Wild Ponies in the Grayson Highlands
Last fall I was doing some research for a trip to get some photos of North Carolina‘s wild elk herd out west in the Cataloochee Valley (that trip was wonderful, by the way – you can see the elk photos here, here, and here) when I stumbled across some references to a herd of wild horses in Grayson Highlands State Park in Virginia. The idea of photographing wild mountain horses really caught my interest, and Vicki and I had been talking about a trip up there for a few months now. Yesterday we both had the day off and the weather was perfect, so we loaded up Baby Huey and headed north for the Virginia line.
Normally when we go traipsing off on one of these photo expeditions, I do a lot of pretty detailed research beforehand. I like to know exactly where I need to be, and exactly when I need to be there to get the photos I’m after. I even use the sunlight function in Google Earth to get some idea of what time of day will offer the best lighting angles. I don’t like to make a trip and not get the shot, because then we have to go back – and there are just too many things I want to photograph to be doing the same thing two or three times.
The problem was that there’s very little information about these wild ponies available on the web. The park website, for example, doesn’t mention them at all. Seems like a fairly significant ommission, doesn’t it? Wikipedia has one paragraph about them, and that’s it. You can’t find any specifics, like where in the park the ponies hang out (it’s a pretty big park), what the ponies eat, or what time of day is best for seeing them. Over time I came to realize that the Virginia State Parks people would really prefer that no one mess with these ponies. I assumed this was because they didn’t want the ponies disturbed. The truth, as it turns out, is a somewhat darker affair.
So I went into this little expedition thinking it would be kind of like deer hunting, you know? Seeking a beautiful, graceful and elusive creature through the highland forest. I suspected my advanced tracking skills and knowledge of animal behavior might be called into play. I thought we might need some camouflage, and I packed my biggest zoom lens for the camera. I put my portable blind in the truck in case we needed it. I even thought about what kind of bait a photographer might use if he wanted to lure one of these magnificent but shy creatures into range for that one, perfect, picture.
Fortunately, when we got to the park, it wasn’t too hard to figure out which trail to take. There are literally dozens of trailheads off the main road, but only one of them, called the Rhododendron Trail, had a big sign asking people not to ‘molest’ the ponies. That was kind of a clue. We grabbed our gear and headed up the Rhododendron Trail and within half a mile we’d spotted our first group of ponies.
The ponies really are an amazing sight when you first see them. They don’t call the area the Highlands for nothing. The elevation up there is over 5000 feet, so they live in a landscape that’s sunbaked in the summer, arctic in the winter, and windswept all year long. Stunted trees, grass, and bare rock make up their entire world. In such a severe environment, it’s surprising that they survive and thrive, but they do.
There were 5 of them, 4 ponies and a foal just off the trail, and we froze and watched them as they grazed. I was scared to death of spooking them and running them off, so I whispered to Vicki to stay where she was, while I got out my camera and started shooting. I’d gotten a few decent shots, and was thinking about trying to sneak to my left for a different angle, when one of the ponies came trotting right up on the trail and headbutted Vicki.
Yeah, no shit. It just ran right up there and gave her a little headbutt. It wasn’t trying to knock her over or anything. It just poked her, basically. Before long two more of them wandered over and they started poking at both of us. At first we were stunned, then we were amused, and then it got kind of unsettling. These aren’t kittens we’re talking about here, you know? These are horses. Not huge horses, but horses nonetheless, and horses can get kind of rough. They kept nipping at Vicki’s pants legs, and coming up behind me and nosing my pack. We decided to try and get some distance and move on along the trail, and they got sideways across the trail and blocked us. Vicki tried to get by one of them and it reached out and bit her.
Once again, no shit. It bit her. Bit her pretty hard on the forearm, as a matter of fact. We’re lucky she had a long-sleeved fleece jacket on at the time, or it could have been pretty bad. As it is, she’s got a huge, nasty-looking bruise and a knot the size of a golfball sticking out of her arm.
See, the reason why the Virginia State Parks doesn’t put out a lot of information about these ponies isn’t because they don’t want them disturbed. It’s not because the ponies are elusive, fragile, beautiful creatures that need solitude. It’s because the goddamned ponies are mean.
Here’s the deal: For 60+ years, dumbass hikers have been going out there and feeding those ponies. The ponies aren’t stupid. They live in a harsh environment, with barely enough food to survive, and now when they see hikers, they think “Hey! Chow time!” They run up and start poking around on you, and if you don’t make with the Zagnuts, the ponies get pissed.
Molest the ponies? Right. Equine muggers is more like it.
Eventually they got the idea that we weren’t a pair of walking Food Lion™ grocery stores, and wandered off to ambush some other people. We cut them a pretty wide berth after that, took a few photos of a larger herd, and managed to make it back to the truck without sacrificing any major appendages. In the end it turned out to be a good day trip. I got some good photos of the ponies, and some pretty good landscape shots. Vicki might have a slightly different opinion of it though. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to ask her – at least not until she can use her arm again.
- Ken
What, no picture of the bite? Take it from me, who has to occasionally work with a 1000 pound plus cow who is not agreeable, a sturdy branch to smack right between the eyes does wonders, saves you, doesn’t really hurt them… In fact, I used to have an ax handle when I milked. I never had to use it though, all I had to do was carry it, cows are evidently as smart as these ponies!
We are waiting on it to turn yellow, green, black and blue. I did have my walking stick. I was just using it to get the other pony away at the time!
I feel your piece on the ponies unfairly portays them as hairy, four-legged mob bosses. Being a horse owner and frequent visitor to the horse trails of mount rogers and sufferer of my share of bites, I understand your ill feelings toward that particular group of ponies. But I have encountered, and bought enough of these ponies at the yearly auction, to know that in general the ponies mean no real harm.
Hey Jonathan, thanks for the comment – I do appreciate your input. Portraying the ponies as muggers was mostly just one of my usual clumsy attempts to be humorous. To be honest, the real humor in the situation came about because of the difference in my expectations (thinking we’d have to ‘hunt’ the ponies) and the reality of the situation (that the ponies would come over and ‘rough us up’ for a meal).
I did think I made it pretty clear in the post however, that I don’t blame the ponies. I blame years and years of idiot hikers who have trained the ponies to expect food from everyone that walks by. Having said that, I do think it would be a good idea if someone could come up with a way to warn hikers that they may want to avoid letting the ponies get too close if possible.
Thanks for your website. My family has a trip planned to the VA Creeper Trail and we wanted to “see the wild ponies”. I could not find anything (as you so well explain) so I was grateful when I ran across your site. Maybe with some luck and following the trail you mentioned we may get to see the ponies.
My wife and I went on our annual hike along the AT during the July 4th holiday 2010. We usually stay at our hidden campsite between Thomas knob and Wilburn Ridge. The first thing we noticed was that the grass was not heavily grazed like they usually are. These are the gaps and areas that the majority of people camp in. During the sunset show we usually find a rocky ridge and enjoy the scenery. While that was going on I only counted 2 ponies in the far distance. We also have a dog and he’s kept on a lead so that he doesn’t get into trouble with them but that didn’t seem to be a problem either. On our last day while hiking out we just so happened to run into the AT Ridgerunner. After talking about the usual info we inquired about the ponies why we didn’t see so many. He told us that approx. 20-30 ponies died over the past winter. That just broke our hearts since they’ve been apart of our hikes in the area for years. Granted, we didn’t get over to the state park area to see how many were over there but still what a sad outcome. I know it gets really bad during the winters at Mt Rogers so I could only imagine how bad it was. Brrrr!