Chincoteague ponies may be different than a typical domestic horse, but they're currently facing a very traditional horse issue: "swamp cancer." Ryan Marshall, Salisbury Daily Times


If you want to name one of the Assateague Island foals, you're going to have to pony up some cash.

Bidding is now open for the naming rights to a sorrel pinto colt presently referred to as N9BM-JQ. If you want the chance to name him, the rules are easy: Win the eBay auction (which ends at 9:08 a.m. Sunday) and name the horse as you see fit.

Of course, the name can't be a brand or any offshoot of the famous Misty, and it has to be approved by the National Park Service. Also, as Friday afternoon, the rights are already going for more than $1,500, so you might need to prepare to spend a pretty penny on naming this coppery horse.

The auction is being held by the Assateague Island Alliance, a Friends group tasked with supporting the national seashore's many endeavors. The money will go toward the wild horse management program at Assateague Island National Seashore. The Assateague horses in Maryland are treated like any other wild animal, but officials provide contraception for the horses among select other medical treatments.

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The problem is often that it can be difficult for the National Park Service, which manages the national seashore, to secure funding for things such as genetic diversity testing for the horses. That's where AIA comes in. 

"This program has been going on for a while, even before the Assateague Island Alliance was formed and took it over in 2008," Ashlie Kozlowski, outreach coordinator for AIA, said. "It's a good way to help support these horses.

N9BM-JQ, like all the Assateague horses, has an alphanumeric identifiers based on his maternal lineage. He already has a nickname, though — some people know him as "Bo-Giggly," a portmanteau between the names of his mother, Giggles, and his most likely sire, Bodacious Bob.

As Kozlowski points out, people tend to consider even wild horses to be rather domestic animals, so providing them with names just feels right. 

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As a result, people often wait for the point in the year where naming rights go up for auction and get excited about them. Prices often rocket in the last few hours of the auction, although they might not reach $7,900, the highest winning bid ever.

When the auction ends and a winner is decided, AIA officials reach out to the winner to learn what the name is, although names are not always immediately chosen. In past years, naming rights have been bought by groups of people to honor a family member or close friend or even given as Christmas presents.

Once the name is collected, it must be approved by the National Park Service, although Kozlowski says she's not aware of a name ever being rejected.

If you miss this auction, don't fret: It's the first of three this year. And since effective population control means horses are beginning to age, officials expect more foals to be born in the next few years — which means there will be many more chances left to name your very own Assateague horse.


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