WILD PONIES AT GRAYSON HIGHLANDS STATE PARK

The pine needles and dirt felt soft under my feet. I walked as quietly as I could. The scent of
evergreens hung in the afternoon air, and I breathed deeply from ascending the hill. A birdsong
caught my attention. I paused, listening, before I resumed my walk. I liked hearing birds, but I
was listening for another sound.

The path I was on led out of the woods and across the balds, rock formations covered with
grass and vegetation. Wind gusted over the wide hilltop, which was bare except for scattered
evergreens. Clustered beneath a few trees at the edge of the bald, I saw the reason I had come to
Grayson Highlands State Park.

A herd of wild ponies sheltered beneath three evergreens.

The ponies observed me calmly as I approached. They are used to visitors. The signs at the
trailhead had warned me that the ponies do kick and bite, but they merely shifted their weight as
I walked past them to get a different view of the herd.

Three herds of ponies roam

through Grayson Highlands
State Park and the national
park behind it, Mount Rogers
National Recreation Area.
Two herds belong to Mount
Rogers and one belongs to
Grayson Highlands, but the
herds often wander through
both parks. Roughly 60 wild
ponies total comprise the
three herds.

I was not the only who made

the trek to visit Grayson
Highlands ponies that day.
While I lingered near the
ponies, a couple crested the hill. A second couple followed, holding their dog on a leash.

The dog whimpered and barked, and several ponies walked toward the dog, their ears pricked
forward. They watched the dog and even stretched their necks toward him, but they never came
within reach of the wiggling canine.

Harvey Thompson, the park manager, said that the ponies lived on the land before Grayson
Highlands became a park. When the land was still farmland, Thompson said, Some local
farmers would bring their livestock up to the mountains to graze in the summer. According to
park literature, Mount Rogers State Park was formed in 1965 and later became Grayson
Highlands State Park. After the farmland became a state park, Thompson said that, Some people
couldnt afford to feed them or take care of them, so they would give them to the Wilburn Ridge
Pony Association.

Though the ponies live on park property, Wilburn Ridge Pony Association manages the herd. If a
pony is wounded, the park calls the Wilburn Ridge Pony Association. They also check the ponies
annually for worms and lice. Thompson emphasized that the ponies are still wild. Most of the
time, we let nature take its course.

From the moment I spotted the ponies, I knew that nature was taking its course. At least half of
the ponies in the herd were pregnant. Their round middles were swollen like a barrel.

The ponies will foal in May. Thompson expects fewer than 10 foals from the Grayson Highlands
State Park herd. Fabio, whose hair is a foot and a half long, is siring most of the foals for
Grayson Highlands. The stallion has sixteen ponies in his herd.

Michaela Mangum, an
Appalachian State University
student, was visiting Grayson
Highlands for the first time.
The ponies attracted her to
the park. Theyre really
cute, Mangum said. They
werent really scared of
people. I guess theyre
used to it, with all the people
that come up here.

Matt Miller visited the

Grayson Highlands with his
family. Weve never been
here before; this is our first
time. He and his family
were on vacation when they
heard about the ponies. We have four children, Miller said, and they wanted to see the
ponies.

Each fall, a highlight of the Fall Festival at Grayson Highlands State Park is the pony sale.
According to park literature, Wilburn Ridge Pony Association volunteers round up the herd and
auction any excess foals to maintain a consistent herd size.
The ponies are free to roam the park and graze during the rest of the year. We have them there
to take care of the negative vegetation, said Thompson. They eat the briars and the hawthorns
along with the grass. Once the briars grow two or three feet tall, it is too late for the ponies to
eat them, but the ponies graze on them along with grass when the briars are young. Thats their
resource management initiative, said Thompson.

During the winter, the ponies must find their food beneath an average of 5 to 6 feet of snow.
They know how to paw down, Thompson said. You cant bring a horse or pony from the east
coast and expect them to survive when they do not have the capability of knowing how to paw
down. Snow can cover the ground for two months at a time.

When I visited Grayson Highlands, some of the ponies were feeding at a pile of hay. We give
them a supplement of hay when theres a foot or more of snow, said Thompson. The hay was
left over from a recent heavy snow.

We really only operate about six months out of the year, said Thompson. Because of the
elevation, any fronts coming through, theyre pretty elaborate. Five years ago, I had white-out
in March where you couldnt see anything, 70 mile-an-hour winds.

Grayson Highlands State Park attracts roughly 145,000 annual visitors. 75% of the park
population comes from North Carolina, said Thompson. Some have come from Sweden,
Ireland, and Germany. Grayson Highlands State Park is the access point to Mount Rogers
National Recreation Area, which is the highest mountain elevation in Virginia. They just want
to visit the mountains, said Thompson.

As I headed out, a brown pony walked straight toward me. I knew from park information to not
feed the ponies, but I could tell that my new companion thought I might have food. The pony
sniffed my direction and then moved closer. I felt its muzzle brush my pocket before I started
back down the trail.