Misty’s 80th Birthday and How I Learned She Was Real

July 20 is a milestone for the famous Chincoteague Pony who set me on a course of loving horses. Misty was born July 20, 1940. Today is her 80th birthday. When I was a wee lass and didn't have a horse, I dreamed of them and got my fix thanks to my local library's pony book collection.

At the library, I met Misty of Chincoteague, the dreamiest tale penned by my favorite author, Marguerite Henry.

After Misty, I devoured Stormy, Misty's Foal; Justin Morgan Had a Horse; White Stallion of Lipizza and more. I loved those library trips.

As a horseless, horse-obsessed girl, I used the card catalog to look up the Dewey Decimal System numbers for horse and riding books. Around fourth grade, I had already read the children's section of horse books, so I ventured into the grown-up room of the Gail Borden Public Library.

Browsing the narrow aisles of towering shelves, I located the 636.1 (horse husbandry) and 798 sections (equestrian sports) and piled up as many books as my skinny arms could carry. All because of those initial books by Marguerite.

My mom still insists to this day that I am a good reader because of my love for horses.

Check out this blog post of me sharing Misty's story on TV!

The Misty of Chincoteague Truth Revealed

Sometime during my teenage years, I had a revelation: Misty of Chincoteague was a REAL pony.

Not only that, but she used to live less than ten miles from our house in Marguerite Henry's backyard in Wayne, Illinois! I thought that was the coolest thing ever (still do).

By this time I was bopping along on borrowed horses in Wayne, with several other horse girls who pasture boarded where I borrowed a senior chestnut, Jim Dandy. We crunched down the Prairie Path and trotted through the forest preserve. I rode on the same trails where Marguerite rode decades earlier.

The Misty news broke thanks to a work friend of my mom's. One day my mom came home with a black-and-white photo of her friend aboard THE Misty of Chincoteague! I couldn't believe it. We got to keep a copy of the sweet photo. It rests on a shelf in my office today.

Flash forward to 2018. I re-read Misty of Chincoteague, and fell in love with the story and its characters all over again. It was better than I remembered it as a girl!

Who Was Marguerite, My Hero?

That Misty reading ignited a fire in me, and my curiosity about Marguerite reached a fever pitch. I HAD to know what her writing secrets were. How could she pen such timeless stories that captured the essence of joy and horse love?

And I wanted to know everything I could about the Misty pony. What was she like to ride? Who trained her? Was it Marguerite?

I needed to know if Marguerite was a horsewoman or just a horse lover from the ground. I started asking questions, and seeking the answers. Each answer led to a new question. I thought I'd write a few blog posts or maybe a magazine article or two.

Over two and a half years, my quest to "meet" Marguerite led me on a cross-country adventure that culminated with a week on Chincoteague Island for Pony Penning Week. My first time on the island was in 2022. The experiences were so noteworthy and fun, I had way too much material for an article or blog post. And as I discovered through interviews of Marguerite's friends and archival research, Marguerite's life was worthy of a book! (I wrote the book. 🙂

There’s gotta be some special magic in that salt air. I first journeyed to Chincoteague for research, not knowing I would be gifted with new, wonderful friendships with fellow pony-loving folks!

The following year, during the 98th Pony Penning Week, I launched my Marguerite Henry biography, Marguerite, Misty and Me. If you haven’t read it yet, I sure hope you will. Instead of a stuffy, old biography, I tried to tell the story of me discovering Marguerite as though I were writing a series of blog posts. It is a memoir infused with pony-centric escapades as I try to piece together the clues regarding the hidden backstory of Marguerite Henry and Misty.

Misty Lives On

One of the coolest parts of this Misty journey is meeting all the other fans of Misty and Marguerite. I’ve met…

• grown women named Misty (after the book)!
• Roy and Ed (Wayne neighborhood little friends of Marguerite–you can see their pictures in the Pictorial Life Story of Misty)
• a girl who loves Marguerite Henry so much she wore a cardigan and carried a copy of Misty, as she embodied Marguerite for a school book report
• several pony owners who have Misty of Chincoteague descendants
• the Chincoteague Pony Drill Team in Bloxom, Virginia, and their stablemate, Misty III
• a friend of Marguerite’s who carefully curated her papers and sent them off to the University of Minnesota
• the creative folks who have kept the Beebe Ranch alive and open to keep sharing the beloved pony story
• on the pages of new pony books written in the Misty vein, such as my newest book Swirl: My Wild Island Pony.