Betty's Critters - & History Views

   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 p...

    Along the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia, loose livestock was a well-known phenomenon in the mid-1600s.  In 1662, the problems caused by roaming cattle, horses, sheep and swine were so great the Virginia decreed all livestock must be penned - or kept behind fences -  or the owners would be liable for monetary fines for (a) roaming livestock and (b) any destruction caused by said livestock.  People with money began buying islands and marshy areas that could be easily sealed with a single short fence across a narrow "neck" of land.  There were also church tithes expected from the parishioners that depended on the numbers of livestock that were living on the property where said parishioners were housed.  Keeping your livestock on an island, away from your home, reduced church tithes and county and state taxes.    The islands of Chincoteague and Assateague were already populated by a wiry breed of small horse, or pony.  They were...