Tom Tilghman will be giving another Chappy history talk on Tuesday, August 4 at 7 p.m. at the Chappy Community Center. He remembers lots of history that some have never heard before and he loves to talk about it.
In the Chappy Ferry Book, there is a photo of a Tom’s horse onboard the On Time. That horse would have been one of the many summertime Chappy four-legged creatures that spent the winter on the big island. Many were taken care of at the Sweetened Water barn by local kids, my sisters among them. They would get up before dawn, bike to the barn to feed the horses and turn them out in tolerable weather. And they would still get to school on time. After school, they mucked the stalls and fed the horses again. Those horses had a charmed existence. They got curried, brushed, braided, hoofs picked and polished, tails combed out and given extra helpings of grain to keep them fat and warm during the winter.
When summer returned, they went back to their owners on Chappy. They were ridden down Main street, then onto the ferry on foot and hoof. Getting a horse to walk on the ramp was no easy task. Lots of coaxing and carrots were required. A snow shovel was kept on board the ferry to scoop up horse poop.
At Sweetened Water, they lived as a herd. Once on Chappy, they were split up amongst various households. Even though most had made the transition several times, they preferred their winter home to Chappy. The determined horses would bust out of their pastures, wend their way down to Katama Bay, swim over to the far shore and trot through the outskirts of town to their winter barn. I remember phone calls inquiring if someone was missing a horse. Some involved a description of one whinnying outside the door to the big barn or worse, leaning over a fence on Clevelandtown Road, pulling newly planted pansies up by the roots.
Often, they arrived at Sweetened Water before they were missed on Chappy. And if you became aware that your horse had escaped, the most logical course of action was to head in to town with a bridle and wait for the wayward critter to show up at the barn. Chasing a loose horse in town could lead to calamity. The best that you could do was hope that a bucket of molasses grain would be enough to distract them from their journey just enough so that you could grab their halter.
It’s not unusual for horses to escape from new surroundings and travel many miles to get back home. When it’s a horse that you know, it’s sad to hear them give a deep sigh as they are led back down the road away from their favored home.
This article appears in July 31, 2026.