Most mares find a quiet place away from the rest of the herd to give birth. Usually, the other horses are within sight distance, a normal expectation for a flight animal that depends on cues from herd mates for safety. Sometimes it takes days, or even weeks, for a mare to introduce her new foal to the rest of the horses. More often than not, a few hours of solitude to give the foal a chance to get steady on it’s feet and nurse are enough before the comfort of the group is required again. A wise stallion does not interfere with the distancing the mares seek to give birth and bond with their newborn.
I happened to be in the right place at the right time and witnessed a morning birth. The mare simply laid down among her herd mates and had a baby.
With the placenta sack still covering half it’s body, this newborn began his attempts to get to his feet.
After about ten minutes of testing gravity with instinctive efforts to stand, he relented and caught his breath.
In this moment, the mother licked and nuzzled her new baby paying particular attention to his floppy ears.
Within thirty minutes of being born, he managed to get one leg under all four corners, so to speak. Swaying unsteadily with his front legs propped stiffly out in front he experienced balance for the first time. I was struck by how thick his legs were; they were like posts. I have rarely seen knees that big on a newborn. Uneven terrain, gusty wind, and mother’s attempts to impede curious herd mates complicated his locomotion but he persevered as a flight animal must. Witnessing birth in a natural setting is intense because the hazards seem countless and the little victories essential.
This mare put a lot of effort into keeping a lot of distance between us. After some quiet waiting,
I got close enough to observe the foal’s distinctive nose bump and a strip that runs off to one side.
It looks like white paint was dribbled on his forehead and the bump on his hose forced the stripe to run off to one side.
He was probably born the day before this image was taken.
Evidence of a very recent birth showed the newborn was barely dry when the early morning sun arrived.
The brown colt is quite fuzzy and has unusual eye color; he seemed rather confident in his ability to navigate with his new land legs.
The mare had no problem with showing off her new foal to me which was a welcome difference from the other mare.
I love it when the mares and babies strike a pose. While I was enjoying watching this new guy, a mare laid down to give birth nearby. What an event-filled morning!
After what surely must have been a trying few hours for both mother and filly, they gift me with an image like this.
Emerging from the shelter of the trees, touched by the early morning sun, these two troopers quietly walk to a new resting place.
With their legs in perfect opposite synchronicity and relaxed manner they made an endearing parade of motherhood and new life.
A solid little foal, she was surprisingly composed for only being a couple of hours old. I was struck by how big her knees were/are.
Mingling with the mature mares as if she were a seasoned member of the club, this filly is completely nonchalant.
No signs of confusion or anxiety appear as she strolls amongst her superiors.
This new filly showed appropriate signs of humility when met with nods of domination from the mares she wandered too near; she was respectful but never seemed to question her choices.
She is immediately likable for her complete refusal to be seen as less than.
moxie | ˈmäksē | (also moxy) noun North American informal: force of character, determination, or nerve
” … The future was an infinite horizon over which the sun still glimmered its early morning promise.
Everything has a smell and every smell was fresh — the morning air, the sun on the bitumen, the evening rain.
There was just today and that felt like more than enough. … ”
– Richard Flanagan, First Person
(replace bitumen with earth)
Everyone welcome the first new That Herd member of 2020; a chestnut colt!
Deer and other wildlife mingling near the horses is a common occurrence.
The blaze-faced chestnut colt was a favorite of all the other foals in 2014. You can see him being lavished with attention by a few of his fellow herd mates in this trio of images. I went back to 2014 to remind everyone that there is lots of interesting content about That Herd that goes back for several years. Also, I should mention that I have lost the use of my computer as it is undergoing a costly repair (again). My photographic productivity is at a standstill. Fresh content will be coming along soon. We have 2020 foals to look forward to!
All of the mares, are hyper-vigilant with their new foals, this is certainly true for the first several weeks. Horses, being a flight response animal, are ever watchful for reasons to flee. Even suspect sounds or the slightest movements in the distance warrant consideration for moving away to a safer distance. I constantly find myself scanning the horizon and surrounding brush to identify what has caught the attention of the horses. As the foals grow in strength, size, and independence, the mothers are still available at a moments notice. This same behavior is true of confined, domestic mares with foals because motherhood is a strong, universal experience. However, in a free range environment, nature dictates the serenity of the days and nights, often in very unexpected ways.
You cannot close your heart to the things you do not want to face.
What if the things that end–the things that break your heart–ultimately lead to a better version of you? Tragedy brings resilience.
In the years that I have been observing That Herd there have been some losses. Birth and new life is a miracle when everything goes well, a heartbreaking tragedy when complications arise. Also, living a free range life in a wild environment has many unknowns and pitfalls. Sometimes accidents occur, sometimes predation, sometimes medical anomalies. I try to honor the existence of each new life with a blog post, or many, but when lives are lost it can become harder to share their experience and memory. Sad loss stories do not make readers feel good and the purpose of this blog is hopefully more upbeat. I take these losses rather hard, not just the foals but any loss from the That Herd family brings a change to the herd experience.
I usually post information and images about That Herd as a current chronological archive, but this is not one of those posts. Yes, this filly is gone but her short life was documented.
When they just stand there and pose like this, it’s a photographer’s gift. Born during a stubborn rainstorm, this filly spent the first week of her life drenched. She and her mother are basking in the warm sun on this day, the rainy weather long gone. By this time of the year, I grow weary of the incredible dryness and have to remind myself there was once green grass.
New foals in all their freshness bring thoughts of potential. Possibilities are endless when all of your talents are not yet formed. May all her strengths be mighty in mind and body.
“When I was five years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life.
When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’.
They told me I didn’t understand the assignment, and I told them they didn’t understand life.
–John Lennon
Every day the foals are assigned lessons in life skills. Some make the assignments bend to their unique disposition and I think they are “happier” for it.
She could have simply walked around the scattering of branches but she chose the slow route: sniffing, and touching, and nimbly stepping her way through instead.
From Day-One who could resist the dark, expressive eyes on this beautiful filly? Even now, a few years later, she retains the most beautiful soulful eyes. She’s a little older, a little wiser, but still brightly curious and gentle in disposition.
The growth of a foal is exponential immediately after birth. Not only their body tissues and functions, but their brains transition at an impressive, and necessary rate. These horses are quite comfortable with standing or running water sources. Even this colt, only in his first day of life, seems right at home in the water. Observing horses in water is always mesmerizing. Maybe this is because water is not a usual environment for horses and this makes them appear almost magical in that setting.
This is how you find these two foals, always together. The grey fell in love with this dark filly the first day they met. He has shadowed her ever since. Rarely leaving her side, he is a model of devotion. The mother of the filly tolerates his affections entirely.
An independent filly lazily follows the scattered herd through an oat field in the late afternoon. Her mother is not in sight but no matter, her family is the whole herd and she feels at ease with all her herd-mates.
Color genetics with horses is not without complexity. A new buckskin in the herd this year inspired me to revisit what I know about color genetics. Without getting into the science of it all and in the simplest terms, black and red are the two basic equine color pigments. A horse’s ability to reproduce theses pigments is an inherited trait, with red being recessive to black. Each pigment can be modified by other genes, including dilution genes. Buckskin color is black-based and a dilute version of the color bay, another black-based coat color. White markings are, simply stated, a matter of chance.