For several years, Bill and I tried to get some good photos of the wild ponies of Chincoteague (yes, the ones made famous in the book Misty of Chincoteague). There are two herds of horses living on Assateague Island in Maryland and Virginia. One herd lives in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and on the Virginia side of the Assateague National Seashore – these are the ones owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department and who do the Pony Swim each July. The second herd lives on the Maryland side of the Assateague National Seashore, located a few miles south of Ocean City, MD.

We made several visits to the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge outside of Chincoteague, VA. And while we saw lots of ponies, we weren’t happy with the photos we took. While we were able to get lovely photos of a pony in a field, we weren’t able to get any close up photos of the ponies.

Chincoteague Pony (c) 2006 William Lawrence

On our last trip to Chincoteague in December 2006, we decided to check out the Maryland herd. We finally were able to get the photos we looking for.

We found ponies in several area in Maryland, all very easy to photograph. We took most of the photos from various parking lots.

We saw ponies in the sand.

Assateague Pony II (c) 2007 William Lawrence

A mother and foal

Assateague Foal (c) 2007 Patty Hankins

And enough different ponies to do a series of pony portraits including these two:

Faces of Assateague II (c) 2007 William Lawrence

Faces of Assateague V (c) 2007 Patty Hankins

If you’re going to be visiting Maryland or Virginia’s eastern shore, be sure to plan to visit either (or both) the Assategue National Seashore or the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge to see the ponies. They are a wonderful sight to see.

Just remember that the ponies are WILD ANIMALS. They do kick and bite. Don’t feed them, and don’t let your kids pull on their tails.