A mini vacation

Felt like I needed a little reminder of warmer days just now as we are dealing with bitter cold temps and snowstorm after snowstorm in Jersey. Here are some shots from our vacation in Chincoteague, Va in April of 2009. For those of you not familiar with the story of this area,

there was an award winning book called "Misty of Chincoteague" that put this tiny little barrier island, as well as its sister island Assateague, on the map. I have always loved horses and it was my favorite childhood book. My parents took us there twice in the summer when the herd of ponies are rounded up on their home of Assateague and swim across the channel to Chincoteague at slack tide where the foals are auctioned off to raise money to support the fire dept. This has been a tradition for years now and tens of thousands of visitors swarm the island for the "pony swim" due to the book which made this event known around the world. I wanted so badly to take Tim and Olivia there and we popped down in April on Olivia's spring break and we were blessed to catch a round-up that they do that time of year to do veterinarian checks on the herd. You would never see a round-up this close with the crowds in July. We were ten feet away as the herd galloped past us(no fences between us) and

it was truly a moving and beautiful sight. To see their manes flying and feel the ground shake

beneath us as they ran past in all their glory was incredible. I am trying to download a video for the first time. Not sure it's going to work. I probably have video of the close up "stampede" but don't know how to download from our video cam program. This was from Olivia's camera.

The top photo is of a brand new foal, born that morning. Might be a "cremello" which is caused

by 2 red horses that mate and both carry the creme gene. The second pic is of a year old stallion. I have seen winter coats on horses but NEVER one like this. I nicknamed him Curly,

of course, and think he looks like a Chincoteague pony crossed with a poodle. Maybe a

Chi-pon-oodle. The third shot is of Olivia feeding a pony at the Pony Center on Chincoteague

Island. There are many descendants of Misty(who was a Palamino pinto) kept on this farm and

this may very well be one of them. The video, if it worked, is what we saw from our car as we

crossed the causeway from one island to the other just before they herded them into the holding

pens when we were standing just feet away. The ponies(they're actually horses) live on Assateague and swim in the surf and they call these men, most of whom are involved with the fire dept. in some way, "saltwater cowboys." Olivia decided after this trip that she wanted to be

a saltwater cowgirl some day. If you ever get the chance to go to Chincoteague, I urge you to.

It is a simple place where all the locals know each other and the people are so friendly.