Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Full Moon






Indigo came from Habersham County with a group of 9 horses that were going to slaughter. We were able to save them though a generous donor who bought them all 24 hours before the truck we coming to take them to Mexico for a cruel end to their innocent lives. Little did we know that a few of the mares were pregnant. Indigo was the last to foal. It was August 2010. She had a beautiful, healthy filly we named Patience. A college bound young man, Nicholas, slept in the barn many nights waiting for the birth. He named her Patience because it sure taught him to be patient!








I wanted to wean Patience from Indigo but wanted to wait for Nicholas to come back from college to help. He has a special relationship with Indigo. yesterday morning, we led Indigo into the trailer without much fuss. We drove 5 minutes to the 60 acre pasture that Indigo was familiar with. She spent a few months there when we picked up the Habersham group. We brought the pregnant mares to the rescue farm to monitor them and keep them safe.








Now back to Indigo and the full moon. She came off the trailer shaking. She may not have had good trailer experiences but we were kind and gentle. We took off her halter and she ran around the pasture with the other horses running behind her. All settled down in a few minutes. Everyone was calm when we left. Back at the rescue farm, Patience was calling for Indigo all day. 'Mom, Where are you?'. No reply from Indigo 5 miles away.








Pam went to the 60 acres to feed the horses. She didn't see Indigo at all. I thought she may be happily eating grass but I sent Bobby on the 4 wheeler to ride the land, check the fences and check for her. After an hour, still no Indigo. Then I got a call from the local restaurant owner, who is a horse person, that a black horse was seen on the corner. We organized a search party and everyone went in different directions. Wendall , Bobby, Judy, Brian, Brooke and me. We crossed paths and kept calling one another, no Indigo. I called the Sheriff and pulled over a police car to give them my number in case they get a call. About 10 pm, a call came that she was put into a pasture about 4 farms down the road. We ran back to the rescue farm and hooked up the trailer, grabbed some grain and a halter and drove back over to where Indigo was. We thanked the property owners. It was such a relief knowing where she was and that she was safe. It was dark and she was in a pasture with 3 bother black horses, As Bobby and Nick tried to figure out who was Indigo in the moving herd, they horses ran from the flashlight. We could see them in the full moon but they were spooked by us, the flashlight and that time of night. After an hour or so we decided to wait until morning and make it easier on all of us.




On the way home, I detoured on a back road. It was gravel with a tree canopy that was full and beautiful. As I went around a curve, there was a cow trying to get back to her calf. The mooing of both let me know she was missing her baby, like Indigo missed Patience. It was a full moon. I will think twice about weaning a foal again. It won't be on a full moon!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Yeah, that Patience is a little bugger ! She was running around the farm that day, driving Sweetie crazy ! I guess Sweetie figured she needed to follow Patience everywhere and so Sweetie got a lot of exercise that day. Funny things happen during the full moon ! Glad you guys were able to find Indigo ! Scary stuff.

Sue said...

What a beautiful story, Cheryl. Life is full of interesting twists and special messages from God.

Whatfield said...

I'm a little ignorant about things like weaning foals from mares but wouldn't Indigo have weaned Patience herself when she was ready?

Horseinc said...

It takes a mare longer to wean then sometimes we should. Breeders usually wean a foal from 3 to 6 months. Some mares will continue letting the foal nurse for well over a year. Some mares look poor because the foal is taking nutrition from the mare. By 3 months, most foals are eating grass and grain. We always wait at least 6 months and in this case longer.
They are both healthy.