| October's Feature Adopter |
| Hi! My name is Dandy, and I am an orphan nurse mare foal! Well, actually, I am two years old and will be three in the spring of 2003, so I guess I'm not a foal anymore! But in my human mama's eyes, I'll always be her baby! Oh boy, do I ever have the wool pulled over HER eyes! ;-) Anyway, she asked me to tell you all the story about how Garnet & I came to live with her. I was born on April 12, 2000. When I arrived, I was extremely windswept behind, and my dam's owner (the nurse mare farmer) seriously considered having me euthanized. I'm not sure what made him reconsider, but I'm guessing it's because despite my very crooked legs, I could leap and cavort thru the pastures with the best of them, legs a-flying every which way! :-) So, he decided to let me be, until the dreaded day when someone called him for a nurse mare, and he took my horsey mama away. :-( I was 4 weeks old at the time. That was a truly dreadful day, and I was devastated! He took my mama away and put me in a stall, all by myself. I didn't know what to think! I sat there all day and all night in that stall, with no one to comfort me. I was so sad and lonely and confused and SCARED, not to mention hungry! The next day, this lady came to visit me. She walked into the stall and immediately I KNEW I belonged to her. So I mustered every ounce of bravery I had, and then very deliberately walked across the stall and put my head in her arms...I wanted to make sure she would understand that I need her so badly! Guess what? It worked! She melted just like I hoped she would! She came back later with a friend (Aunt Caroline) and took me to her friend's farm. Then, after she had a couple of days to make the arrangements, she came and got me and took me to the farm where she kept her riding horse. She fed me milk and grain and hay and gave me tons of love and lessons and scratches and groomings, and I know she loved me, and I really loved her, too, but still....as time went on, I realized something was missing in my life. She didn't groom me like my horsey mama did. She wouldn't let me play horsey games with her--she scolded me when I tried to rear and bite. Geez, I was just trying to play! She would not put me out with the other horses because they were so much bigger and I was so little, and she didn't want me to get hurt, but I KNEW I was a horse and needed to be with other horses--I even proved that once when I escaped into the pasture with the big horses. Wow, you should have seen my human mama then, she really freaked out! Well, I guess that brought her to her senses, though, because she decided to find me a buddy. She called her friend Caroline, and Aunt Caroline agreed to let her 'borrow' Garnet, a nurse mare foal Caroline had adopted from Casey Creek, to come and keep me company until I was big enough to go in with the older horses. Well, let me tell you, when Garnet arrived, I thought I had died and gone to heaven! Wow, what a looker! (Remember, I was still a colt back then! ;-0) Plus, being born March 22, 2000, Garnet was just about the same age as me! But I have to say, she had a bit of an attitude, so I had to run around and act a little goofy to lighten her up a bit. Once she warmed up to me, we had the BEST times playing and running in the fields! We shared the same stall and it was such a comfort to have a buddy when it was naptime and during the long nights. It was one of the happiest days of my life when Garnet came to live with me! So...I spent the first year of my life hanging out with Garnet, her with me, and let me tell you, being a girl, she taught me ALOT. Girls are pretty smart, ya know? ;-) She is my BEST FRIEND, she will always be there for me, and me for her. In the meantime, my human mama was noticing that Garnet was becoming a definite fixture in my life....so....she decided to ask Aunt Caroline if Garnet could stay. Of course, my human mama also had fallen completely and totally in love with Garnet, but I don't like to tell too many folks that, because I am the jealous type. Thank goodness Aunt Caroline is an understanding human...she agreed that Garnet could stay with me, and these days I am happy as a clam in mud. Garnet, OTOH, is beginning to feel a need for 'female' connections, and this summer, she decided she would hang with another mare (Gypsy) that mama put out with us (mama said we needed a 'babysitter,' to help finish off our horsey manners, can you believe that??? LOL) Garnet and Gypsy pretty much hung out together all summer, while I kinda hung in the wings--I guess Garnet just needed to learn some 'girly' things, get some female advice, that kind of thing--but now, she is back with me. True friends til the end, that's Garnet & me! We were made for each other! BTW, my mama has edited my version of this story...to make sure I got everything right. She wanted me to also tell you, if you have it in your heart, please find the room there to adopt a NMF (or two). If you do, we both promise you will never regret it. There is a very special bond between NMFs and their human mamas and daddys. Respectfully submitted by, Jack's Dandelion Wine (aka Dandy), with special thanks to Garnet Moon (aka Garnet) for her valuable input, plus she helped me with my spelling and grammar--what would I do without her??? :-) ***** Hi, this is Dandy's (human) mom...I just wanted to add, the way that Dandy and Garnet came into my life, was pure fate. I had been looking to adopt a nurse mare foal, but the call that came in when Dandy became available, came not to me, but to a friend of mine, who was NOT looking for a NMF. She immediately called me, because she knew I was interested in adopting. To this day, I do not know why that nurse mare farmer called her, but it must have been some kind of divine intervention, because when I gaze upon my two 'babies' out there in the field, who are now two very lovely horses, it sure does seem like a miracle to me... Both Dandy & Garnet have enriched my life beyond my wildest dreams. There are few other things as rewarding as raising one of these orphan nurse mare foals. Debby |
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