The threatened piping plover birds also make their nests here. Several bird species call the island home, including the great blue heron, snowy egret, red-winged blackbird, brown pelican, American oystercatcher, and a variety of gulls, waterbirds, and raptors. The wild horses are certainly the main draw of Assateague Island, but the area is also well-known for birding. Since you can’t get too close, bring a pair of binoculars to enjoy them from afar. There are approximately 300 ponies and horses living on the island, and you’ll see them all over, from the campgrounds to the marshes to the side of the road. Horses might also get sick from human food, so it’s best to play it safe and avoid feeding them. Rangers can ticket you for getting too close to them. To avoid getting bitten or kicked, do not feed or pet the horses. Seeing the wild horses in Maryland in their natural habitat is a beautiful experience that truly feels like you’ve stepped into the pages of a classic romance novel, complete with great sunsets. They are resilient and adapted to life here.”Īs wild horses, they are tough by necessity, having learned to survive in a harsh environment with often extreme temperatures. They have lived for centuries on the island.

“These horses are wild,” says Liz Davis, chief of interpretation and education at Assateague Island National Seashore.

The wild horses in Maryland are in Assateague State Park. The Maryland herd is managed by the National Park Service, while the Virginia herd (called the Chincoteague ponies) is managed by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company and live in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. Wherever they came from, the horses are split into two herds - one on the Virginia half of the island and one on the Maryland half - separated by a fence along the border. However, the less romantic (but more probable) explanation is that they came from landowners in the 17th century who kept their horses on the island to avoid paying a fence tax. No one knows for sure how the wild horses in Maryland first arrived, but there’s a theory that they first came to the seashore on a Spanish galleon that was shipwrecked along the mid-Atlantic coast.

Assateague beach