New little Foal - Farm Friday

Over 11 months ago a stallion from a few farms away crossed the river and got through one of our fences.  We had to inject another mare that was on heat at the time so as not to fall pregnant because we almost lost her in her previous foaling experience.  We didn't know that this little foal's mother Laska got pregnant from that same stallion until a few weeks ago.  She's always been overweight so we were fooled.

This little frisky foal was born three days ago in the early morning.  We arrived soon after to enjoy these special moments of "foal imprinting" - to be with the foal so he becomes accustomed to the human instead of fearing them like most horses do.  Three days have now past and the boys have given him the name Frisky because he's so playfully, energetic around the children.  Little frisky is very confident, curious and playful.

[caption id="attachment_2307" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Curiosity"][/caption]

Yesterday this little foal was zooming up and around the children it was so sweet.  It won't be long before I will have to teach him not to invade our space but at the moment he's still so little.  I will also have to be more cautious with him around the children since you never know when those little legs are going to spring up in the air.

[caption id="attachment_2308" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Sania in a faraway place"][/caption]

After all his running around and excitement he lowers his little legs and curls up on the hay next to Sania, resting his head upon his lap.

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This was our first day with Frisky, comforted by our touch.  During this process of foal imprinting I scratch his ears, lift his legs and ruffle plastic around his body so he doesn't fear it as his mother does.  His mother, previously abused, is terribly frightened of the touch of a person, especially on her ears and to lift her hooves - she used to snort when she saw a bit of plastic.  We have spent much time with her to build her confidence when this could have been taken care of at birth.  Imprinting can be done on almost any animal.  I know it's been done to Rhino's and Elephants in Africa.

[caption id="attachment_2309" align="aligncenter" width="449" caption="Affection"][/caption]

Sania loves his little frisky.

[caption id="attachment_2315" align="aligncenter" width="533" caption="Too sweet"][/caption]

Little frisky enjoys the company.

[caption id="attachment_2313" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="Amnionic sac or the bag of waters"][/caption]

This is the amnionic sac that was left behind after the birth of the foal.  The mother licks the fluid off her baby as the smell is strong and in the wild can attract predators.

Below is a short video of our interactions with this sweet little foal and Laska, his mother.  Laska is a terribly frightened horse and it took a long time to gain her trust.  She is terrified of people. She has severe muscle atrophy possibly due to the local people riding her at a young age.  They begin riding horses around 1 year old when their bones are still soft.

The local people are not skilled in training horses and most training is done brutally.

I shall introduce to you some of the other animals we have rescued in my next post.