The well-known ponies of Chincoteague are about to get a healthcare improve because of a brand new barn being constructed for this categorical function. Every summer season the wild ponies are gathered up and swim throughout the Assateague channel from their house on Assateague Island to Chincoteague Island the place some ponies are auctioned off. Roughly 150 grownup ponies and their foals dwell within the islands that bridge Virginia and Maryland.
The annual swim and public sale are massive enterprise for the group, bringing crowds of tens of 1000’s of tourists every summer season and tens of millions in vacationer bucks. So there’s loads of native motive to maintain the horses wholesome.
“A few of our vets must work on the market within the wild, which isn’t that simple to do,” Hunter Leonard, a Saltwater Cowboy and member of the Chincoteague Volunteer Hearth Firm No. 3, which takes the lead in caring for the herd, advised a member of a neighborhood CBS affiliate WBOC. “After which once we deliver them right here to the carnival grounds, it’s nonetheless a considerably open space. We’ve by no means actually had a giant barn.”
The ponies obtain vaccines and different veterinary care a number of instances all year long, however in line with the information merchandise, the brand new barn is a $45,000 (USD) facility that can have six stalls, electrical energy, and fridges for meds. All that is the norm for any steady, however new for this group who take care of the wild herd.
The horse public sale raises funds for the Chincoteague Volunteer Hearth Division which owns the herd and has a grazing settlement with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The horse swim and public sale has been occurring for 100 years and this 12 months will happen within the early afternoon of July twenty fourth. The pandemic moved the public sale on-line and that turned out to be a boon for the group, bringing in virtually $100,000 greater than when it was purely a dwell public sale.
That kind of cash is what allowed the brand new barn to be constructed. “I imply my gosh, it’s simply allowed us to have a lot extra free money available to have the ability to do one thing like this and get this achieved and be capable to afford issues like that,” Leonard mentioned.
The barn can even have a lean-to which is able to present shade to these in attendance for the public sale. The Saltwater Cowboys hope the barn can be accomplished by 12 months’s finish.
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