The Six 2021 Maryland Foals So Far...
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...