August 2, 2013

Chincoteague~ Pony Penning Day!

Stephanie Family moments 2 Comments

So I think that this is my last post about our vacation! We stayed in Chincoteague during Pony Penning Day and I for one was really excited about this! On our boat trip from the day before, our captain had taken us past the place where the ponies would swim. We realized that it was pretty far from where our papers said we should go! Another thing that concerned me was that everyone was telling us to get there at about 6am. The ponies were to swim at slack tide ( which was between 11am and 1pm). I knew we couldn’t wait that long. So at about 10 am we headed out to the swim site and we were able to park at someone’s house for $30. It seemed crazy expensive, but then I realized that we not only got to park, we got to watch too! We were still pretty far, but we were able to see the ponies out there (tiny little smudges on the horizons). So we waited while the ponies were waiting to swim. It was HOT. Not a little hot, that humid wall the hits like a ton of bricks. But we were excited and waited. We saw the coast guard send off the burst of orange smoke that told that the ponies were about to enter the water, but it still we had to wait. While we were waiting, a HUGE storm came rolling in. We started to see lightening and my hubbie said we should go. I stayed as long as I could and got to see the ponies driven into the water, but that was it. The storm broke and the rain just poured down! I was so thankful for the money we paid to park near by. Most people watching had parked a few miles away at the high school and taken the shuttle! They were wet! After the rain stopped, we headed back to the pony penning grounds and were just in time to see the ponies parading in! It was just so much fun to watch them trotting down the street! Later that night, we came back for some dinner of yummy fair food. The girls of course wanted to ride a few rides! These rides were vintage and so sweet! In fact they are the same ride that were in the Misty movie made in the 50s! The girls loved them all the same! Here are some pictures!

The next day was the auction for the colts that were to be sold this year. We were able to pop over to the pony penning grounds to see some of it! One of the ponies we saw auctioned off was a Buy Back pony. A Buy Back pony is one a person buy at auction to go back to live in the wild. Each year there are two or three of them. And their “owner” get to pick a name for them! They usually sell for a really high bid and this year was no different! We saw one where the lady paid $11,700 for a little colt. She had bought is mother in a previous year and this year she bought the baby! She is starting a regular family over there! It was fun to watch them parade the pony out and listen to the auctioneer rattle of the bids!

We had a great time taking part in this really special part of American culture! This year was the 88th consecutive year for Pony Penning Day! I think it was an awesome experience and it was a great family vacation! If you have the chance, one day you should check it out! I not, read the book Misty of Chincoteague! It is still a really faithful picture of the island and the wild horses that make it special! There is something so cool about being able to read a book and then be able to live moments of that book for real!