Where Did The Ponies Come From?
If the ponies have lived on Assateague for over 300 years, then where did they come from? Nobody really knows. There are a couple of theories. The most romantic one says that the ponies were shipwrecked on the island. Perhaps a Spanish galleon, taking a herd of small horses to work in the gold mines of South America, was wrecked in a storm; and perhaps the horses swam free, reached the shore and claimed the island for themselves. There were certainly plenty of ships wrecked off the shallow shores of Assateague in the 16th and 17th centuries. But there is another theory that might be more likely. In colonial days, many farmers would pasture their livestock – including horses – on the barrier islands, because it was easier and cheaper than building fences. The animals were both protected and corralled by the water around the island, and when the farmers wanted the animals, they would simply round them up and swim them back over to the mainland. It was inevitable that some animals were fo
