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© Alex Wong/ Getty Images
Hundreds of spectators gathered yesterday to watch the 90th annual Chincoteague pony swim. For those of you who haven't read Misty of Chincoteague in a while, here's a refresher on why the ponies swim the channel from Assateague to Chincoteague Island off the coast of Virginia every year.


No one is totally sure how the ponies came to reside on Assateague Island—it is thought that they are descended from horses left on the island by farmers over 300 years ago, or possibly even descended from Spanish horses shipwrecked off the coast of Virginia (though many think that's unlikely).
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© Alex Wong/ Getty Images
Today, the herd population is managed year-round by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company. Every July, a group of volunteers called the Saltwater Cowboys rounds up the ponies and swims them across the channel from Assateague to Chincoteague during slack tide, where the ponies are auctioned off. Fun fact: the first foal to make landfall is named King or Queen Neptune, and is raffled off during the auction.
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© Alex Wong/Getty Images
The auction occurs for two reasons; to manage herd populations, and to raise money for the Fire Company so that they can continue to monitor the horses. The National Park Service limits the number of ponies on the island to 150, and the auction sells roughly 50-60 ponies every year, raising over $100,000 according to their webpage.
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© Coast Guard News via Flickr Creative Commons
The auction takes place today, and tomorrow the remaining ponies will make the return journey back to Assateague, where they will remain until next July.