A Walk through the Grayson Highlands

By Kitson

File this under “Y” for you learn something new every day. While I was interviewing a 12-year old girl this spring for a story that appears in the Washington Post’s KidsPost section today, Reed Gjonnes told me how she spent her 12^th birthday (in May of this year) at the Grayson Highlands in Virginia with “the wild ponies that roam around.” She and her dad are thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail which runs right through this Virginia park. Because it was her birthday, her dad, Eric, let her linger with the ponies before they finished the 25 miles they hiked that day.

Reed took a lot of pony pictures that day. "Thirty-eight to be exact and I'm not even kidding," she told me.

Now, Virginia and horses are two deep-rooted themes in my life. But I never knew there were wild ponies roaming a state park somewhere in my home state (aside from Chincoteague, of course).

“It was awesome,” Reed told me during our interview, “because you’re allowed to pet the ponies.” She went on to tell me about the pony who stole a candy bar from a hiker. Check out more about this wonderful Virginia State park and its wild ponies here and for a Facebook page with lots of pony pics click here.