99th Annual Chincoteague Pony Penning Week Roundup

If you’ve ever dreamed of seeing the wild Chincoteague Ponies swim from Assateague Island to Chincoteague Island, the Pony Penning Week Roundup made famous in Misty of Chincoteague, you must attend this feel-good event! The 2024 Pony Swim was the third I’ve attended, and it does not get old. Here’s a recap of the events from each day of Pony Penning Week. Next year will be the centennial, will you be there?

Friday Pony Swim Back (more on that later). Do you see Riptide?

I’m writing this post partly to share my adventures, but also you could use it as a Chincoteague Pony Swim guide, should you decide to journey to the land of Misty and see for yourself the Beebe Ranch, the Chincoteague Carnival Grounds and glimpse Misty’s footprints in the sidewalk in front of the Island Theater.

The first year I attended, 2022, was a research trip for my book Marguerite, Misty and Me.  In 2023 I went to the swim to launch my book, and this year I went because I’ve officially become a Chincoteague Pony groupie. I also debuted my young reader version of Marguerite, Misty and Me which I hope you will snag a copy for your favorite young reader or yourself. Click here to shop.

My Personal Chincoteague Pony Swim History

If I’m honest, I really didn’t want to attend the pony swim in 2022. I had no one to go with and after having just moved from Southern California back to my native Illinois, I was OVER traffic. I had heard the crowds on the small island were nutty.

Then, one of the locals (I interviewed for my then forthcoming book) who had relocated to the island after having lived decades in a major metropolitan area, told me the truth: the traffic isn’t that bad compared to life in a big city. She explained the locals who are used to small town life feel like it’s chaos, but for someone from a traffic-dense area it’s not that big of a deal. She also gave me the rundown on what to do each day of the week because there’s so much more than just a pony swim and foal auction.

I’ve stayed at the local Hampton Inn, Fairfield Inn and Miss Molly’s Inn, the bed-and-breakfast where Marguerite Henry stayed while writing Misty in 1946, twice. This time around I opted for the Blufin Bungalows, and was really pleased. Think tiny house on the water.

Monday Morning Beach Walk

I know it sounds crazy to set your vacation alarm for 3:30 AM, but if you want to experience an Atlantic sunrise and wild pony drive, you’ve got to sacrifice sleep. The tangerine hues of dawn paired with the anticipation of a pony drive, plus sharing the moment for the first time with family members (my sister, niece and niece’s husband joined in) made it all worth while.

The beach walk is the trek of the northern Chincoteague Pony herd (Virginia ponies–not to be confused with the Maryland herd) to meet up with their southern herd brethren at the southern corrals. The Saltwater Cowboys drive them from northern corrals to southern so they will be closer to the pony swim spot in the Assateague Channel.

The previous two years I sat in a beach chair facing the ocean, and the ponies scampered along in front of me. This year we snagged spots on the sand which had us facing a northerly direction so we saw the pony train come streaming directly toward us and then making a right hand (right hooved?) turn heading through a bit of parking lot and onto the road that leads to the corrals.

As the equine parade passed, we started heading to the cars. A bay and white foal jetted past me so close I didn’t have a chance to pull my iPhone out of my pocket to capture the moment. The filly had broken away from the herd and was confused. The mass of spectators heading back to their vehicles stopped and stood shoulder to shoulder, some of us with arms wide to create a wall to keep the foal from heading back to the beach.

I noticed a few Saltwater Cowboys wheeling their horses around, in pursuit of the foal, trying to head her off. And just as I was chiding myself for not getting a photo of the breakaway, the pinto swept past me a second time. This time I was quick enough to get a video and I shot up a prayer that the foal would safely rejoin the herd. My sister later said, “They need to keep that one wild,” indicating the foal I would later learn was #25, sired by Henry’s Hidalgo, a bay pinto, and out of Catwalk’s Olympic Glory, a chestnut tobiano mare, should be a buyback (buybacks are auctioned for naming rights and return to the island to live out their days).

Instead, the adorable renegade was auctioned off for $3,100, and will belong to an individual or family.

I like to think of the Beach Walk as a prelude to the fun events of pony swim week.

