It's Pony Penning Day!

I am in Chincoteague, Virginia, and it is Pony Penning Day!

If you have no idea what I am talking about, then let me assure you that the following non-twaddle book should be on every home school's reading list plan:

 

Sometime today, between noon and 1:30 p.m., the ponies will swim across Assateague Channel and arrive on Chincoteague to march down Pony Swim Lane to the Chincotegue Fireman's Carnival, where a selection of this year's foals will be auctioned off to support the Chincoteague Fire Department. (Oh, doesn't your local fire department wish they had such a sweet deal!)

The above links are someone else's photos from the 2010 pony swim. My camera has a minimal zoom lense, plus (go figure) I got out there only to find my camera battery was getting low... It was so bright and sunny that it was hard to see what I had my camera focused on, but I did my best. My lense did not have the zoom I would have needed for good photos at such a distance, but here's what I've got.

So, we carried folding chairs, an umbrella, totes, water, snacks... and walked to Memorial Park, found a spot, and perched on the rocky shore to await the "big event", with another approximately 40,000 people.

Okay, the planned pony swim starts with crowds, crowds, crowds staking out their space to wait for hours, on land and sea, waiting for slack (low) tide, when the swim will occur -- projected to swim between noon and 1:30 p.m.

Then, in the distant, distance the slightest signt can be seen of the heads of the horses being herded to the shore from Assateague.

Finally they reach the shore and are allowed to enter the water.

That was the last photo I took, because I didn't feel my photos were clear enough to even be able to see very well. But, we had a hot, sweaty, satisfying event, and then walked the two-minute walk back to our cottage and cooled off and got rehydrated. I needed to rehydrate since my adult daughter drank the water that I packed for myself so that when I needed it I found my water jug empty!

So, this afternoon maybe we'll let some kids rent kayaks!