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Article - July 2002
In
The Shadow of Equus FOAL FUN STORY | ||
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After the arduous task of being born, foals just love to have fun, kick up their heels and do the stuff that is the universal code of behaviour for all mammals cradled in a rhythm of nursing, sleeping and playing. Once they've got the rudiments of leg coordination worked out, there's no end to the mischief they can run into. And since mom is never far off and packs lunch wherever she goes, take-out is just a five-second sprint from a foal's adventure playground. One of the very first games our foals always play is squeak-and-run. At first they run small laps around mom, letting out a high-pitched squeak each time they pass her nose. Lap-runs have a security-blanket advantage - at all times, mom can see and hear her foal while she grazes, and the foal can see her. As foals get older and bolder by the day and then the week, the laps get bigger, the runs gets faster, the squeaks get higher as do the legs as they toss them in high flying bucks or flick out tapering front legs gymnastically in lunging rears. Foals don't waste any time exploring their brand new world. But following a curious nose can lead to trouble. Weak fencing, loose wire, and obstacles that can trap or snare small feet are constant hazards to the free flying spirit of a foal. Foals have an amazing ability to navigate the smallest wiggle room to find themselves on the wrong side of a fence line. Curiously, they can never find the same wiggle room to get back into the field. The introduction of a mare and her foal into the horse herd is always a time of high excitement, curiosity and pushy, inquisitive behaviour. The melee triggers the traditional introductory run with the foal out in front, always with its mother and usually flanked by the dominant mare in the herd. The other horses cluster behind in a loose group. Usually the run is a quick, short sprint that is over in minutes. But one momentary turn in direction can lead dramatically from excitement to near disaster. When our little Thoroughbred colt "Socks" ran with the herd for the first time, he was sandwiched between his mother, Maisie, and the dominant mare, Fari. They ran just as his siblings had done in years past. The 40-acre meadow was cleared pasture grass with lots of open space for a safe run. On the north side was a wooded slope that was seldom used by the horses since there was little food and visibility was limited. |
For whatever reason that day, however, the herd disappeared in a swirl of dust down the slope and into the woodland. We waited for a moment, sure that they would reappear at any moment. But only a few emerged, then quickly disappeared back into the wood. We followed, expecting to see all of them emerge any moment. But what we found terrified us. Socks was firmly wedged at his hips between two young birchtrees. Leaping along, he had jumped between the two young trees that had rooted close together and were growing in a narrow "V". He'd gone straight through the middle and was now well and truly stuck. Close on either side of him were Maisie and Fari. Socks bellowed in fear and pain and we raced to him. The trees were young and still flexible enough for them to be pulled apart so that Socks could scramble free. He was shaken up but unharmed and he trotted off between Maisie and Fari, his sudden scare forgotten as he did another victory lap with the rest of the herd. But the incident sent a cold chill through us and our thoughts were filled with "what if's..." A wrong step, the slightest nudge in the wrong direction at the wrong time and a foal's life may hang in the balance. We were there for Socks and could solve the problem instantly. But what if we hadn't been? How often has a foal taken a wrong step in a wrong moment, leading to a disastrous end? How many wild foals have been similarly trapped to suffer a slow death or be eaten by predators? Foals are wonderful, beautiful, delightful little animals. But each is a blank page on which the experiences of life have yet to be written. Within the fun of running and playing are vital lessons that can be thrown in the face of any animal at any moment. Those lessons are the most important ones of all. They are about survival.
Read Margaret Evans' column "In The Shadow Of Equus" each month in The Pacific & Prairie Horse Journal |
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