Islands of the Wild Ponies: a sort of field guide

If you go to the islands, you'll probably find ponies. The next step, like all those birders with the telescopes worthy of NASA, is identifying who you're watching.

Then, you can follow their lives, even after you leave the islands.

Facebook pages like I Love Chincoteague Ponies  https://www.facebook.com/groups/5285284449/ (Chincoteague/VA end ponies) or 

Friends Of Assateague Island National Seashore (north end or MD end ponies) post pics from all kinds of visitors, so you can see daily pics, usually with ponies identified.

Serious photographers like DSC Photography (Darcy and Steve Cole) have websites on which you can identify individuals, the bands they run with, and see their day to day lives (as well as buy some great prints, calendars, mugs and other goodies).  The site has folders for stallions, mares, colors, bands, and foals of the year, so you can look up and compare ponies by category. How many palomino pintos was that again???  https://www.dscphotography.net/

​DSC's website lists 20 stallions (and young stallions) for 2019 and 136 mares/fillies

Ann Richardson's photo site has ID too: https://annrichardsonphoto.com/living-horse-id-list-for-assateague's-maryland-district

There are several apps and field guides. Identifying Chincoteague Ponies 2019 by Gina Aguilera is one I have.

The websites, apps and field guide books are set up by color, gender and other identifying characteristics, and have pics of both sides as well as face markings.

Color 101

• Chincoteague Ponies come in the three basic horse colors: red (chestnut), black (black) and both (agouti gene shoves all the black to the edges and you get bay).
• "brown" is not a thing, "seal brown" is now thought to be a version of bay (agouti shoving the black to the edges, but not as much in a dark "brown" horse), so dark bay, or dark dark bay...
• "white" here is either a minimally marked pinto (mostly white), a double dilute (perlino, cremello, smoky cream), or a very pale palomino in its winter coat, there are no greys, (who age to near white), horses do NOT come in albino (double dilutes have pink skin and blue eyes which makes them look very pale)
• the cream gene dilutes bay to buckskin, chestnut to palomino, and black to... blackish (smoky black)
• two cream genes dilute bay to perlino, chestnut to cremello, and black to... white (aka smoky cream)
• there is no dun, silver, champagne, roan (was but no more), grey, leopard complex (Appaloosa), brindle, mushroom or pearl on the island. 
• roaning exists as part of the tobiano pinto pattern, it affects part of some ponies' coats, like a sprinkling of pixie dust... yes, Pixie Dust has it, and Stevenson's Dakota Sky
• sooty, flaxen and mealy exist: sooty smudges and darkens a color, flaxen gives Riptide his awesome blond mane, mealy is primitive countershading where the muzzle and undersides are lighter. 
• ​some blacks fade in sun and are lighter than some chestnuts (cough Calendar Girl cough)
• pinto is a color pattern Paint is a breed. There are no Paints on this island.
• pinto here is mostly tobiano pattern, with some splash and sabino. Wildfire is a good example of sabino.​
• some ponies have an Oreo look, color on the ends and white in the middle. Cattle and hogs and rabbits have belted breeds where this has been perfected to a wide white sash down the middle
• many of the pinto have "pearls" or big egg shaped markings, some run together in blobs, Black Pearl, Courtney's Island Dove, Dakota Sky, Friendly Girl, Moon, Summer, Duckie, Whisper looking at you
• some pintos have cat tracks or ink spots, no , they are not part Appaloosa (that pattern, if crossed with pinto, would appear in the colored areas, cat tracks appear in the white patches); Freckles, anybody with Freckles in their name... also Moon, Skylark, Marsh Mallow, Splash.
• Several ponies have mermaid tails: Catwalk Chaos has a big white one on her right side, Anne Bonny a small white one on the right side of her withers
• Summer and Prince (palomino pintos) are nearly calico: some spots are darker
• Lefty's Checkmark is recognizable (if you can catch her in the right pose) for the literal big white checkmark on her forehead (also the two islands on the right side resemble New Zealand)
• more here: http://www.thecolorfulchincoteague.com/
  

meanwhile, here's my collection of who I've identified so far...

​See also Fall Roundup 2019 here: (click on link to my page)

random ponies from the past

off Beach Road (Donald Leonard Stud II and Riptide, southern herd)

 Surfer's Riptide, Got Milk and the band, tall grass on wildlife loop Dec 2018

 Refuge Inn: Leonard Ponies 2019

 Wild Things on the north end (Maryland Herd) July 2019

​ Wild Things off Beach Road August 2019

stallion drama in the marsh: Ace and Beach Boy and Rainbow Warrior
​August 2019

Ponies I have pics of as  of 2019 (the pony watcher's life list)

