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Right you say, "experience the magic of the Chincoteague ponies." What do we mean--well, let us tell you how it all happened for us. Read on to learn how we fell in love with these intelligent, sturdy, and wild horses with lots of personality. By the time you reach the end of this page, you'll understand why we now have 14 or moreof them depending on how many foals we have each year. |
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First we purchased a farm... When we were presented with a move from Florida to North Carolina to take advantage of a professional opportunity, we had an important lifestyle discussion. With all five of the children out of the house and getting on with their own lives, we began to re-think our priorities. Our own grandparents were either immigrants, or the sons and daughters of immigrants. Our Austrian and Danish grandfathers maintained subsistence farms in addition to other jobs and businesses. We were very attracted to living close to the earth, growing some of our own food, and providing a similar environment for the next generation. Also, it was time to have our horses on our own property rather than boarding them as we had previously done. |
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We always owned at least two horses, and enjoyed trail riding, and the successes of our oldest daughter, Christie, who became an accomplished equestrienne and showed throughout the Southeast. The hunter pony that for many years was her closest friend and companion and was with us until the age of 36. "Ain't Misbehavin" was a Connemara which comes from a quick, sturdy, athletic bloodstock. Connemaras were originally feral ponies from Ireland. They are sure-footed, smart, and competitive. We were most interested in the Connemara breed which shares many similarities with the Chincoteague ponies--that is until we found and fell in love with these ponies. |
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After considerable thought, we decided to make the move--one that didn't turn out to be easy. It took us six months to find a place with the potential to create what we wanted. This turned out to be a derelict farm; or rather a piece of it, with overgrown pastures, downed fences, and buildings in poor repair. But it was ours. Once the property was ours, we began the move with our two horses. Upon arrival, Burta sat for two days not knowing where to start. But, as soon as she moved the first old board, she became energized and we haven't stopped since. |
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| Our children who live in the area are very involved with the farm and it has truly become a family project. Our son, Thane has worked in the turf management industry for several years and so he is truly an expert in keeping our pastures in terrific shape. Christie has a way with the ponies and is always the first one to build a relationship with the wild ones. Taylor, our grandson is on the feeding brigade which he thinks happens all day long. He also showed his pony, Ginger, for several years. |
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In addition to the 14 Chincoteague ponies, we also have three others horses that we already owned; plus, 5 pigmy goats, 6 chickens, 6 dogs, 5 barn cats; and an uncounted number of other kinds of wildlife including birds, deer, a variety of rodents, and snakes! Oh yes, we also have all kinds of plants and flowers just to make the farm look beautiful. What a wonderful home it has turned out to be for all of us! |
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| The Boysen adventure with the ponies begins... After a tremendous amount of work on our new farm, we found ourselves with some spare time. It was some of this spare time that would represent our first step into our wonderful adventure with Chincoteague ponies. It all started with the first visit to the Chincoteague Pony Penning event in the summer of 1996. A friend invited us to the Pony Penning on the Island of Chincoteague. Burta was able to go, and she returned with stories of the island, the myths surrounding the ponies, the swim, the auction, the fair, the festivities, and a vivid description of all of the magic surrounding Chincoteague. As Floridians, we had long been interested in the ecology of the ocean shore, the wetlands, and the Intracoastal Waterway. We made plans to return to Chincoteague, based mainly on our growing interest in the Waterfowl Refuge, and the National Seashore, which includes Assateague Island. We spent the next Thanksgiving on the island with our parents, some of our children, and a grandchild. On this second visit, we were able to observe the ponies on the island and to view other features of their native habitat. This was to be the visit that hooked us on the ponies. We made definite plans to return for the Pony Penning the following summer with the intentions of merely studying the horses that were to be sold, observing the auction, and getting a good understanding of how the entire process worked. Arriving for a week visit in July of 1997, with no intentions of purchasing a pony we managed to leave as proud owners of a little bay colt and a beautiful bay filly. So unprepared were we for our actions that we had to make arrangements to keep the foals there until the following weekend to complete their move back to North Carolina as we hadn’t even brought our horse trailer. Our first two pony purchases were: |