Later in the day I did a Zoom author talk with the Maryland Horse Library. One of the attendees, a woman named Jean, told me in 1981 she bought a Chincoteague Pony at the auction for $350! She emailed me the following week to ask what the prices were for the 2024 Chincoteague Pony Auction. I copied and pasted the official stats from the International Chincoteague Pony Association and Registry, which I will include here (spoiler alert):

Tuesday: Chincoteague Pony Drill Team Open House & More

Every Tuesday of Pony Penning Week, Kendy Allen, a Misty bloodline preservationist (you will meet Kendy in Chapter 16 “Swimming Ponies and Winning Ponies” of Marguerite, Misty and Me) hosts the Chincoteague Pony Drill Team Open House. Her farm KerKaKen Acres is home to about thirty Chincoteague Ponies and the home base for Johnson Equestrian, a a full-service horse training and riding lesson program run by Kerra, Kendy’s daughter. Kerra is an eventer and USEA Level 1-Novice ICP certified instructor. She grew up riding Chincoteague Ponies and even was phone call friends with Marguerite Henry (thanks to their family happening upon and then buying Misty II, Misty’s granddaughter–more on that in Chapter 16. You’ve gotta read it! lol).

Kendy graciously let me do an author signing at her farm. I shared a table and tent with Amanda, the walking encyclopedia of all things Chincoteague Pony. You might be familiar with the website MistysHeaven.com that Amanda runs with her fellow Misty nerd and website founder, Matt. The two of them were instrumental in helping me learn about the fascinating Chincoteague Pony subculture, and I can’t thank them enough. Well, Amanda also is part of the International Chincoteague Pony Association and Registry team. She was there to provide information to potential new pony owners as well as to sell her book The Colorful Chincoteague, a comprehensive guide to the breed’s coloring and markings.

Following the open house, I dashed back to the island to get cleaned up for a book signing at Sundial Books on Main Street. Sundial Books is a lovely indie bookstore run by a fun couple. Jon looks like Robert DeNiro (and apparently throughout his life has been told he resembled Robert, John Lennon AND Robin Williams), and is the one who told me last year about the “conspiracy theory” regarding Chinky the Banker Pony and Marguerite Henry’s much loved Misty of Chincoteague.

It was so fun connecting with fellow Misty fans at Sundial. Last year something really hilarious happened. Apparently a woman rushed into the bookstore and said, “I heard Marguerite Henry is going to be here signing books.” Jon broke the news to her that Marguerite was dead. I think he might have said something like, “You can meet the author Susan Friedland. She just released a Marguerite Henry biography and will be here later to do a book signing.” The woman wasn’t impressed and stormed off with a humph. lol

If you go to Chincoteague next year for the 100th Pony Penning Week, on Tuesday, I hope you will visit KerKaKen to see the Chincoteague Pony Drill Team and shop small at Sundial Books, but you also should leave some time in your schedule to head over to Assateague and watch the vet checks. Every stallion, mare and foal is examined by a veterinarian to ensure they are healthy and ready for the Wednesday pony swim. Any ponies too old, too young, too pregnant are not required to swim. (Not everyone is aware of that.)

Wednesday: Chincoteague Pony Swim

Tuesday night after getting snacks, PB & J sandwiches and a water bottle in order, I set my alarm very early again. That night it stormed loudly, making sleep a challenge. I wondered what would happen if the storm continued during the swim time. My sister and I were set up to to watch the wild pony swim from the comfort of the Martha Lou, a boat operated by Daisey’s Island Cruises (Martha Lou has a covered roof and bathroom!). We had to meet at the docks at 4 AM (yikes!).

The Martha Lou was comfortable and had a bathroom!

The pony swim time was much later this year, in the noon-ish timeframe, whereas in the two previous years I watched from a rented kayak, it occurred during the 8 to 9 AM timeframe. We rode 20 minutes to our viewing position for the swim. Around 10am we saw my niece (who wrote this amazing winter riding tights review) and her husband kayaking over near us on the other side of the swampy berm. It continued to rain off and on. Despite the boat’s roof, my sister used an umbrella to keep our shared bench seat dry from the angled precipitation.

The crew of the Martha Lou made sure we felt at home and comfortable for the long wait. Throughout the morning they offered us iced coffee, fruit and muffins. There was even a charity horse float decorating contest for the kids, then they let them race an hour before the ponies came. A first mate whose grandfather grew up with the ponies on the island and lived through the Nor’easter the plot of Stormy, Misty’s Foal was based on brought black and white family photos to show us. 

Photo Credit: My nephew in law.

