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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Hello! Foal!!


So we had some big drama here today! This morning a mare next door had a baby, in the pasture, in the rain, with 4 other young mares there hassling her and her baby. From chatting with our neighbor, D, about this mare in the past we had a feeling that he didn't even know she was pregnant so we tried calling him but he wasn't home. A little while after I looked out and saw that the baby was walking into the electric fence and the mother was so distressed about the other horses she wasn't bothering to try to stop it. I thought that maybe if I went out and got close to the fence it might make her move her baby away from it so I went out. I brought some towels too, in case I could try to cover the baby. It was only about 48 degrees outside and drizzling and I was having flashbacks to Ali G having hypothermia. So, although I wasn't at all sure that our neighbor would welcome my intervention I couldn't sit and do nothing. I did get the towels on her back and they lasted for a few minutes succeeded in pushing the pair farther into the pasture and away from the fence.

We tried calling the school in the hope that they'd have an emergency number for D but after an hour more with no help on the scene we ended up calling the island's large animal vet who managed to contact D within minutes and soon enough he was running through the field with the vet and they quickly got a halter on mom. As they led the mother and baby through the pasture the other horses raced around like maniacs, they were obviously very excited though I don't know if it was joy or rage they were exhibiting.

Later on I went out to retrieve my towels and D came over to meet me. He said he'd had no idea that she was pregnant. In fact, she'd been bred but the vet had declared her not to be pregnant and they'd given up on the idea for this year. So he thanked me for calling around to find him and assured me that both mother and baby were safe and happy now that they were in their own corral.

Now we're watching a vulture and a bald eagle in a stand-off over the amnion which is still in the field, just across from our kitchen window! I've been trying to get a good picture but so far, no luck.

Never a dull moment here eh?

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