Annual Chincoteague Pony Penning Auction To Be Conducted On-Line This Year Due To the Pandemic - What You Need To Know

  For the first time in 78 years, the Annual Chincoteague Pony Penning will not take place.  Normally, the Pony Swim would have taken place on Wednesday, 29 July, with the live Pony Auction of this year's foals on Thursday, 30 July, and the swim back to Assateague of the southern herds would have taken place on Friday, 31 July.  The pandemic changed that.

  The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company announced that the annual carnival and Pony Penning would be canceled to save the lives, and health, of the people wh would normally attend the gathering.  The small island, with a usual year-round population of around 4,000 (2,941 in the 2010 Census) has a large summer vacation population, and the week of Pony Penning can see visitors in excess of 50,000.  The emergency services for the area are stretched to the limit during the summer season.  The week of Pony Penning means the local crews have back-ups called in from all over the state, and the Delmarva peninsula.  This year, the members of the CVFC decided to place the safety of visitors above their much-needed income.

  The island of Chincoteague does not have a Fire Tax.  The (few) full-time CVFC employees and the EMTs are paid through income from the Annual Fireman's Carnival, the income from Pony Penning, and money-raising events that they sponsor - and donations.  The main income is from the annual pony sale and the carnival.

  The two on-line Facebook announcements from the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, the actual owners of the pony herds that run wild on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island, a part of the Assateague National Seashore in Virginia.

  The announcements, the first was posted on 28 June at 7:51 pm EDT, and reads:

AUCTION INFO! AUCTION INFO! AUCTION INFO!

For Immediate release

Charles Town, WV, June 29, 2020

For the first time since WWII, the Chincoteague Pony Swim and Auction has been cancelled. Officials in Virginia cancelled the annual event and associated activities due to Covid-19. The swim would have marked its 95th year.

The auction will be an entirely online event hosted by longtime Chincoteague auctioneer Tim Jennings and his wife, Cathy, through their company, SportHorseAuctions.com, LLC. “We would much rather be in Chincoteague, with our Island family”, said Tim Jennings, “but we are happy to offer our services with our online platform”.

Dates of the auction have been set, with bidding opening Thursday, July 23rd and closing Thursday, July 30. The dates were chosen to keep as much continuity as possible, since July 30th would have been the date of the live auction.

Prospective buyers will need to go to the auction website, and create an account. They will then need to request a bidder’s number in order to bid. Please visit the website at SportHorseAuctions.com for more information.

The SportHorseAuctions.com team produces North America's Leading Online Auctions for Horses. The management team pioneered internet auctions for horses and has produced nearly 80 Internet Auctions since 2012 boasting a high seller of $226,000.

Tim and Cathy are the industry's most experienced show horse auction managers. Our team managed more than 380 live horse auctions selling over 80,000 horses since 1978. Tim’s previous firm, Professional Auction Services, was the largest show horse auction company in the world, by number of horses sold for 15 years.
For more information, contact SportHorseAuctions.com LLC at info@SportHorseAuctions.com.

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Hello friends, I have just posted auction info in another post. The most important thing here is to contact SportHorseAuctions.com with your questions as they will be handling all of this for us. These are the same people who handle our live auction every year, Tim and Cathy Jennings. When each pony is listed, there will be ALL the information you will need under each pony like, age, if its a fall pick up, if its a buyback, if its a filly or colt, colors etc......…..YOU WILL HAVE TO REGISTER ON THEIR WEBSITE IN ORDER TO BID. Again, you need to contact SportHorseAuctions.com with any and all questions about the bidding process and what will be needed in order for you to bid.

****  On 21 July I will post photos of all the foals for sale - at the moment there are 62 available.  Some will be designated "Buy-Backs" and will never leave the islands.  All others will go to the homes of their buyers.  The CVFC Pony Committee will decide which foals - due to blood-lines, conformation, and/or color and markings - will be designated as Buy Backs.  Those will be noted. ****

Ponies at the Carnival Grounds 2019 - after the swim,

The day before the auction

2019 Auction of foals - hip 19, by Legacy, out of Surfer Princess;

photo copyright by Nicole Menta