CHINCOTEAGUE, VA – JULY 25: Wild ponies gather after swimming across the Assateague Channel during the 93rd annual pony swim from Assateague Island to Chincoteague on July 25, 2018 in Chincoteague Island, Virginia. Every year the wild ponies are rounded up on the Assateague national wildlife refuge to be auctioned off by the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
A 14-year-old Maryland girl has adopted all 75 ponies from the Maryland herd of Assateague Island ponies.
The Daily Times of Salisbury reports Zoe Newman this month became the first person to ever foster every horse in the herd. The adoptions, which have cost Zoe and her mother more than $3,000 so far, are symbolic and provide the Assateague Island National Seashore with education and herd management funds.
Zoe and her mother, Sam Newman, often get up a 4 a.m. to make the three-hour drive from their Lexington Park home to get to the park by sunrise.
They've visited about 30 times over the past few years. Zoe first adopted an Assateague pony when she was 10 years old and used her savings on a chestnut pinto named Annie Laurie.
