Up the bay Pony Tours — Attraction in Chincoteague

We went out with Captain Mike on June 12, 2025. We were barely out of the harbor when we saw several dolphins. 🐬That never gets old! As we motored on out, it was looking iffy due to some pretty heavy fog, and Mike was debating on whether to hope for the sun to burn it off or head back in and reschedule us for obvious safety reasons since there was very low visibility. He made the call to go a little further out and see what happened. Within 3 minutes we came across Riptide's group of ponies! It was thrilling to see them in the mist and we hung out until the fog lifted and got an even more amazing view of them. Mike is fantastic! He's friendly, personable, fun, and knows so much about the pony herds and other Chincoteague wild life. He's passionate about what he does and it shows! We saw several ponies, including Norm and his current girlfriends. Mike told us poor Norm wasn't hitting it off with the girls for awhile, but now he has a small band of his own mares. We had a small group of four on the boat, me, my boyfriend, and two regulars he's known for awhile. He made us all feel included, asked what we wanted to see and worked hard to make sure we saw it. I will come back again and again. I tried to talk my boyfriend into another tour before leaving on Sunday, I loved it that much. 💗 We will be back in September or October and will definitely be booking another visit with Mike and the stunning ponies of Chincoteague. 💗 Up the Bay Pony Tours will definitely be a must do for us...

Up The Bay Pony Tours did not disappoint!6 of us on a beautiful new pontoon boat rushed out to one part of the island where Mike had heard the ponies were active. When we got there were deep in the woods, but they must have gotten the email as they came all the way to the beach. Was beautiful to watch the young foals, especially the one that was just one week old. In 2 weeks they'll all swim across the channel, for vet checks and the sale of the foals. The Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, who owns and manages the herd, maintains the herd size at about 150 adult ponies. The Fire Company controls the size of the herd by auctioning off most of the foals at the annual Pony Auction in July.

The rest of the boat trip was awesome, lots of water Birds, Pelicans, and a playful Stingray that kept jumping in front of our boat fully out of the water doing flips. Mike's knowledge of the herd, after having done this for 30 years, was wonderful. He explained how each of the stallions, by name, control their group of Mares. How the young stallions attempt to cut off part of herd and fight with the older stallions to take their own mares. He explained how they separate three groups on the island so as to prevent too much in breeding. All in all a...

After hiking Assateague Island and driving every inch multiple times without as little as a pony poo sighting we decided to hire the professionals! We were blown away by the results! Not only did I not get one mosquito bite, but I wasn’t even out of breath and I saw multiple different pony herds, a BALD EAGLE, dolphins, wild Turkey, Sitka deer, and all kinds of wild life that I can’t properly name! It was absolutely incredible!!! This is absolutely the way to view all of the island wildlife and we didn’t disturb them from the comfort of Mike’s high end newer pontoon style boat. It even handled the waves like a Cadillac and my kids that occasionally get car sick simply giggled when we hit some bigger waves. They loved the ride! The ponies were the highlight, of course. Multiple bands could be observed within feet of the boat. Their manes and tails blowing wildly in the wind as the sun shown on their shiny coats. A few prized babies that will carry on the legacy of the Chincoteague ponies were a pleasant sight. If we get the chance to come back we will definitely contact Mike again for another tour and fun adventure. It exceeded our expectations and this has been the highlight of our...