Thousands travel to Va. for 91st annual pony swim
Not even the hot temperatures could keep thousand away from Chincoteague Island on Wednesday morning, as roughly 150 horses hit the waters for the 91st Annual Pony Swim.
While it only took them about ten minutes to swim from Assateague to Chincoteague, it was a much farther travel for many of the spectators.
Virginia Beach resident Lucy Labella says it took about two and a half hours to drive. She arrived on Tuesday.
“I grew up in the northeast, so this wasn’t really close enough to come before,” Labella explains. “Now that we’re here, why not?”
Other spectators say it took days to arrive. Melissa Hannah and her daughter Julia split their ten hour drive from Beaver Creek, Ohio into two days.
“There’s a lot of stuff to bring to a beach trip and my grandfather lives in Pittsburgh, so we made a nice little visit out of it,” says Hannah.
The Hannah’s aren’t the only ones far from home.
Catherine Schumer and her daughter Christine flew from Charlotte, North Carolina. They say the appeal comes from Christine’s love of the children’s novel ‘Misty Of Chincoteague’.
“When I was younger, I read of the books and I have a passion for horses,” says Christine. “I horseback ride myself so I love seeing ponies out in the wild. I love the idea of that. Like, I’ve always seen them in a pen or tacked up but I like seeing them out in the wild in their own habitat.”
Christine tells 47ABC, the trip was her mother’s idea.
“Until I researched it, I didn’t know there really was a Chincoteague and there really was a pony penning,” explains Catherine. “I thought it was all part of the story and the book, and then we delved a little bit further and researched it found out, this really is a place.”
The book is a similar reason why Alexandra Blair says she and her family drove 17 hours from Missouri to watch the swim.
“Well, we always heard about ‘Misty Of Chincoteague’ and it’s such a popular event that we had to come at some point,” says Blair.
Roe Terry, public information officer for the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department, credits the swim’s nationwide popularity to social media.
“I used to go home and my hard line phone, it would be flashing with my answering machine and that’s the only way it got a hold of me,” says Terry.
According to Terry, this event easily draws 40,000 to Chincoteague Island every summer. Hannah says the travel was well worth it.
“I’m so excited,” she says. “Never seen anything like this before.”
The first foal, or baby pony, that made it to shore is expected to be raffled. We’re told all of the money goes to the fire company and the maintenance of the horses.
