Anyone who knows me at all, knows he is my four legged soulmate. I didn't know my heart was capable of loving an animal as much as I love him.
Leo came into my life at the height of some health issues I was (and still do) struggling with. I didn't know how much my soul needed this dog until I saw his face. I knew he was to be mine, and I was to be his.
The peace he brings me when I feel like I am spiraling, I will never be able to put into words.
Back on March 3rd, I helped my mother adopt a pregnant mustang.
We don't know much about her. Don't even know her age. All we know is she is off the Keller Range in North Central WA. From what I gather, there is a group of devoted people who work with the Colville Indian Reservation to protect and keep tabs on the herd and try to keep the herd at a manageable number for the land. When the population gets too large, some need to be rounded up and sent off elsewhere to keep the herd numbers stable. Necessary for the land, but this isn't done without some potential risk. When the horses are rounded up, if they don't already have an adoption pending, they are sent to various rescues or feed lots in WA. There are times when these horses can't get adopted by compassionate people, and instead get bought and sold to slaughter by horrible human beings looking to make money. Delilah, a pregnant mare, was rounded up and sent off to the Toppenish feedlot in late February. Luckily for Delilah, I saw her post via a FB page I follow that specializes in placing horses that are placed at these various feedlots.
My mom has always wanted to raise a foal. Ideally, she wanted to adopt just a foal and go from there. But when I showed and told her about Delilah, the opportunity to know and raise a foal from birth was just too good to pass up.
I helped fill out all the paperwork and such on the 1st and 2nd of March, and on the 3rd of March she was trailered in! Super speedy process. Seriously did not expect things to move that fast. Delilah had to come to our place because my mom's fencing wasn't intact, and everything happened so fast, she didn't get the chance to get it mended before Delilah was being trailered our way! But we agreed it would work well this way anyhow....my mom would have time to get all her pastures set up and fencing mended, and Delilah would stay at our place long enough for us all to enjoy the foaling process, then she and the foal would go to my mom's place. Solid plan.
Delivery went well! My mom came over the morning of the 3rd, bags packed to stay at our place. We had the round pen and stall all set up. I borrowed a tired for hay and a small water trough from the neighbor as well. Delilah arrived at 9 am. The people just backed the trailer right up to the round pen and out she hopped. No fuss or anything. It took her all of a day to settle in and feel comfortable enough to lay and roll. I think she was happy to be in a place she felt secure in and could just rest.
After a few days in the round pen, giving my horses a chance to meet and greet over the stall, we decided we would let Delilah out into the back pasture. At first, all seemed like it would be well.....until Ellie saw she was out in HER pasture and totally flipped. She chased her all around, kicking and biting at her. Ugh, it was awful. It took what felt like forever for me to catch Ellie and put her in the round pen so Delilah could have some pasture time with Maizy (who took to her right away). It was nice giving Delilah that pasture time, but Ellie created such a fuss in the round pen, we decided that Delilah would just have to be stuck in the round pen for the duration of her stay here. It would be too much work to always keep the two separate since Ellie obviously doesn't know how to play nice and we really didn't want Delilah to get hurt. Sorry, Delilah.
So time just kept chugging along. My mom was getting to know Delilah, everything was going well. She's a pretty chill horse, but doesn't want you around her hay. She was starting to protect her recourses, get more aggressive with her space, and bag up pretty well. Every day we thought "this will be the day!"....but no. Delilah had no intentions of having a March birth. It's not like we were getting impatient, but we were definitely ready for the show!
Finally, on Saturday, April 10th, it happened. It seemed like any other day. Cold, windy, normal. Delilah had given no immediate signs. My mom was off at her place getting some work done. Anthony was with her. Molly and Tim were inside the house. Sammy and I were inside our new tack room getting some work done. We had already worked all morning, and decided it was time for a lunch break. I stepped out of the tack room and saw Delilah standing there, tail cocked, looking a bit bewildered, and I yelled to Sam, "something's happening!!!" haha I couldn't believe Delilah was about to give birth!! I thought for sure she would do it in the middle of the night sometime and we would just wake up one morning having missed everything. How lucky were we to be graced with a day time birth!!