Finally the ponies came! Ponies were splashing and a few cowboys were falling along with their horses in the deep marsh.  A WBOC news helicopter circled overhead. One mare (oddly enough named Martha Lou–like our boat) made two attempts to swim over, but stopped halfway and came back to the original shore. The cowboys gently put a rope over her head without any trouble. One even put his arm over her neck to pat her reassuringly. 🙂 They were able to load her on the barge with one of the Saltwater Cowboy’s sensible horses. 

Sisters.

Following the swim, the Martha Lou motored us to the other side of Chincoteague so we could watch the the ponies parade down the street to the fairgrounds. We were quite far away. After 10 hours on the boat we headed back to 

That evening I gave my author talk “Trotting on the Trail of Misty and Marguerite Henry” at the Museum of Chincoteague Island. We drew a wonderful crowd of Misty enthusiasts. Cindy Faith, the museum’s director, read some newly discovered letters from Marguerite Henry! Apparently when the museum bought the Beebe Ranch, there were some letters and documents discovered in the attic, many of them from Marguerite and some from Pam Smith, who starred as Maureen in the Misty movie.

Pony Swim Day was so long, but so good. After a late pizza dinner with friends (made in 2022 during my first week on Chincoteague–thanks, Amanda and Amanda’s parents and parents’ friends), I headed back to the rental for a good night’s sleep, ready to take auction day a little easy since I would not be buying a pony <sigh>.

Thursday: Foal Auction

My family left Wednesday and my bf joined in for the rest of the week. After a leisurely morning, we strolled from our rental down to the Carnival Grounds. I could not have timed things better. Just as we arrived, a beautiful buyback filly was in the ring with Saltwater Cowboys “hugging” her to keep her controlled.

I thought it looked like Wildfire’s bald-faced foal, and it was! There’s a very heartwarming story here which I’ll summarize for you now…

A mare named Wildfire died a couple of months ago and, her foal was rescued by Saltwater Cowboys and taken to a private ranch on Chincoteague. There, a domesticated mare of one of the cowboys just happened to have a young foal AND she ACCEPTED the orphan filly, allowing her to nurse. So this sweet baby horse was saved, and then selected to be a buyback and live out her dam’s legacy on Assateague. I had a hunch she would go for a pretty penny because of this backstory.

Well, just as we happened upon the auction, we saw the Facebook “famous” filly and witnessed her record-breaking sale. She sold for $50,500 to a group of buyback owners who pooled resources and named her Wildfire’s Phoenix. Check out her pedigree here.

Thursday night we had a chance to meet Sarah from the website Chincoteague Pony History in person. You might recall a recent blog post featuring Sarah. She’s the one who went to see the pony swim when she was a little girl and her aunt bought two Chincoteague Ponies who she’s trained to be lovely driving ponies. Aunt and niece have been making a pilgrimage to the island for 20 years now! This time around two of Aunt’s friends joined in. They hosted us for a cheese and crackers get together. I thought we’d be there for about an hour. Nope. We laughed and told stories and talked about horses for about three hours. I think this is part of the island magic. You meet people who are essentially strangers, but because of a shared connection with horses and the Misty story, you feel like you already know them, and friendships seem to blossom effortlessly.

Sarah and aunt and friends were also watching the pony swim from a boat the day before. What did Sarah do during the long wait? She painted a gorgeous “bust” of a popular Chincoteague stallion. (The girl’s got skillzzz.). While we were chatting on the screened in front porch, I noticed one of the women who had been flipping through my young read version of Marguerite, Misty and Me (which I brought for show and tell purposes) had tears in her eyes. I don’t remember her exact words, but she appreciated my book and asked if she could buy a copy. Before I left she gifted me a beautiful shell sporting an undulating, painted octopus.

Friday: The Swim Back

The final feel-good event of the overall week was the Friday morning pony swim back. The southern herd gets to splash back into the channel and head to Assateague for another year. This time around the ponies don’t need much of an escort–they know they are ready to go home. We rented kayaks and joined the smaller crowd of watercraft to take in the jubilation.

To summarize, this is only my third time for the Chincoteague Pony Swim. I’ve learned a few tips and tricks for enjoying the festivities, but I am not yet a walking encyclopedia. If you want to learn more fun facts about Chincoteague Ponies from days of yore, you must read Sarah’s website Chincoteague Pony History, and if you long to learn more about Misty’s life story and family tree, check out Misty’s Heaven. And if you think you want to join me next year for the Centennial Pony Swim, you’ve got to make it happen. You’ll have a blast.

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