It is very rewarding to be here with all the babies before they are adopted into their new homes, but it is also very hard sometimes. There are so many that come through that we would love to add to our family. You would think that with the ones staying for only a week or so, that we would not become attached, but that simply is not the case at all. As everyone knows, we adopted Santana Rose as our first foal. I guess we kinda cheated, not adopting two foals at the time, but Santana spent time with many different foals while she was growing up. She mothers all the foals that are in stall next to her. We have even caught her letting some of the foals nurse. Someone had asked us if we thought that a foal that was raised without it's mother, would make a good mother her self. We can only speak for Santana, but we think she would make a terrific mother. She is very gentle around the babies, which also includes the dogs, goats, and turkeys that wander into her stall. John frequently just takes a lead rope, attatches it to her halter, and rides her bareback.If we are in the field with her, she always wants to know what we are doing and help out when she can. Santana is full Quarter Horse and is rough to ride, so with Santana now being 3 years old and under saddle, we started to think about adopting another foal that would be a little easier on the backs and bottoms. :) When we got word that a foal was coming in that was just what we were looking for, we were very excited. She was a lot bigger than Santana, when she came in. A red and white spotted filly, with a loving spirit. We fell head over heels in love with her, in just a matter of minutes. She was calm, curious, and very loving. We named her Mariah, which ended up being "Mariah Carry Me Softly", because that is what we wanted her to do <G> Unfortunately, Mariah did not get to stay with us very long. She had an accident, which we still do not like to talk about and don't know if we ever will. It broke all of our hearts when she died. She was such a gentle spirit and I am sure that she is doing wonderful things on the other side of RainBow Bridge with the other foals that did not make it. We were really fortunate to have her for the short time that we did. There will never be another Mariah. After that, we decided that we were not going to adopt another foal for quite a while. I still get tears in my eyes when I think of Mariah. I had quit paying much attention to the other foals in the barn. It just wasn't in me. I used to go out and spend a lot of time with the foals. I would talk to them every time I went out, and I would always scratch them in their favorite spot. Mariah's stall stayed empty. On another trip to the Nurse Mare farm where Mariah came from they asked Ken how she was doing, and Ken told him the bad news. We did not know that he would tell another Nurse Mare Farm about our loss. One day Ken got a call from the other Farm, saying that they had a couple of foals for us to pick up, which was not unusual, but they sent one that they wanted us to keep. The farm told Ken that they were sorry about us losing Mariah, but they wanted us to take this foal. It was a foal that they were going to keep themselves, but had decided not to. We were not ready for another foal because we did not want to become attached to another one that soon. What if something happened? What if it got sick, or hurt? What if we lost it too? We just could not stand the thought of losing another foal that we loved so much. We were just not going to get that attached to another foal. None the less, Ken and John returned with the 2 foals late in the night. That trip is always at least a 10 hour trip, and this one was around 12 hours. We unloaded the foals, putting them in different stalls. We fed them, gave them milk, and tucked them in for the night. I hardly even glanced at the foal that stood in the stall, all alone. Over the next week, I still had not made friends with this new foal. I just did not want to become attached. I happened to be talking to a friend about the new foal, and she sent me a poem, along with some encouraging words of wisdom. Although it did not sink in at the time, I have now realized how selfish I was being. This foal deserved as much love an attention as any of the orphan foals do. It is not about me or us, but how much love and care that we can show a foal that has had eveything in its life taken away. I know all the Hollands feel that way. The newest addition to the Holland family has now been welcomed with open arms. We have named her Camille, and with John's smart remarks about how rough it is for him to ride Santana, we have decided on her whole name being Mercedes Camille. We call her Millie. |
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