Woman's passion: Photographing Chincoteague ponies. Her guidebook lists each 2017 foal

Darcy Cole discovered her passion for Chincoteague's wild ponies a few years ago while hiking in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island, Virginia.

Cole since then has made it her mission to document in photographs each new foal born to the Virginia herds, leading to a new business for her and her  husband, Steve, called DSC Photography.

"We were on the refuge to see the baby eagles and hike the Woodland Trail when we stumbled across Spring Roundup for the first time," said Cole, 53.

The April roundup is one of two annual roundups — the other is in fall — the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company, which owns the ponies, conducts in addition to the more famous annual Pony Penning in July. Health checks of the ponies are done during the spring and fall roundups.

Cole's serendipitous encounter of the Spring Roundup "may have been the first time we saw a foal on the refuge," she said.

After that, Cole went on a boat tour in 2013, where she got a good look at the stallion Surfer Dude's band.

"I was hooked. There is just something about learning that they actually have names that sparks a whole new level of interest," she said.

Those two incidents led to a whole new way of life for Cole, spending a lot of her time hiking on Assateague and taking thousands of photographs of Chincoteague ponies.

Blue Crab Treasures at 4080 Main St. on Chincoteague is the exclusive retailer for Cole's artwork, including matted prints, pony identification cards, calendars and a new item — a booklet with color photographs and detailed information about each of the current year's foals.

2016 was the first year DSC Photography created the booklet, "Foals of the Wild Chincoteague Pony Herds," which Pony Auction attendees last year found a useful guide.

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The foals are arranged by color and gender in the booklet, making it easy for would-be bidders at the auction to find details about them quickly as they are brought into the auction ring.

The booklet even includes an index of the foals by dam and another index listing foals by probable sire and dam.

It is also a useful tool to identify foals when they are in the corral at the carnival grounds after the Wednesday Pony Swim.

"And it's a great souvenir, too," said Sue Johnson, owner of Blue Crab Treasures and Cole's friend. Some people last year bought one booklet to take notes during the auction and another to keep pristine as a souvenir of Pony Penning.

The booklet resulted from more than 1,000 miles hiked on refuge trails by Cole and more than 500 hours spent walking and watching the pony bands.

Additionally, it took hundreds of hours to review and process the more than 50,000 photographs she took during the five-month foaling season, which Cole said typically starts in February or March and reaches a "flurry of activity" in May.

And Cole did it all over again this year to compile the 2017 foal guide, published this month.

"My life is 24-7 ponies now," she said.

The foal count as of July 13 stood at 66.

Foal season on the island "is my football and Pony Penning is my Super Bowl," Cole said.

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The 2017 booklet includes the first foal born this year, a filly born to mare Anne Bonny on March 5. Cole's photograph of the filly was featured on the Chincoteague Volunteer Firemen's Carnival poster this year.

DSC Photography and Blue Crab Treasures are both on Facebook.

Cole also has an online hiking journal, Bands of the Wild Chincoteague Ponies, on Facebook, where she posts frequent updates, including photos and videos.

"I always post breaking news," such as the birth of a new foal, she said.

The key to her success as a Chincoteague pony photographer is passion, Cole said.

"I think it's capturing your passion — I love my subjects so much ... When I cross the cattle guard to the northern herd, it's like being in heaven for me; it's an amazing feeling."

The Coles started visiting Chincoteague more than a decade ago and moved to the area from Maryland in 2009, after having lived in many different places during Steve's military career.

"When we first started coming to Chincoteague, it wasn't for the ponies ... It was for the beach and the lighthouse — I've loved lighthouses ever since I was a little girl," she said.

She also liked horses as a child growing up in upstate New York — she even owned a horse named Misty, like the famous Chincoteague pony that author Marguerite Henry wrote about in her 1947 children's novel.

Maybe that was a portent of things to come later in Cole's life.

Nowadays, it definitely is because of the ponies that she makes the trek to Assateague several days a week — her record is six consecutive days, and 60 miles in a six-day period, spent hiking the island to capture each herd member on camera.

"A normal week is two or three days hiking" and an average day includes 14 to 16 miles hiked, Cole said, noting she built up to that level gradually, starting out walking just 1 mile, then adding a mile at a time to her walks.

"The amount of work she does to do this is amazing," said Johnson.

Cole has even developed a checklist to aid her in keeping track of who's who in the Chincoteague pony world, where each animal has a name.

"There are a lot of weeks where I see every single pony," she said.

Still, Cole does not consider herself an expert. "Every year that I do this, I learn more," she said.

Johnson and Cole, in addition to their friendship and their love of the Chincoteague ponies, have something else in common — both women are cancer survivors.

Cole's pony photography passion is especially meaningful in light of that fact.

"This is a bucket list thing for me. I tell people that it would have been really a darn shame if I hadn't have survived to have experienced this time in my life, because this is the absolute best time of my life," she said, tears filling her eyes.

"I told a friend of mine, 'All I want is one foal season, start to finish' — I'm wrapping up my third."

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