We were weather beaten for our planned morning paddle across the channel from Chincoteague to Assateague. It was just too gusty, with white caps on the water. Fortunately, we’ve had a flexible and amenable group, and with guide support, decided to move the trip to Pocomoke River State Park, the same location as yesterday. Today we started with a little walk through the woods on land.
A revist today meant I could photograph a turtle. It was quite content to let me stop, but eventually fell off log when we lingered too long. We returned to the field station for a cook out— which was a grill out and then eat in because it was so windy and chilly.
After lunch we loaded into the field station school bus and headed to Chincoteague and then the wildlife refuge where the ponies live. There are two herds, north and south, in Virginia. Both are owned by the Volunteer Fire Department. Both are rounded up and foals auctioned in July. (This does not happen on the Maryland part of Assateague where the ponies are much more like feral animals and the herd size is managed by birth control.)
We saw so many foals! The ponies were very close to the road, and we saw as many as twenty individuals. We felt very lucky. The bus was a good way to see the horses, we could go slow, and we were the only group allowed in this part of the refuge. It was hard to tear ourselves away.
Close up, it is very easy to see the bloated sides that the salty diet causes. On the other hand, many of the mares may have been with foal. Some of the foals we saw may have been a young as a week old.
Near the end of our time, two stallions ran by the bus, angling for dominance. They were rather oblivious to the bus, the mares and the foals, and spooked one foal through the fence. The mare and perhaps the mare’s sister, stuck with the foal as it began to walk the fence line. We had to leave the little horse group, and only hope that the situation righted itself eventually.
