Chincoteague Holds Activities All Week Revolving Around Famous Pony Swim

Travelers from around the world have made their way to the small town of Chincoteague Island, Va. for the 91st annual Chincoteague Pony Swim.

The week of activities kicked off on Saturday with the Southern Herd Roundup, as the ‘Saltwater Cowboys’ began to round up about 150 adult wild ponies that live on Assateague Island, along with the 60 to 70 foals that were born in the spring.

During the Northern Herd Roundup on Sunday, the cowboys herded 100 adult ponies and their foals on the north side of Assateague Island, bringing them to the Northern Corral.

Alex Tucker, a first generation Saltwater Cowboy and Chincoteague native, says herding the ponies isn’t as easy as it looks.

“People herd animals all over the world, but trying to herd something into the water that doesn’t want to be there is a whole other ball game,” Tucker says.

Large crowds gathered on the beach Monday at day break for the annual Chincoteague Beach Walk. The Saltwater Cowboys moved the ponies from the Northern Corral out to the beachfront then south along the Atlantic Ocean and joined them with the ponies in the Southern Corral.

Large crowds gathered on the beach Monday at day break for the annual Chincoteague Beach Walk (Photo: Lauren Holloway, WBOC)

For the last three years, Rafael Villarreal has traveled from Baltimore, Md. to Chincoteague for the pony swim, saying it has become a family tradition.

“We just wanted to bring the kids here to have them experience something that not a lot of people get to experience outside of Assateague and Chincoteague so it’s something nice for them to do every year,” Villarreal says.

On Tuesday, all of the ponies were checked by a vet and were held in the Southern Corral on Assateague to be viewed by the public. According to Tucker, the horses are cared for all year round through the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department’s ‘Pony Committee.’

Ponies are held in the Southern Corral on Assateague to be viewed by the public (Photo: Lauren Holloway, WBOC)

Other activities on Tuesday included the Chincoteague Island Farmers Market, ‘Misty of Chincoteague’ playing at the Island Theater, the Chincoteague Fireman’s Carnival and the showing of Tuesday Nights at the Museum: Where Island Tales Are Told.

The main event kicks off on Wednesday morning during which the cowboys will herd the Chincoteague ponies across the Assateague Channel at slack tide, a period of about 30 minutes between tides when there is no current, moving them from Assateague Island to Chincoteague Island.

Roe Terry, public relations officer for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department, says the swim generally takes place some time between 7 a.m. and 1 p.m. This years swim is tentatively scheduled for 10:15 a.m.

According to Terry, the Chincoteague Ponies will swim across the Assateague Channel, just south of Memorial Park on the east side of Chincoteague Island. The first foal to come ashore will be named King or Queen Neptune and will be given away in a raffle drawing at the carnival grounds later in the day.

After the swim, the ponies parade to the carnival grounds where the foals will be auctioned off on Thursday. On Friday, the adult ponies will make the return swim to Assateague Island where they will live in the wild for another year.

Tucker says the Chincoteague Pony Swim and all the activities leading up to it are a can’t miss.

“You can see all the riders faces, they just pick up a smile,” Tucker says. “We do it because we enjoy it but we know everybody else enjoys it to so we kind of get enjoyment out of everyone else getting enjoyment. I grew up around it, I was born and raised here, and without this we don’t really have a home.”