1. Ace (minimally marked black pinto stallion)
2. Anne Bonny (chestnut pinto mare)
3. Ajax (bay pinto, white tail, stallion)
4. Bailey's Star (Good Ole Days...)(chestnut pinto mare)
5. Babe (bay pinto mare) 
6. Bay Girl (bay mare)
7. Baybe (black pinto mare)
8. Beach Baby (chestnut pinto mare)
9. Beach Boy (black pinto stallion)
10. Bling Bling (bay mare)
11. Calendar Girl (fading black pinto mare)
12. Catwalk Chaos (chestnut pinto mare, mermaid tail in white on right side))
13. Carli Marie (chestnut pinto mare)
14. CJ Samm'n (chestnut pinto mare)
15. Checkers (Giraffe)(chestnut pinto mare)
16. Chickadee (bay pinto mare)
17. Chief (Chief Golden Eagle) (palomino stallion)
18. Cinnamon Blaze (chestnut mare)
19. CLG Rumor Has It (chestnut pinto mare)
20. Courtney's Island Dove (chestnut pinto mare)
21. Destiny Feathering Spirit (bay pinto mare)
22. Dreamer's Stardust (chestnut mare)
23. Doc Amrien (bay pinto mare)
24. Doc's Bay Dream (bay mare)
25. Donald Leonard Stud II (chestnut pinto stallion)
26. Ella (bay pinto mare)
27. 15 Friends of Freckles (bay pinto mare with cat tracks)
28. Gingersnap (Surfer's Shining Star)(dark chestnut mare)
29. Got Milk (bay mare with "milk moustache")
30. Gracey (black pinto mare)
31. Grandma's Dream (bay pinto mare)
32. Heide's Sky (bay pinto mare, mostly white)
33. Henry's Hidalgo (bay pinto stallion)
34. Hoppy (Effie's Papa Bear)(bay stallion)
35. Jean Bonde's Bayside Angel (bay mare)
36. Kachina Grand Star (buckskin mare)
37. Ken (chestnut stallion)
38. Kimball's Rainbow Delight (chestnut pinto mare)
39. Lady Hook (Susie Q)(chestnut pinto mare)
40. Lady (Pony Ladies Sweet Surprise)(bay mare)
41. Lefty's Checkmark (chestnut pinto mare)
42. Little Bit O Joansie (chestnut pinto mare)
43. Little Duckie (chestnut pinto mare)
44. Loveland's Secret Feather (bay pinto mare)
45. Lorna Dune (palomino pinto mare, pale)
46. Mary Read (chestnut pinto mare)
47. Marguerite of Chincoteague (bay pinto mare)
48. Marsh Mallow palomino pinto mare, pale)
49. May's Grand Slam (bay pinto mare)
50. Milly Sue (black mare)
51. Miss Admiral Halsey (palomino mare, pale)
52. Miss Me (bay pinto mare)
53. Misty Mills (chestnut pinto mare)
54. Molly's Rosebud (buckskin pinto mare)
55. Pappy's Pony (bay mare)
56. Pixie Dust (black pinto, white saddle)
57. Poco Latte (buckskin mare)
58. Poco's Starry Night (black pinto mare, small white spots)
59. Pony Girl's Bliss (chestnut pinto mare)
60. Prince (Tornado's Prince of Tides) (palomino pinto stallion)
61. Puzzle (Archer's Gambit) (dark chestnut pinto stallion)
62. Randy (buckskin pinto mare)
63. Rainbow Warrior (bay pinto stallion)
64. Scotty/ET (bay pinto mare)
65. Seaside Miracle (bay pinto mare)
66. Slash of White (chestnut pinto mare)
67. Smooch (chestnut mare)
68. Shy Anne/Half n Half (bay pinto mare, middle is white)
69. Skeeter (Jigsaw's Little Miss Skeeter)(palomino pinto mare, pale)
70. Sonny's Legacy (chestnut pinto mare, middle is white)
71. Stevenson's Dakota Sky (dark chestnut pinto with roaning on shoulder, mare)
72. Summer (bay pinto mare)
73. Sundance (palomino pinto mare, different spots are different shades)
74. Surfer's Blue Moon (black mare, blaze, one blue eye)
75. Surfer Dude's Gidget (chestnut mare)
76. Surfer's Riptide (dark chocolate chestnut stallion with flaxen, blaze goes under jaw)
77. Suzy's Sweetheart (bay pinto mare)
78. Sweet Jane (chestnut pinto mare)
79. Talia (black mare)
80. Thetis (dark chestnut pinto mare, mostly white in middle)
81. Thunderstorm Skies (chestnut pinto mare)
82. Tidewater Treasure (buckskin pinto mare)
83. Tidewater Twist (buckskin pinto stallion)
84. Two Teagues Golden Girl/Goldie (bright golden palomino mare)
85. Two Teagues Taco (bay mare)
86. Unci (bay mare, the swaybacked wonder)
87. Unforgettable/Diamond (chestnut mare)
88. Wendy's Carolina Girl (bay pinto mare)
89. Wild Thing (bay pinto stallion)
90. Winter Moon (bay pinto mare, dark)
91. Whisper of Living Legend (palomino pinto mare, bright gold)
92. Wildfire (chestnut pinto mare, unique sabino "broken edged" markings, mostly white)
93. Wildest Dreams (bay pinto mare)

random foals; 2019

Elvis (black colt)
Black Pearl's filly 
Moon's filly
Dove's filly
Winter Moon's filly
Smooch's filly
Wildfire's colt
Zustan's perlino pinto colt
Molly's Rosebud's foal
Beach Baby's foal


Refuge Inn;

Tribute (Loveland Secret Feather's filly)
Misty's Honeymoon (perlino pinto)
Martha (Misty's dam)

Esther Jane (chestnut)
Jasmine (roan)
Pocahontas (bay pinto)