What name brand?

The Volunteer Fire Company has a very easy way of telling when their ponies were born.

On the hindquarters is a two digit number. The brand tells you what year a pony was born.

So this pony with 96 was born in 1996.
                               

And this lovely pony was born in 1995, the same year I was born!

Hope that helps! The first time I went to Chincoteague and Assateague I was confused about why the adult horses had numbers on their hindquarters!

Round Up

Every year, the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company has a fall roundup for their ponies. The goal for this isn’t to gather foals, but instead to vaccinate the ponies. Compared to Pony Penning week, barely anyone was here. So everyone could get front row seats!

Trekking on a little trail, my aunt, mom, cousin and I waited. Soon someone pointed and the sound of thundering hooves came. But it was a false alarm, they were tame horses.

After waiting a little bit longer a new louder pounding noise came.

The ponies were galloping in a line with the cowboys riding and guiding them on the side. It was really awesome to watch.

 The ponies then crossed a stream and entered into their holding corral.

 Once in, many of the ponies started rolling.

Then a tiny head poked through! He was the only foal in this group.

There’s two herds in Assateague. One in the north and another in the south. The herd we saw was the smaller one.
The trip was a blast!

Beautiful!

Today the weather made up for all of the rainy days. It wasn’t blistering but it also wasn’t bitterly cold. The weather stayed in the middle and the sun showed bright. So we all loaded into the car and drove to Assateague. First we stopped at the welcome center.

There were numerous exhibits that were pretty cool.
I took tons of photos of the pony info. Anyone interested in a post about the ponies? Post a comment!

After the little visit we walked to the beach and there was no one really. This is the time to go! Very few people were on the beach.

Shell collecting was endless!
My cousin, aunt, sister and mom looking for shells
The ocean was beautiful. The sweet smell of salt filled the air along with the powerful surge of crashing waves.
We all went up and down the beach, but saw no ponies. Driving up to the beach and back from the beach we looked but the ponies seemed to be hiding. After some more walking we left the beach. Then we stopped for dinner at Maria’s since today is my sister’s birthday! A great ending to a beautiful day!