got ponies?

Today was the day of "wild ponies!!" Though when we got up in the morning... "wild" was a better description for the weather. Since we arrived here on Thursday evening, the weather has been nothing short of wonderful... but this morning it looked to be somewhat different. Now, most of you know that weather isn't about to stop me.. (remember a dog show a few weeks ago) and since they were running the boat out to the pony island... Kas, Nate, Mandi, Patrick, Ed and I decided we would go and see what we could find on the Island.

For the most part, we were prepared for the weather.... however, the real rain began to show up as we were already on the boat and heading for the island. It was "cold" too..that wet /damp rain cold that after a little while you decide to "give up and go with it"....



Our boat captain seemed pretty certain that we would see some horses... after all the island is quite tiny (you can pretty much walk the whole thing in a couple of hours) and there are around 120 horses living there, including 8 new foals this season... I was excited!!!


Now "officially" this island is called Shackleford Banks... and back in the 1700's or so, a Spanish ship wrecked off the coast. The horses aboard the ship swam to shore and have survived generation after generation all these years. Today the town of Beaufort, does monitor the ponies, thinning the herd threw auctions when needed, and administering meds and such, also when needed. But for the most part, this is a wild herd, and though you are allowed to be among them, you are not suppose to approach too closely, and you run this at your own risk. The stallions will protect the mares, and the mares will protect the foals.

Besides the ponies, it is an awesome place to look for shells... of all kinds. We were told to walk over to the "ocean side" of the island for the best "shelling"... so, with all this advise in mind, we were dropped off on the island.. for a two hour visit.

The wind really began to pick up, and the rain was still coming down... but, we weren't going to let that bother us!!! and bravely started off to find ponies and shells.....

THEN, we came across some other folks on their way back to the boat... "Have you found any ponies?" they asked us.... No, we have just arrived... Well, they had been there a few hours in the rain and hadn't come across a single pony.....

I suddenly began to have second thoughts........