The First Description of Chincoteague's Pony Penning Was Published in 1835
This is taken wholly from the book Once Upon an Island - The History of Chincoteague , written by Kirk Mariner. It was copyrighted in 1996, and was published by Miona Publications of New Church, Virginia. I am quoting seven paragraphs that appear on pages 39 and 40. This is for informational purposes only. "On July 30, 1835, Thompson Holmes of "Chincoteague" - not the island, but the mainland across Chincoteague Bay, in what is now Captain's Cove - wrote a lengthy letter to the editor of the Farmer's Register , which that periodical published shortly afterwards as "Some Account of the Wild Horses of the Sea Islands of Virginia and Maryland." In it is the earliest known description of the Chincoteague "pony penning." No one really knows when pony penning began. Why it began seems obvious enough: on these islands where livestock roamed free, it was necessary from time to time - annually, as it developed - to round up the ...