Wild ponies make annual swim

About 200 wild ponies made the annual swim to the shore of this resort island Wednesday morning as thousands of onlookers cheered them on.

The ponies hit the water at 10:52 a.m. and took about five minutes to cross the 200-yard channel from Assateague, a barrier island off Virginia and Maryland in the Atlantic Ocean, said Evelyn Shotwell, office manager of the Chincoteague Chamber of Commerce.

"Last year you could hardly see them under the water" because of fog, Shotwell said. "This year, it was just crystal clear. It just made a very nice picture coming across the water."