2011 Pony Penning Recap: July 29

Posted at August 10, 2011 // Chincoteague

This was our last day on the island, so we had breakfast and then headed into town for some shopping. I was on a search for the book “The Field Guide to the Chincoteague Wild Ponies” by Kelly Lidard, a book that has photographs and documentation of all of the current ponies that make up the wild herd on Assateague Island. It’s a really cool book – and a must for anyone who is coming to the island for the first time or wants to learn more about the existing herd. I was able to locate Surfer Dude, Boomerang’s maternal grandfather, and Witch Doctor, Boomerang & Blitz’s paternal grandfather in the book. The rest of their ancestors have since passed away. I’m excited to read more about the herd in this book, and I’m hoping to someday contact Kelly to see if she might perhaps have any documentation of when Minnow was a foal on the island. That would be so cool if I could find out who his parents were – or maybe even find a photo of him as a foal.

After a day of shopping we grabbed ice cream at Mr. Whippy and then headed back early to the Pony Centre. A bunch of the girls wanted Minnow to make them some special paintings before he headed home after the Pony Show.

Minnow painting "Flowers for Susan"

"Flowers for Susan" painted by Minnow - pony penning 2011

Minnow painting "The Lonely Oat"

"The Lonely Oat" by Minnow - pony penning 2011

Minnow & Kyley with "The Lonely Oat"

Minnow painting "Rogue Wave"

"Rogue Wave" by Minnow - pony penning 2011

Minnow was more the happy to offer up his painting skills as he painted away behind the Pony Centre.

Later he did one last performance to end out his week on the island, and his final painting sold after the performance.

"Seaside Happiness" by Minnow - pony penning 2011

Here are some shots of Minnow performing on his last day…

Since my dad and sister came down for the last two days of Pony Penning, I was able to get some video of Minnow while he was painting and performing. Here are some of my favorites:

Below is Minnow’s brand-new performance, which I call “Super Pony Picnic”, that he debuted at the Pony Centre.

When we begin learning a new routine we practice it over and over in the order that it is supposed to be performed (after Minnow has learned each individual trick). We practice it so much that Minnow learns what comes next – so much so that sometimes he starts performing the next trick before I’m even ready.

However, an interesting fact about Minnow is that usually during Pony Penning week he decides at some point to make up his own order of go – sometimes even adding his own tricks. I think he does this because he gets bored with the “routine” as we have it, so inevitably he decides to add on some of his favorites – and sometimes even taking out ones he doesn’t like as much.

One of these instances can be seen in the above video. Typically after I put on Minnow’s “scarf” he’s supposed to take it off – something that later in the week he decided not to do – instead he decided it would look much better if he got onto the pedestal (which was actually not in the performance at all until the end). When Minnow ad-libs I end up having to go with the flow too, opting to let him drink his hero juice while standing on his pedestal. We ended up using this adaptation to our performance for about half of the shows, and I actually liked it a little better. Minnow certainly keeps me on my toes!

And for our last video of the week, here’s a fun performance done by the World’s only Chincoteague Pony Drill Team – isn’t it fun?