Wild Horses Catch Beachgoers Off Guard And Rummage Through Their Stuff

Beachgoers visiting Assateague Island in Virginia had to get out of the way of the island’s residents when a herd of wild horses joined them on the sandy beach. The wild ponies rummaged through the tourist’s belongings, probably hunting for some tasty snacks.

Assateague Island is a 37-mile (60 km) long barrier island located off the eastern coast of Delmarva between Virginia and Maryland. It’s also home to over 300 wild horses that arrived on the island several hundred years ago. Legend is the horses are descendants of survivors of a Spanish galleon that shipwrecked along the coast. But they could also be from local colonial horses allowed to run loose.

Nowadays the Maryland horses are owned and managed by the National Park Service and in Virginia, the Chincoteague ponies are owned by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Department.

Visitors to the island are discouraged from feeding the horses as they can easily get sick from eating processed human food. But as these people discovered, the horses just might invade your picnic or beach party anyway!

The video below goes into depth as to why there are wild horses on the island

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