Betty's Critters - & History Views

 The Pony Committee of the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company has decided upon 6 foals out of the 2023 crop to join the filly Beebe's Perfect Storm as Buy Backs for this year.  There will be 3 colts and 3 fillies who are Buy Backs.  -  A Buy Back is a foal chosen by the CVFC for its' bloodlines, conformation, and color to be kept on Assateague as breeding stock.  A person, or group of people, purchase the foal, pay for it (a tax write-off), have their photo taken with the foal, and get to name it.  Then the foal is returned to the care and oversight of the CVFC for the rest of it's life, serving as a broodmare or stallion in the CVFC herds. -  One filly was donated early for public auction by the CVFC, as a fund-raising gift for the Museum of Chincoteague Island to help enable their purchase of the remaining 10 acres of the original Beebe Ranch.  That filly was auctioned for a record-breaking $40,5000, and was named Beebe's Perfect Storm.   ...

 Following are the registered names of the Chincoteague Pony foal who were auctioned at the 28 July 2022 Pony Penning Sale.  These are names registered as of 10:30 am MDT on 9 August 2022.  When I state "registered" names - these are names sent to the Chincoteague Pony Pedigree Database, amassed and kept up-to-date by Amanda Geci.  If you look at the database, only people who have registered their ponies with the ICPA&R - see next sentence - will have the seal seen in the photos attached.  I am using the photos taken by the International Chincoteague Pony Association & Registry LLC on the morning of the auction.  Underneath the photo of the foal, I will type in "quotation marks" the pony's "call" or "Barn" name, if it is designated, followed by the registered name.  (Sometimes more than half of the foals auctioned are never registered.)  Following are the ones named by the time listed above: "Nick"  -  KKS Nickajack   (...

   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...