I called my mom, exclaimed into the phone to get to the house (I didn't even have time to tell her what for!...but obviously she knew), then began to take photos and videos. We wait forever and ever for her for 6 weeks, then here she is delivering so fast in front of our eyes we can't get our act together or get my mom here in time! But don't worry, she was driving fast, haha. In the mean time, Sammy ran up and got Molly and Tim so they could be there for it.
It was maybe 10 minutes from the time I stepped out of the tack room till her baby was on the ground. I got it all on camera and video. There were a few minutes where the sack was stuck over the babies head and he couldn't get it off....you could see it being inhaled into his nostrils while he tried to breathe. We waited and waited for Delilah to clean him up or do something, but minutes just kept ticking by. Ughhhh we were like what do we do!? We finally decided to have Sam ever so carefully jump into the round pen and cautiously yank the sack off of his head. I'm super thankful Delilah didn't freak out, that she layed still and let him do that. Maybe she knew we meant only to help. After that we just sat back and continued to watch.
My mom and Anthony arrived shortly thereafter. Delilah and the foal were still just laying in the round pen. You can't tell from the photos (but can a bit in the videos), but it was seriously windy, and at one point we even had a few snow flakes! I felt so bad because it felt like they were laying there forever, just staring at each other, baby shaking from being wet and cold and Delilah looking like what now? My mom decided to step in and try to towel dry the foal a bit. That got Delilah on her feet and interested in licking her baby clean and dry. From there things were golden. The foal finally dried off, figured out how to get on his feet, then figured out how to nurse, and all seemed right with the world.
Watching Delilah have her foal was an amazing experience! I keep thinking what if I hadn't stepped out of the tack room to go make lunch? We would have missed the actual birth and walked out to the foal already on the ground and been so mad! lol I feel bad my mom wasn't there for the actual birth, but at least she was able to get over quickly and be there for the rest of the experience. And she was glad I got everything on video. This was definitely an experience I'm glad our children could be a part of!
Videos!
At first we thought the foal was a filly, but on closer inspection we learned my mom has a colt on her hands. After trying on a few names, she settled on one I thought of: Maverick. Maverick is a cheeky, curious little boy....but Mama is very protective. At first, she wouldn't let him go near anyone. He would try to wander over to the side of the round pen to check us out (we are on the outside....we don't go in) and she would cut him off and send him the other way. Eventually though, Delilah lightened up a bit. Still protective, but once she comes over to investigate what Maverick is up to and what you're doing, she'll allow him to stay and us to reach in to touch him. I'm sure it'll be some time before my mom can truly handle him. Delilah is a wild mustang, after all. Completely unhandled. She is going to be weary of humans until she and my mom can form a trusting relationship. I don't think Delilah will be too keen on anyone doing anything with Maverick until she knows you mean no harm. Hopefully that won't be too far off for my mom!
At 8 days old, my mom's fencing was done being mended and she was officially set up and ready to have them move to her place. Our neighbor's let us borrow their truck and trailer for the process. It took a bit of time to get them loaded, but we managed. We kept taking panels away to make the round pen smaller and smaller. Delilah knew what to do, and loaded right up, but the sound of her getting in the trailer was so load, Maverick was frightened and didn't want anything to do with that scary lump of metal! Eventually he decided it was a good idea to follow his Mama into the trailer, and then we were off! I can't say Ellie was sad to see them go, hahahaha. Both horses were happy to have access to their round pen again, and I am equally excited to be able to work Maizy in the round pen once more!
When we got to my mom's place, which is only a 20 minute drive from us, unloading was easy-peasy. Sam opened the back door and out they went. They were so excited to be let out into a grassy field! Delilah and Maverick both pranced around, checking out their new home. It was the sweetest sight!
So there you have it. The story of Delilah and Maverick. It'll be fun to see them each time we go over to Grandma and Grandpa's place to visit! We are really looking forward to watching Maverick grow!
