I was feeling kinda blue today… Do you ever feel that way? Sometimes you wonder about a lot of things and then you just get stuck and your mind starts to seize.
Well, actually, I hope that none of you ever get those days… but if you do, and if you are happening to have ONE OF THOSE DAYS today, I wanted to pass onto you what helped me today.
Through a roundabout way, I ended up on a website that brought me to two videos that lifted my spirits.
Here’s the story…
A young mare named Lacey was rescued from neglect by Equine Outreach in Oregon in February of ’09. She was young and totally blind. I’m surmising that the neglect made her blind but that wasn’t stated. In any event, she was young, neglected and blind when she arrived at the rescue. Sad.
A few months later, after much love, care and a new pasture buddy to be her eyes, Lacey was tested positive for pregnancy. Yup. The previously neglected mare had been exposed to a stallion before she arrived. Bummer. However, she had made a friend and life was good.
Luckily, by the time of his birth, Lacey was in excellent health and little Skylar was born perfectly on September 21, ’09. The feisty colt was very gorgeous and he stood within 5 minutes. Wow, great, eh?! Momma and baby got along swimmingly, of course. But, even more special, little Skylar seemed to know that his Momma was disabled and he looked after her.
As an aside to this story, quite by accident, Lacey’s original owner happened to come to Equine Outreach to volunteer. On her first day there, she saw Lacey and knew Lacey had been her daughter’s horse. The woman, Pat, had no idea that when she sold Lacey to her forever home, Lacey would be neglected and blinded. Pat was overcome with joy and grief. You see, the reason they adopted out Lacey was because Lacey belonged to Pat’s daughter who had passed. I’m sure you can imagine the emotion that came up around this horse and their mutual struggles…
Probably as therapy for them both, Pat came out often to walk with Lacey, ride her and then hang with her and the baby.
But, all wasn’t to stay well in this story. Tragically, on Thanksgiving, colic struck. It was reported that Lacey was hit so severely that she went down almost instantly. The vet was called but Lacey was already too far gone. The members of Equine Outreach were devastated. Pat was devastated. Lacey had really won over all of their hearts… What were they going to do without Lacey? And, most importantly, what were they going to do for poor little Skylar?
And then one of them had a brilliant but risky idea… EO had taken in a mare who survived a trailer rollover. The mare, Penny, had fully recovered from her broken ribs and was even willing to go into a trailer! Oddly however, she was lactating off and on even though she had not had a foal in four years. Hmmmmmm. Could this work? Could hope come out of tragedy?
The volunteers put Skylar, who had been crying nonstop, next to Penny. He was very interested in this lactating mare and she was not totally against the idea… After three days of them growing more close, everyone felt like it might be time to put them together. And, it worked! Not only did Penny accept Skylar and protect him, she let him nurse from her!
Wow. What are the chances of that happening? What are the chances of having a nurse mare on the premises who wasn’t nursing anyone else at the time? I looked up the meaning of the name, Skylar and found this: eternal life, strength, love and beauty. Hmmmm. Seems to fit the story, eh? Eternal life to his dam Lacey, strength to survive without his mother, the love of all the volunteers around him and beauty because he is a looker!
So, without more ado, here is the link to the video that brought me out of my “one of those days” blues today. Enjoy the happy ending!
Here is a second, very cute video of Skylar and his new Momma, Penny. This is very uplifting, too!
HORSE AND MAN is a blog in growth… if you like this, please pass it around!
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