ASSATEAGUE — Supporters and enthusiasts of Assateague’s famed wild horses have spoken, and a new foal birthed on the barrier island last spring is now officially known as Polaris.
The Assateague Island Alliance (AIA), the friends group of the Assateague Island National Seashore, which advocates on behalf of the island’s most famous residents, each year hosts naming contests for the foals born into the herd on the Maryland side. Often, the contests are held as auctions through e-Bay, for example, and the naming rights go to a single successful bidder.
This fall, however, the AIA launched a different kind of poll to gauge the public interest in naming a chestnut filly born in mid-May to afford the entire community an opportunity to participate. The foal, heretofore, was known only as N2BHS-JT. Decades ago, the National Park Service began assigning alpha-numeric names to the wild horses on Assateague to better track to which bands they belonged and areas on the island they tend to frequent.
The foal born in May was birthed by Shasta and the likely sire is Chestnut. The filly is living with her mare and birth band on the north end of Assateague Island National Seashore. Throughout the last several weeks, members of the community and Assateague wild horse enthusiasts have been submitting name suggestions for the new foal.
The foal-naming team earlier this month winnowed the list of suggestions down to the five most popular. The five most popular name suggestions in alphabetical order were Gale, Little Chesta, Millie, North Star and Polaris. This week, the AIA announced the name receiving the most votes in the online poll was Polaris, which is synonymous with North Start. Hence, the new foal birthed by Shasta in May will now forever be known as Polaris.
Each vote came with a $2 donation and there were no limits to the number of times one could vote. For example, if someone preferred Polaris, which they clearly did judging by the results, he or she could vote as many times as they chose. If someone chose Polaris and voted 10 times, the donation to AIA would be $20. The public clearly embraced the concept at over $1,500 was raised during the AIA poll for the naming rights, meaning over 750 votes were cast.
Meanwhile, a separate e-Bay online naming auction for a foal birthed by Susi Sole was conducted last week. Money raised through foal-naming fundraisers support AIA’s mission to promote the awareness, education and protection of the wild horses on Assateague and its natural resources for the enjoyment of current and future generations.
