Terry (the dear husband) comes to kennel while I was feeding dogs and cats to tell me he was going out to check the fences and to check the mares. Ok, see you later.....off he goes on the Kubota to do his thing.
It was only 15 minutes and he was back. He walks into the kennel and says, "I can't find the foal!!". Me, "What? We don't have any foals.Did Jim bring over a mare and foal and put them in the pasture and I didn't see him?" Him, "No, there's a new foal somewhere in the pasture and I can't find it. There's a placenta by the kestrel box and it's fairly fresh." Me, "Are you kidding me?! What do you mean you can't find it? You can't lose a foal honey, they're not that small and they're always right with their mother." Him, "Well this one is missing and there's NO mare running around screaming or giving me any indication that she's missing her baby." Me, "Seriously? Are you just kidding me?" Him, "NO, I'm serious. I'm going back out to look for it. Come out and help me." Me, "Ok, give me a minute to put the dogs in and I'll be right there."
I locked up the dogs since the mares can be very dangerous if a dog gets near their foal. As I'm putting them away and thinking about what to do next, I miss a very important thought....change your shoes. I had on some clogs since my plan wasn't to be out walking in a very steep gully, in a creek, or in ankle deep mud (we had been having rain for a couple of days). I head out the gate to the pasture and that's what starts the whole craziness for the next hour and a half.
It was a warm evening and I had on a large t-shirt and some cropped pants. I had been thinking about looking for morel mushrooms for a couple days but hadn't taken the time to do so. I decided that I could look for the "MIA foal" and look for morels in the sweet spot where I usually find them every year. It's a spot I have to pass as I start my trek down into the ravine toward the creek. Terry had gone off farther into the pasture to start his search of the creek bottom ravine. It didn't take long and I had stashed 10 very large morels in the bottom cup of my t-shirt.
As I walk down the hill no problem. But trying to walk up the hill in clogs with one hand holding my shirt bottom up and only one hand to balance, and it's been raining and there's no paths basically down in there. There are gooseberries, blackberries, and a number of other undesirable things to either walk through, fall on or grab including some new poison ivy growth. Ok, now I'm thinking a change of shoes would have been a great idea and time well spent. I just kept telling myself what good balance exercise this was and that I should do this more often but with the right footwear.
I didn't see or hear anything while down in that area but I did notice that it looked like the horses and been down in there and they never go in that area usually since they have a watering hole that is easily accessible a bit further into the pasture where the water pools up from one of the natural springs. I got to the top of the hill and decided to walk along the edge of the trees and listen and look for the MIA foal. Usually the foals are a darker color though sometimes they're almost white. I knew that the mares that were closer to foaling usually had darker foals so I knew it might be well camouflaged and probably hard to see now that the sun was going down and the ravine was getting darker especially in the bottom where the sun never reaches.
I had to cross a waterway that was really deep mud. I gave a big sigh and just decided that for safety sake, and so that I would be physically sound to go to work that next morning, I'd just slog right through it. Trying to walk on the high spots and or the rocks would be too dangerous (think clogs).
I made it across and as I topped the next hill what do I see on the other side but Terry holding a little foal in what I call foal hug position. One arm in front of the chest, one in back of the lower butt. He's panting, red faced, sweating profusely and looking like he's about to have the big one. He looks at me and says, "I've called Jim, he's coming to help me, you get in the Kubota and go find this baby's mother!". So, off I go as fast as I can to the end of the pasture to find the mares and try to "herd" them back toward Terry and the foal. I was so glad the little filly was ok. I was so afraid we'd find something we didn't want to like a dead or injured foal. So I was glad that both Terry and the foal were in a standing position.
I finally get the mares up by the gate where the foal is now riding in the back of a pickup truck, held tightly by Terry. We hope that the mare will call to the foal when she sees it and it will signal us which mare is the mother. Now I know you're all thinking how could we not know which one is the mom. But in this case, there were a couple choices that would have worked. There's one mare that looks and we're pretty sure is the mom but no sign of birth on her legs or tail and an udder that doesn't really make you think it's her and she's still fairly large. And one with a bigger udder and no signs of birth and but still appears pregnant. Of course hoping that one of them would quickly indicate the offending (aka deserting) mare by nickering to the foal would be to much to hope for. So off we go to the barn with the foal.
Then Terry tells me to go and get a halter. Halter? It's clear down in the barn, at the end of the barn. How about we try catching and leading the mare with this nice dog slip lead that I carry in the Kubota. Well, that worked but as they catch the mare and start to the barn, I RUN down to the barn and get a halter to put on her just in case leaving the herd isn't what she had in mind. She was good though and by the time I got the halter and got back to where she was walking with Jim, he just slipped on the halter and took her the rest of the way.
They get the mare into the barn and she seems to now accept the fact that we've recovered her foal for her. It was obvious that she had tried to get it to come up out of the ravine and had finally given up hope and gone off to eat with the herd out of instinct. Now that she had it back, instinct was kicking in again and she accepted it just fine. But, all that was happening in the barn while I was out trying to get the rest of the mares into the shed just in case we had the wrong mare and to be sure that we don't have that happen with another one that had been pasture bred the year before. They have to go down a little dirt alleyway to get into the building. That alleyway was calf deep mud from the horses slogging through it to get to their mineral and the water fountain and to lay on the hay out of the rain for the last couple of days.
As Jim and I got the mares into the alleyway we followed them up the alleyway to lock the gate behind them. As I got about half way down the alley, first one shoe and then the other got sucked off my foot. I stopped and retrieved the shoes and decided that I might as well just go barefooted for a ways until I was out of the deepest part. Now those shoes are also so slippery that when I put them back on, I think that I'm going to slid right out them.
We get the horses locked in finally and off we go to the barn to find that Bert has gone home for some oxytocin, Terry is trying to get the foal to nurse and the mare is finally talking to her baby. By now, time has flown since we're having such fun. I need to go and pack yet, take a shower to get off the stinking mud, and do a bit of paperwork things.
Let me say I love my new Mustee sink in the mud room (appropriate name of room!) and I spray off the shoes because if you let it dry, horse manure mixed with mud turns to green cement. So I also climb onto the counter, put my feet in the sink and hose off my legs and feet. I notice how tired my legs and feet are from trying to grip the shoes with my toes and from all the running and such. All I can think about is how much the cramps will hurt tonight when they wake me up. And guess what, I'm right. They hurt like heck!!
All in all I finally got into bed and with the cramp episodes managed to get at least 1.5 hours of sleep. I couldn't wait to get to work and my hotel the next night so I could rest and recover. I always get more sleep at work than I do when I'm home, wonder why?
As a follow up, the foal, which is in the picture is doing well. We were worried at first since the mare didn't have any milk and we didn't know if the foal had gotten any colostrum. But, the foal seems to be doing fine for now and the mare seems to be producing some milk for it. The next two days were followed by another two foals. When they finally get outside in the sun, I'll share a couple pictures of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment