Chincoteague 2015: Pony Round-up

This week at Chincoteauge is the big wild pony round-up; the event where the northern and southern herds living on Assateague Island are rounded up, paraded through town, and some are sold to control the population.  Our family wasn't able to partake in all of the events due to Jason's work schedule (boo to "I can't take any more time off"), but we got a nice taste of what happens during this week.

The southern herd of ponies was rounded up before we arrived.  On Sunday, the northern herd was bought down the beach to be penned up with the southern herd.  The website said it began at dusk; we took that as 6 o'clock departure would be plenty of time.  We scooped the kids out of bed in PJs and went to the beach.  So did everyone else on the island

Not quite what we were expecting... a line of red taillights for miles

At least we saw a beautiful sunrise!

Fortunately, the ponies have to be paraded down the road we are all sitting on, so all the traffic was cleared before the ponies arrived.  That gave us plenty of time to park and get in position.

Masses of people out early to see the ponies!

Here come the saltwater cowboys with the ponies!!

If you would like to see the video I took while holding Braylen, be warned.  My commentary is rather annoying; however, the comment from one of the cowboys at the end is comical.

The beautiful sunrise did not lead to a beautiful day.  It started to rain as we walked back to the van.  Then it poured pretty much the rest of the day.  So so thankful for our DVD player while we sat in the van for 40 minutes waiting our turn to leave the parking lot.

Part two of our pony experience was seeing all the ponies in the corral after the two herds were merged.  Evie could have stood there all day watching them.

The ponies are all different sizes and colors.  It was fun to be apart of this annual event.  After we leave, the ponies will swim across the channel, have a vet visit, then be paraded through town before the auction.  The ponies swim back home on Friday.  The firefighters in town serve as firefighters as well as the "saltwater cowboys".  They take a lot of pride in their ponies!