A friend I hadn’t seen in quite a while came to visit
the other day. She greeted me perfunctorily and zipped out the
back door to the horse pasture, stopping
dead in her tracks when my old horses, Murphy and Dezi came up to beg.
“Well? Where is she?”
“Who?
They’re both there.”
“Where’s
the baby?”
“Um. In
Moorpark. Where she lives.”
My friend’s disappointment was palpable. For a minute I thought
she was going to leave. She had come all the way from the Westside and she
wanted to see a a baby horse, damn it!
I sort of understand. Lucy’s foal Faith, (registered name:Way Out West) is five months old, cute as
can be, and just naughty enough to be
charming.
Together with her BFF, a colt who is three weeks younger,
they are the dynamic duo. Or the terrible twins. It doesn’t matter; they are always entertaining.
And the word is out.
Since Faith hit the ground, people from hip zip codes all
over California have been making their way to Lucy’s field to oooh and ahhh. Even folks who usually argue that they can’t possible
travel all the way to the Valley because they haven’t had their shots, or their passport has expired, have been happily
meeting me in Ventura County.
I get it. Faith is that adorable. There simply isn’t a better way
to waste time than by playing with foals or watching them run around. If Faith and Lucy were home I’d get nothing
done.
As it is, I barely accomplish anything. When Faith was tiny I trekked out to see her daily.
Now, I’ve cut back to three times a week. Okay, four days a week. The thing is,
foals change really quickly. Every day something about her is different.
In the beginning Faith was all legs. She was also incredibly shy. As one of my friends noted, she was a wild
animal. She hated being touched and was skittish. She kept hiding behind Lucy.
I was in a dither
about getting her halter broke. I had visions of working with a full-grown
horse with no ground manners and a nasty attitude.
I shouldn’t have worried. By four weeks she’d come up to me
to get her throat rubbed if I sat on the ground. At two and a half months the farm owner/foal
whisperer Annaliese had Faith marching along in a halter like the show horse she is destined to be.
Now Faith and her BFF are such pests I never get to spend
quality time with Lucy. That will come. Much too soon in fact. To Lucy’s relief,
in about a month, Faith will be weaned.
She’s been eating hay, carrots and of course , peppermints
for a while, but still tops that off with a slug from Lucy’s milk bar. I
already miss the days when Faith was covered with milk from head to toe because
she couldn’t quite figure out how those confusing teats worked.
Astonishingly, Lucy put up with it all. Some of you remember Lucy from her show horse
days. To say that she had strong opinions was to put it mildly. Lucy was the
mare-iest mare I’ve had, and I’ve had a lot of mares. She bit me more than once, and wouldn’t
hesitate before kicking a horse in the arena.
But she took to motherhood.
After the initial shock wore off. At
first Lucy stared at Faith in shock as if thinking, “What the hell is that? And
what am I supposed to do about it?’
Lucy figured it out soon enough and from then on it was
smooth sailing. She became such a helicopter mom, and snarled at so many stable
mates, that she and Faith were moved from the barn to pasture within a week just to
keep the peace.
Originally Lucy wasn’t happy about having anyone near Faith.
She tolerated me primarily because I came carrying carrots and
peppermints. Bribes if you will.
Now Lucy is grateful to anyone who distracts Faith for a
minute. The babies are constantly all over their mothers – nipping and biting them and
trying to get them to play. Playing is something that does not interest the
mares. At all.
These days when I visit, if the babies aren’t passed out
sleeping,
I’m told that when the foals are yearlings they’ll go
through a ugly, gawky stage. It is true that a lot of the resident yearlings and
two-year-olds don’t have model good looks, but it’s hard to believe that my
perfect little Faith will ever be ugly.
Just in case, you might want to call me to get your visit in
now, while they are still picture perfect.
Don’t worry. I know who you’re really coming to see.
Sucg a sweet story! I want to see Faith, that lil' rascal :))))
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