Wild Ponies! - January 3, 2005
First encounter...
The first time we saw wild ponies was in Beaufort, North Carolina. I saw them with several of my friends from other boats. My close encounter was made with Virginia from Tempe Teh, Martha from Taku, and Margaret from Mystic. We were going to see the horses, as I had earlier that day with Mom and Dad, but we were by ourselves! We were going to the other side of the island, where they were before, when they crossed right in front of the path we were on! Out of quick-thinking we immediately stopped talking and crouched down. Thankfully, the horses didn't see us, but we sure got a close-up of them! We were talking loudly (not paying attention) so we could have been trampled! It was pretty scary but cool at the same time. There was a stallion, a young stallion, a mare and a foal. There was also a lone mare, not part of the herd. Later on, we went looking again. This time, with grown-ups and Matt and Alex from Alohomora. Matt thought he heard a whinney but it turned out that there wasn't a horse to be seen. Here are some pictures of them from my visit with Mom and Dad:
P.U.!!! There was horse poop everywhere! But aren't these hoof prints really cool?
Second encounter with horses.....
I have another encounter to tell you about. This one is probably even cooler! We were at Cumberland Island, on the Georgia coast, very close to Florida, when it happened. Margaret, Martha and I were looking at the horses in a field right next to the dinghy dock and we picked out horses and named them. We tried to get as close as we could to them, but not too close. I picked a white foal I named "Snowflake" and Margaret picked her mother. We went over to see them and when it was time to go we turned around and Snowflake followed us!!! We turned around because Margaret whispered to me, "I think there's a foal following us!" and sure enough, there was Snowflake. She stopped when we did, and then we turned around and kept going until we were at the edge of the field. Snowflake hesitated as if torn between us and her herd, and finally chose her herd. (We don't have any horse milk, do we?) There is picture on her of her and her mother. I think that it is strange that she is white because no one else in her herd is. There is a beautiful black stallion, though.
Later when we went to the ruins of Dungeness (a beautiful old mansion that was burned by fire) we saw tons more horses. That's just about it.... except that their tails were very, very long... and aren't those two black "lovebirds" sweet?
