PawPrints Photography Blog

I recently had the opportunity to see the unloading of wild horses and burros in Virginia with my friend, Kathy Winkler, who is a wonderful painter.  They were brought here by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) who rounded them up in Illinois.  They are all descendants of animals that were released or escaped from Spanish explorers, ranchers, miners, the U.S. Cavalry, and American Indians.  If it looks like they are at risk of not having enough food or water, the BLM gathers them and offers them for adoption to qualified applicants.  To find out more about the program, visit:  http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/wild_horse_and_burro.html

It started with a 3:45 am wakeup call.  It was pouring down rain.  We waited until 5:00 am to see if it would stop.  It did.  So, out we went to Assateague to watch the “wild pony beach walk” where they herd the wild horses down the beach prior to their swim to Chincoteague later this week. 

We were surprised to be greeted with a beautiful sunrise.

Then we waited, and waited, and waited . . . and waited some more.

Finally, we saw some movement down the beach . . .

The herd is surrounded by folks on horses called “Salt Water Cowboys”.  They keep the herd together and moving down the beach.

The helicopter had a great vantage point.

Every once in a while a horse would separate from the herd.  This was a short ocean “chase” . . .

. . . and this was a short swamp “chase”.

There were a lot of foals in the group.  In fact, at least once, each of these foals broke away from the herd and had the cowboys rounding them up.

This little guy was particularly persistent. 

We had romantic visions of seeing the horses running wild down the beach, and while that didn’t exactly happen, it was amazing to experience part of the Chincoteague wild pony event that happens every year.