September 14, 2005
Ponies!
Vorpal pony at the Chincoteague Pony Centre
Chicken City Road, Chincoteague, Virginia
The real reason why we went to Chincoteague was the confluence of a beach and the pernicious influence of Misty of Chincoteague. When I read it as a kid, I had to check it out from the library because my parents wouldn't buy pony books (as if I hadn't figured out that I wasn't getting a pony). And I always wanted to go to Chincoteague, but instead we had to go to the Everglades and walk around in the marshes. Well, fooey on my parents! Chincoteague has marshes too and you don't have to drive two days to get there.
Anyway, I was all excited about the ponies because of this childhood wish fulfillment thing and Oz was busy containing his enthusiasm. At least until he saw some ponies and all the warning signs, which came as a bit of a surprise to me, because I don't remember anything about carnivorous, biting ponies from reading Misty. Okay, so the ponies don't actually eat people, they just bite people who piss them off.
Another pony at the Chincoteague Pony Centre
This one looks like a biter
While we were hanging out at the Pony Centre, two sets of parents with tiny boy children arrived for pony rides. These children were maybe three years old and the stirrups couldn't be shortened enough for them. The pony ride was very sedate: the non-biting pony was led demurely around a pen while a parent walked alongside, holding the child on the saddle. One little boy had come every day of his family's stay on the island and he knew all the ponies' names.
I didn't get a pony ride, but Oz bought me my very own copy of Misty and a plush toy pony. The gift shoppe had quite a selection of pony toys, even a white plastic pony with a princess painted on its side. They sure know their customer base.
After we saw the tame ponies, we went out to Assateague where the wild ponies are, along with more signs: "Do not feed or pet ponies. They may bite."
Wild ponies on Assateague
Yes, those brown and white dots are ponies.
I guess the signs work, because the ponies don't hang out anywhere near where they could cadge snacks. We did learn, at the pony view (Hah! You can't hardly see the ponies from there!), a bit about the ponies. Like, why they look fat. They retain water because of the salt in the marsh grasses they eat. If I were that bloated up, I might bite too.
Now advanced pony-spotters, we saw even more ponies on our random circumnavigations of the island.
Ponies at the Volunteer Fire Company pens
Main Street
These ponies were just hanging around being cute. No warning signs, but then they were penned up behind a tall chain link fence and they probably can't bite through it. I really don't know what they were doing here, because the annual pony swim (they round up the ponies on Assateague and make them swim over to Chincoteague) and auction is in July.
I found out, while looking for pony links, that we missed the most unusual pony spotting opportunity, stuffed Misty. Yes, Misty was a real pony and when she died, they stuffed her! I told Oz how next time we have to see stuffed Misty, but he said, "No! That's gross… Like Trigger and Bullet. Hey, we could start a website about dead stuffed animals." He sure got his brain around that idea fast. But Roadside America has beat us to it.
611 words | September 14, 2005 09:18 PM | Wish you were here