The 93rd Chincoteague Pony Swim
Shuttles on Chincoteague Island started running at 5 a.m. on Wednesday. Their destination was a marshland off Pony Swim Lane.
“The mud will wash off, but your memories are gonna last you forever,” Denise Bowden yelled through a speaker. The public relations officer for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company told the crowd to look toward a red cloud of smoke drifting from a U.S. Coast Guard boat.
“You know what that means!” Bowden referred to the start of the 93rd Chincoteague Pony Swim, an annual event where Saltwater Cowboys herd Chincoteague ponies across the Assateague Channel. The Saltwater Cowboys are a part of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company’s “Pony Committee.”
The wild ponies swim from Assateague Island during slack tide, a short window of no current, and end their swim in a marshland area off Pony Swim Lane on Chincoteague Island. The most dedicated spectators staked out their territory hours beforehand, standing in thick muck and pouring rain to watch the ponies hit land.
The annual swim, as a spectator event, helps control the wild pony population on Assateague and raises money for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company. The ponies that cross will be auctioned, and the proceeds go to the fire company, which manages the wild pony herd on the Virginia side of Assateague Island. The island is shared between Maryland and Virginia.
An auction takes place the day after the swim. The crowned prize at the auction is “King (or Queen) Neptune,” the first foal to reach the marshland on Chincoteague Island. Neptune is given to a winner of a raffle. The week of pony-related events ends on Friday, when the adult ponies are herded back across the channel to Assateague.