The Six 2021 Maryland Foals So Far...

June 14, 2021

So far this year, there have been six new foals born to the Assateague ponies on the Maryland end of the island. As noted in yesterday's blog, there are 20 stallions aged 3 and above, and 55 mares aged 3 and above. Some of the stallions are bachelors and live alone. Some swoop in and out of areas and steal mares from other herds, the younger stallions form bonds of friendship that hold pretty strongly - except when a mare is in season. Some mares stay with their stallion for either their life, or his; some move year to year; and some bounce around from stallion to stallion.

I did miss explaining some of the pony identification numbers in yesterday's blog. There are currently 2 Kieper numbers that begin with the letter X; they belong to stallions Corky and General Harker. In the mid-1980s the offspring watch wasn't followed closely, and in 1990 there were 25 ponies without an ID. Some were found to be older ponies that actually did have a Kieper number assigned, the others kept their X designation; only two of those ponies produced offspring that still live on Assateague - X15 and X16. But since the Kieper system only passes down the original dam's information, when these two stallions pass away, the X series of identification will also die.

Carol's Girl - N2BHS - was born in 1994, and the contraceptive medication darts did not affect her reproduction system. Five of the mares who have foaled this year are her descendants and two of the five are descendants of her daughter Gokey Go-Go Bones (N2BHS-A). Shasta and Susi Sole are Carol's Girl's daughters; Linda Rae's Autumn Glory is her grand-daughter; and Princess Mieke's Noe'lani and Moonshadow are her great-grand-daughters. The "odd-mare-out," as it were, is Alexandria's Angel, daughter of Dr. Jay and Bayberry - the sixth mare in the list to foal this year.

Linda Rae's Autumn Glory was the first mare to foal this year, producing a pinto filly in March; the sire could be any one of three stallions. Two foals were definitely born in April - Princess Mieke's Noe'lani and Moonshadow both had fillies. The sire of Noe'lani's filly is pretty definitely Mr. Frisky Hooves. I'm not sure exactly when Shasta's foal with stallion Chestnut was born - April or May, but it's been identified as a filly. Both Susi Sole and Alexandria's Angel foaled in May, and they both had colts. The sire of Susi Sole's colt is definitely Delegate's Pride (who is better known by his nickname, "Chip").

*** I am sharing photos of the foals born so far this year. The photos are the property of the person or studio that took them. They are being shared without profit of any kind. If you wish to share or use the photos in any way, please contact the photographer, or studio, via Facebook, or the web, to receive permission. ***

The photos are displayed alphabetically by the dam's name, not in order of birth...