Ponies? When I hammocked near Thomas Knob last May, I was awakened around 1 a.m. by a woman yelling for help. I knew there were medically trained people in the shelter (an army medic and an MD), and I heard people getting up, so I didn't go myself. What had happened? A herd of ponies had surrounded a tent and were bumping into it, and the hikers apparently panicked.
As others have said, the ponies are beautiful, very used to people, and not exactly aggressive but very insistent. At one point, with a pony nearby, I stupidly sat down to eat a granola bar, and the pony practically ended up sitting in my lap begging for a bite. I just rubbed his nose and told him I needed it more than he did, and after the last bite, he wandered off.