One summer my family and I went on vacation to a place called Chincoteague. We were invited to tag along with our cousins and their family. Chincoteague is a town on an island off the coast of Virginia. The island is known for their wild ponies that live on Assateague island. Although the ponies live on Assateague during the summer, the island has a week called Pony week where people can come from all around the world to enjoy the events they have. They have carnivals, pony swim, pony walk, and the auction at the end of it all. 

At the beginning of the week people will go to watch the pony swim. The pony swim is where they have all the ponies swim from one side of the bay to another, the ponies will come to the shore and people will get a close up view of the ponies. The people who run the pony swim will watch to see who the first pony is to make it to shore and will sell tickets to raffle off the pony later in the day.

Shortly after that they will herd the ponies and have a pony walk/parade on the road. People will stand on the side of the road and take pictures and videos of the horses coming by. For the rest of the week the horses will be in a pasture at the carnival grounds. When the carnival is held, there are games and rides everyone can play and go on and concessions where people can get food. 

Either towards the beginning or end of the carnival they will pull the winning ticket to see who has won the pony. At the end of the week they have the action. The action takes place at the carnival grounds where all the ponies are kept. The babies will be auctioned off, some are buyback, some are october pick-ups, and others people can take them home the next day. Buybacks are the babies that people buy to name them and then they go back to the wild, October pickups are the ones that are too young to leave their mom so they have to be picked up in October. People will pay anywhere from $1,000 to $20,000, maybe more, for a pony.

  Even when it's not pony week, it is still a fun experience. When people are on the beach they can be accompanied by the wild ponies or the ponies can be seen in the distance. Though I don't ride horses or know much about them, I still think this was an amazing experience and recommend people to go and visit.