Chincoteague's Round-Up

Just off the coastal juncture of Virginia and Maryland lies small, picturesque Chincoteague Island. Sportsmen know it as a good place to go for fishing and duck-shooting. And once a year, during its Volunteer Firemen's Carnival, Chincoteague stages the East's only wild horse roundup. Last week came this "Pony Penning Day."

No one knows where Chincoteague's wild horses came from. Natives say they have been there some 250 years, like to believe them descendants of horses which swam ashore from a wrecked Spanish galleon. Less romantic historians think they may have sprung from Virginia strays isolated when Chincoteague, once a peninsula, became an island. Small and snaggy. they look like a cross between horse and Shetland pony. Led by stallions, they range the island marshes in bands of 15 to 20.

Last week Chincoteague fishermen had rounded up about 200 ponies. Some 5,000 spectators cheered and munched hot dogs as cowboys herded the ponies into a pen. Then, while the crowd closed in to pick favorites, came the branding. Thrifty natives have put their brands on most of the ponies, take care to get them on the new colts which shadow their mothers. When auction time came, bidding was the best in years. The ponies bring $20 to $70 each, make good children's pets.

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