We
were so lucky our neighbors have four horses. It was quite an ordeal when
they got the horse barn. It came in one piece on a long-bed truck, and it
was a long and difficult job to get it in place.
Finally
after slipping and pulling with a special tractor, the barn was in place.
The men are now placing a weather vane on top.
Of
course, the vane is that of a horse! It swivels freely to show the
direction of the breeze.
Not
long after the barn was up than a barn swallow came in to make a nest. It
was lovely, a picture of the nest in the barn rafters can be seen on the left.
Here
is Fancy, the lovely female horse. All four horses are wonderful to see.
Zeb the youngest loves to run and he starts the others trotting all over the
yard!
Here
I am with the two larger horses in a picture taken by my friend Kate. Maui
the male horse is an old and nice horse. He sometimes fights with the
other male Rocky. Mostly they play together. Zeb, seen on the right
is the youngest, but soon we hope Fancy will deliver a baby!
Rocky
is a little older than Zeb, but both are very young. We can hardly wait to
see the baby Fancy will have later this summer.
Well,
it happened! Our neighbor woke us up at midnight, Saturday June 5.
The baby was just born when we arrived, so he was born at the end of June 5, or
the start of June 6, as midnight is the common boundary of these two dates...
She named him Midnight Star because he was born at midnight and a star was above
in the sky. My wife and I were so happy to see this event. It was
very moving. The first picture I took shows how good a mother Fancy will
be. Her tail is wrapped in the pink material to prevent it from getting
into the placenta and to keep it out of the way.
Just
minutes later, Midnight Star is standing on his own! What a miracle, we
were in tears...
In the morning I went back to take some more pictures
of Midnight Star. He was with his mother in the field, he was so
happy. He would drink some milk from his mother, run a bit, then buckle
down for a little rest, even a nap. Less
than a day old, Midnight Star is tracking every move his mother makes. He
nurses and takes a lot of rest. He
is looking around his new found world. These pictures were when Midnight Star was
only 12 hours old...
Going
down for a nap!
Under
the watchful eye of his mom he sleeps. Fancy made sure he was close to her
at all times.
