cowboys |
| Word of the Pony Swim soon reached Virginia's | | | | herd the stallions and mares whose foals were |
| Eastern Shore, and by 1947, when Marguerite | | | | sold back across the channel to their home on |
| Henry published her classic children's book Misty of | | | | Assateague. Mares with foals too young for the |
| Chincoteague, the Fire Department had taken | | | | auction are kept on Chincoteague until the fall. In |
| ownership of the wild Chincoteague ponies at the | | | | October the Salt Water Cowboys return them to |
| southern end of Assateague Island. They | | | | Assateague during the fall roundup when the |
| assumed responsibility for the ponies' well-being, | | | | entire herd receives pre-winter veterinary |
| and still make sure that only the adults and foals | | | | treatment. |