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Chesapeake Cruiser, called Tommy and Tidewater Fable, called L'Eggs. Looking back, we laugh as we talk about how we had no idea of the magnitude of the adventure we had began by simply showing up as spectators. The herd grows… Once we and the ponies were back in North Carolina, we began learning about our new wild ponies. First of all we learned that they had no intention of letting us touch them. The colt was a handful, but playful and inquisitive. However, the filly would have nothing to do with us. It was weeks before we could even touch her. We were told that these were wild ponies, and now we believed it! Fortunately, we have a wonderful vet who seems to get a kick out of them (occasionally a real kick.) A real transformation only began to occur once the young horses were literally in our front yard. Not only did they not trust us at first, they also had to make their peace with our other horses. After the ponies initial quarantine coming into North Carolina, our big gray thoroughbred (17 hands) was imposing and forward toward them. The elderly Connemara (26 years of age then), or Bee as he is known as, ignored these newcomers as if they were some form of pestilence. The little Welsh mare wanted them to know in no uncertain terms, that she was the boss. We realized that we had to become part of their social structure as well. As they had trouble sorting things out with their new equine friends, we began to understand how difficult it was to form a relationship with humans? Would it be worth their effort? After all, they had little to do with humans since they were born! What a concept! We now had a HERD rather than just a couple of horses. We vowed to become part of the herd-oriented life. We took the lead of our senior horses, and worked with each of the ponies slowly, patiently, and carefully. We returned the next year for the 1998 Swim. Buoyed by our success (albeit slow) with the first two purchases, we were active in the bidding and had picked out our favorites well before the swim and auction. This time we purchased three babies: Tidewater Alibi, known as Petunia, Tidewater Surfer Chique, known as Blondie, and Chesapeake Powhatan's Promise, known as Squat and our foundation stallion. The first two names are obvious when you see the horses and their coloring. The stallion which turned into a magnificent stallion, would not load when we went to the fairgrounds to pick him up. Any attempt to push, pull, or carry made him place his rump on the ground and extending his forelegs. The laughing crowd watching this whole process helped us name him. We started calling him "Squatting Pony" and it then became "Squat." One of the most fun times of any of our auctions occurred during this second auction. When one of the ponies that we wanted was being auctioned, Phil was still in line paying for the first pony that we had bought. We were so excited at having gotten the first pony that we wanted, we forgot to agree on which one of us should do the bidding on the next pony we had hoped to buy. Unwilling to lose this next pony, I decided to start bidding. Much to my surprise, Phil had paid for the first pony and was bidding against me! You're right--we ended up with that pony too and lots of laughs each time we tell the story. We were back again in 1999, wondering where this would end. At the auction we were fortunate to get two phenomenal fillies. A big bay turned out to be the half sister of L'eggs, and the other, a chestnut paint was the half sister of Tommie, one of our first purchases. The stallion Premiere sired both of them, and this filly is one of his last progeny before his death. We named these two: |
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Tidewater Fandango, and we call her Fannie and Premiere's Last Lullaby we call Lilly. We returned that same fall to claim some of the littlest newborns of the herd, and returned with an "almost Medicine Hat" paint filly with blue eyes, and two colts. The younger colt had not yet shed his baby curly hair, which had a milk chocolate color (hence the nickname "Hershey bar"). He is half brother to Blondie, both sired by Surfer Dude. The other colt, a flashy bay with white stockings turned out to be a half-brother to Tommie. This colt escaped back to Assateague when the herd began the swim in 1999 so we went back in October to get him. As it turns out his father Premiere died and his mother took up with another band leaving him abandoned to fend for himself. He looked awful but after seven months, he is a magnificent animal. He has been the biggest challenge we have had to face and will likely remain so for some time. As we began our breeding plans, we worried about inbreeding, and both Tommie, and his brother were gelded before we were aware of the demise of Premiere. At least they still have the daughters of this magnificent animal. Following this last trip, we now had: Chesapeake Warrior, known as "Hersh," Phil and I lost our minds temporarily and thought we would keep Hersh as our second stallion. He did not handle his hormones well and was determined to kill someone so we gelded him and he is now a big baby. Chesapeake 38 Special, known as "Gunner," and Tidewater Autumn Skye, which we call "Skye." Gunner is showing in the hunger ring here in Chapel Hill and is owned by a local family. Skye is in Virginia and is a 4H pony. [back to top] |
