All of the horses that live on the property we are renting headed out to summer pasture a couple of months ago, leaving behind just one horse.
Rose is 13 or 14 years old and had never had a foal, before she safely gave birth to the newest resident of the property a couple of weeks ago.
With her beautiful long body, Rose did not look anything like the short and stocky wide-load that Dixie had been two years ago when SHE was pregnant.
And then the supposed due date came and went. No baby. No milk sac. A slightly heavier body but definitely not what looked like a heavily pregnant body.
A day went by and then a week and then two weeks.
And then one morning we walked outside and there was a new mother standing protectively over a sleeping new foal.
All was well with both of them.
The elderly neighbor lady who caretakess the property and watches the horses does not like Rose, supposedly because Rose is "mean".
Rose is friendly with people but instinctively needs to be the leader of the herd.
She eats first. She receives human attention first. She nips and bites any and all annoying horses within her domain who dare to forget that she is Leader.
I like her very much.
A sweet and affectionate and friendly horse. An Alpha just as Jamie is, as LC is, and as I am.
Which is perhaps why we all understand each other.
As LC and I watched the neighbor lady feed Rose and gently pet the newest addition to the horse herd, I realized that Rose is also a good and dialed in mother.................
These pictures were all taken while baby was still less than 24 hours old.
Two weeks later she is now a spunky, funny, kicking, bucking, running, tasting, steady-on-her-feet boundlessly energetic little girl horse.
Still un-named, LC and I have taken to informally calling her "Little Pumpkin".
I'll post up-to-date pictures soon.................
Horses make a landscape look beautiful...............Alice Walker
No comments:
Post a Comment