Winter 2024/2025 Issue

EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN Winter 2024/2025 Page 7 By Lois Szymanski On September 20 and 21 the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company held its annual fall roundup at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Auction on Assateague Island in Virginia. The last batch of fall pickup foals from the Pony Penning auction were picked up by their buyers to be transported home. The fire company who owns these feral ponies has a strong healthcare protocol in place. Pony Roundups are held three times a year with a complete pony health check at each. The Pony Pen- ning roundup in late July is well known, but the herds get their annual shots at spring roundup and are wormed at spring and fall roundup. This year, the south herd was rounded up on the evening of September 20 and the north herd was brought in on September 21. According to the fire company’s publicity officer and saltwater cowboy Hunter Leonard, about 140 adult ponies were brought in plus the summer buyback foals and four late born foals. He explained why the roundup was held a few weeks earlier than usual. “In addition to being wormed, the new buybacks had to get their next swamp cancer shot,” Hunter shared. Foals get swamp cancer [pythiosis] shots at Pony Penning in July, then the end of August and again at the end of September, so we moved Fall Roundup to get that last shot in for new foals.” One thing was top of mind for avid pony followers attend- ing Saturday’s North Roundup. Would the stallion, CLG ToMor- row’s Tidewater Twist be brought in? You see, Twist has a pen- chant for avoiding cowboys when he is north. Three bands of ponies usu- ally reside in the south compart- ment, with the bulk of the ponies being in the island’s north com- partment. For a time, Twist was kept in the southern compartment to make him easier to capture. This year, he was moved north after Pony Penning to make room for the fall pickup foals and their dams, which are kept south after the Pony Penning so they can be easily observed and cared for. “The last time he was north, we went out eight times to try to get him, before we finally got him and his band,” Hunter said with a smile. “He picks the most remote spots to graze, and he knows where to go to avoid us. Legacy (his sire) was like that for a while, too. They know where to hide.” True to form, Twist and his band of 10 once again avoided capture. “I’d been watching him all week as I took boat tours out,” Leonard recalled. “I’d seen Big Crowd Turns Up for Chincoteague Fall Roundup (Continued on page 24)