ASSATEAGUE — Fans of the famed wild horses on Assateague will soon have an opportunity to get even closer, figuratively, to the island’s favorite residents with the launch of a new app that will help visitors and residents identify their favorites in the herd.
For the last several months, the Assateague Island Alliance (AIA), the friends group of the Assateague Island National Seashore which advocated on behalf of the island’s wild horses, has been developing an interactive app for cell phones and other mobile devices that will allow visitors and residents to identify the various wild horses by name, gender, the areas they tend to frequent and other pertinent information.
The wild horse population on the Maryland side of Assateague essentially has a soap opera of its own with various bands led by different stallions, the mares that birth the foals and the young horses themselves interacting with each other and their human visitors. Many frequent visitors know the different horses by their adopted names and distinct markings, for example, but the new app developed by the AIA this spring is allowing new visitors to learn more about the famed horses.
AIA Outreach Coordinator Ashlie Kozlowski said this week the final version is still being tweaked and will soon be ready for launch, but for the last several weeks, a test group has been working with the app now called Assateague Horse ID with great early success.
“We are currently in the soft launch of the app to a testing group and we’ve received tremendously valuable feedback from our testers,” she said. “We carefully selected a group of testers to include a wide range of users from varied age groups, types of devices and their experience with Assateague Island Nation Seashore and the wild horses.”
With the click of their cell phone or mobile device, a visitor to Assateague who encounters one or more of the barrier island’s famed horses will be able to identify the animal by name, gender and band to which they belong. The app will also provide other features including information on how the wild herd on the Maryland side is managed, where they live, what they eat and countless other features. Essentially, the app includes a catalog of all of the horses in the herd and clicking on it will pull up pictures and all of the other pertinent information.
“We are very excited about the capabilities and features available in the app,” said Kozlowski. “In addition to Assateague Horse ID allowing users the ability to identify and engage with the horses they encounter while visiting the island, the app has become a valuable and informative resources for discovering all aspects of the wild Assateague horses.”
While the soft launch test group has had great early success in using the app, there are still a few finishing touches to be tweaked before it becomes available for public consumption. When it is ready, which should be at any time now, the app will allow visitors to enjoy the interaction, from afar of course, with the wild horses during their stay on the island and beyond.
“These features allow users to identify horses before, during and after their visit to the island and engage with the horses as a cultural resource,” she said. “Final revisions have been submitted to address issues pointed out from the soft launch. For example, it became clear that the addition of a short tutorial made a tremendous impact on how successful users were able to accurately identify a horse.”
