nic at night

The big attraction of Chincoteague, which I didn't know about before deciding to go there, is the wild pony herd. They live on the part of the Assateague barrier island that's in Virginia (it's that little bit off the coast that looks like an island on a map of the state). The herd is owned by the local fire department, and driven across the channel to Chincoteague island each July. The foals are then sold at auction, so that the herd doesn't get larger than 150 horses (a cap that's maintained because of their location in a federal wildlife preserve).

It took us most of the weekend to piece together all this information, even with the knowledge that the horses were made famous by a book written 65 years ago by Marguerite Henry, the horse book lady. Not being horse people, we couldn't really still grasp why everyone seemed so excited about the horses, but we did enjoy the goofiness while we were there. On Saturday night, we went to the first live show of the season at the Pony Centre there. The Center is owned and run by the family that bought Misty's granddaughter, Misty II (daughter of another famous pony), some years ago. It's basically a barn with an indoor arena, where they give pony rides and show the horses, many of whom are descendents of Misty. So we went to the show, and were duly entertained by the (quite tall) teenagers riding the horses around. We also got to see one of the colts they have for sale, the black and white pinto (apparently the black and whites are both more rare and popular, so we were encouraged to ooh and aah over the colt, which wasn't difficult as it was really cute). It was neat to look around inside the arena, as the family has collected a lot of Misty-related merchandise, including posters from the movie and some models and toys that are no longer being made.

The youngest in the family, Kenneth, is pictured in the horse trading card of Misty II, and he offered to autograph them for me. In the photo on the card he's about 4 years old; he's 16 now and quite a bit taller. It's not a stretch to say that his boots almost touched the ground when he was on Black Mist. I'd already decided to get some pony-related presents for my cousins whose first communion I was missing by being on vacation, so I got Kenneth to sign a card for each of them.