Here's a breakdown of their diet:
* Grasses: These are the staple of their diet, making up a large portion of their food intake.
* Sedges: These are similar to grasses but grow in wetter, saltier areas.
* Forbs: These are broad-leaved plants like clover, dandelion, and plantain.
* Shrubs: In winter, when grasses are scarce, ponies may browse on the leaves and twigs of shrubs like bayberry and willow.
* Beach grasses: Ponies are known to graze on beach grasses, which grow in the dunes.
* Salt marsh plants: They also forage on salt marsh plants like spartina grass, which is especially common in the summer.
Important Note: While the ponies are primarily grazers, they do sometimes supplement their diet with driftwood and seaweed for extra minerals and salt, especially in the summer when the salt content in the grasses is lower.
It's important to remember that the Chincoteague ponies are wild animals and rely on their natural instincts to find food. They do not receive any supplemental feed from humans, except in rare cases when they are sick or injured.