| Hi, my name is Caroline, and I am a foalaholic. We have a farm near Port Royal, KY, in Henry County. We adopted 2 foals in 2000, Argo and Garnett, and had another belonging to a family member also being raised at our farm (Nikki). Plus, a foal was born to a rescue horse in January (Wind Walker, Arabian/TWH), and later, we got a wild horse and her foal. I feel we were lucky, having the foal born at our farm that winter. This gave us an opportunity to watch this mother with her foal, with the idea that we would be trying to raise a very young foal ourselves. We spent hours just watching. I had asked for no specific color, no specific breed...only that of the two foals, at least one needed to be female...we have enough testosterone at our farm! Very much on pins and needles waiting for 'the call', and wondering what type of foals would end up being ours. Finally, the call came in early April, a Kentucky Mountain/TWH filly born 22 March, and a SB/Palomino colt born 24 March. My son, Noah, and I headed south to pick them up. They loaded beautifully, and rode famously. This was going to be a piece of cake! Well...I was mistaken there! The foal that belonged to a family member was slightly older, and had been at the farm about 2 weeks already...and SHE ruled! My babies were being pushed around! We worked thru that, finally, and we had feeding on rotations. Now, this is the way to go if you have just one nite owl in the group! That is me, here. We had folks feeding before they left for work (Nikki's people), my farmer husband, Wesley, during the day, the folks getting off work that evening, and me in the late evening, and in the wee hours of the nite. Worked out great. The foal born on the farm's dam was so protective of her baby, that Wesley decided to wean her around 4 months...so she was added to our little herd. At about the same time, we got a wild horse and her baby from the Iowa plaines, and we split them up right after quarantine...adding the baby to the 'mini herd'. The babies were growing, so 3 would no longer fit into a stall comfortably, and here we were with an odd number...and they seemed to enjoy the close companionship during the nite hours of another body close. So, we pulled our little blind mini mare from her little herd to be a 'bud'. The foals seemed to learn so much from her...how to graze, 'horsey manners'...it was amazing to watch the development during this period. We throw in a Shetland mare. Now, she just ain't that friendly, so our foals learn the seamier side of life! Basically, how to read pony lips...how to back off! Again, a good lesson to learn.The wild horse foal is now gone, the family member built their own barn and pen and Nikki left, so we are now down to Argo, the Casey Creek colt, and Wind Walker, the rescue horse's filly. They outgrew the mini and Shetland, and I had some self important geldings in our other herds, so these two stood alone in the field. This past summer, late in the summer, the cows broke down the fence, and they and several of the other horses got in the field with our babies. We watched this, and everyone just grazed until they finally met...and they simply blended in. Shoot...they had all been living nosing each other over fences for a year and a half, so I supposed they really didn't pay that much attention to whether a fence was there or not. Cool. This is the herd they reside in today.Argo is halter broken, and does very well. Little bit of lunge line training, but not much...he still is not 2. He has been saddled with first a training blanket, then pony saddle, and now has a full size Western saddle cinched on with no problems. Now, I am not saying there were no problems from the beginning, oh...that first time was a picnic! But he has been fairly accommodating, seeming to trust that I will not harm him. Things have not been all roses by any means. Strangles got into our little herd...coming from a neighboring farm we believe, and we had mild to severe cases among our little herd. Argo's persisted for almost a month. He was never seriously ill, but he looked horrible with those huge boils. He was on close observation, with antibiotics being held unless they got quite ill...the theory that strangles is prolonged with overkill on meds. We did have to have a couple lumps lanced...as they were close to and above his eyes, and the vet did not want drainage harming his eyes. From the strangles point on, Argo seemed to lose ground. Some casual blood testing and examining showed that he was normal in all the obvious areas, but he was difficult to keep weight on, and walked with a slight limp. He was the only foal like this, and some layman research showed that he could perhaps just have been a slow developer. Last summer, he suddenly turned around, and grew and grew...the limp only shows very occasionally, and his weight just decided to stick to his ribs instead of never showing. This positive turn around has been ongoing ever since, and today, he is finally taller than Wind Walker, and keeps up with her spirited gaiting. He will sometimes slip into a bit of a gait himself, but it simply does not come easy to him, and he will never be sored into making it happen. There is something between Argo and me that simply is not there with our other horses. Some bonding that has occurred over our time together that I am not articulate enough to define in words, but I am sure that anyone who has raised a foal from such a young age feels this. He is from the first year of Casey Creek's nursemare foals, and he will remain with us for the rest of his life. I am proud that I have been able to be in this program with the orphan foals, and I encourage others to take a long, open minded look at what a relationship like this can mean in their lives. It has meant so much in mine. Argo's picture is on the front page. |
