Assateague Island/Chincoteague

Our Assateague experience was unbelievable!  

 We started at the southern end of the island in the Chincoteague National Refuge with Grandma Chris and Grandpa Don where we looked for ponies – with no luck.  We visited the nature center there though and the kids got to touch a variety of different sea creatures including a horseshoe crab, oysters, clams, and a sea snail.   We also saw the pony corral where the foals are rounded up each year – yes Misty fans, there really is a wooden corral.  

Then we headed up to our campsite on the northern part of Assateague Island.

We headed straight for the beach – I couldn’t believe how much we had all missed it already when we were inland – and plopped down just in time to watch a newly washed up WWII bomb  detonated.  Of course I headed onto the closed part of the beach with the kids as they were prepping the detonation.   We were shooed off the beach immediately, but didn’t figure out what was going on for at least 5 minutes.   About 10 minutes later we watched it explode!

I was concerned that perhaps I had made too much of the whole pony thing – especially after seeing nothing down in the Refuge.  That all ended after dinner.  Four ponies came trotting in to the campground and before I knew it they were at full gallop heading for the beach.  Of course, complete idiot that I am, I gathered the kids and Michael and off we went to get a good picture.  We followed them, at a very good distance and I snapped this great shot of the kids standing on the beach with the horses playing in the surf behind them.
Ah – a perfect moment.  Lasted about 30 seconds.  Turns out that wild horses really like their space – and we retreated as quickly as we could with some other beach goers – but not quickly enough for the ponies’ liking.  Before we knew it, we had four ponies charging our direction in FULL GALLOP!  Of course we were on one of the dune crossovers, so we were bottlenecked in and totally at their mercy.  Ever try to protect your kids from a stampede?  Top ten scariest moments of my life. 

This is the moment I knew it was all about to go bad....  :)

Michael ended up trying to shield another lady on the other side of the path and I tried to keep our kids safe from harm – one of the ponies actually bumped into Luke, but thankfully didn’t knock him over.   One of the other campers (her name is Sandy) – came out with a broom and stood in front of all of us as we ran frantically away from the horses.  I have never felt like a broom provided much protection (um, any protection, actually) but I have a whole new respect for them now.   The horses ran off one way and we went back to our campsite as fast as our trembling legs could carry us.    



   Isa insisted that I go back and “thank the lady who saved our lives mom.” So I did.  Sandy told me that we scheduled our vacation time on the island smack dab in the middle of mating season and that we just had almost been pulverized by a group of competing stallions and one mare.   The kids really learned a new respect for horses and for their power and speed.

 


 The next day we had two of those same horses docilely grazing next to the RV – if I hadn’t almost been trampled the day before I might have thought these animals were almost tame.  Well, they aren’t – and that makes them all the more beautiful!

Horses or not, there is still sand to be played in!