Shepherd Farm

This week, Wramona Q’s filly Quadrinity (barn name: Nina) was born. 

The most magnificent and moving experience for me on the farm is the birth of a foal.  In truth, the most precious time is the moment just after the foal has emerged from the mare.  It is at this time that all that is beautiful and essential about this earth is revealed.  As soon as the mare can see her foal’s head behind her, she will bend herself around and nicker deeply to her foal, in a low measured voice.  The mare will stretch her neck to reach her foal and brush her foal gently with her muzzle.  This first touching of mare and foal is so beautiful, so primitive and so moving.  Sometimes the foal, not fully born, will nicker back to the mare in a high-pitched plaintive squeal.  Other times,  the newborn will respond to the mare’s call by struggling mightily with minute-old legs to move closer to the mare. 

Once the mare and foal have found a way to reach one another, the mare begins the intense bonding process.  She smells the foal vigorously as if she cannot get enough of her foal’s scent.  She then licks and licks her foal from nose to tail, drying the baby and marking her new striving life.  This is the time, when if you watch closely and quietly, you can see the bonds of life forming.  It takes only minutes but makes a lasting impression.  After a few moments, the mare and foal quiet down and the two relax together, exhausted from the miracle of birth.  The mare is peaceful and quiet, and the foal is sleeping, twitching and melting into the crevice under the mare’s neck.

For the next several days after the foal is born, the bond between mare and foal is at its strongest.  The mare stands over her foal, touching the foal rythmically with her muzzle, wagging her head with authority as only mares do, and warning all to keep a safe distance from her newest treasure.  Like a metronome, the mare checks back in with the foal, touching the foal’s head, neck, and back. 

As the first week of the foal’s life comes to a close, the mare relaxes, the foal gains strength, unfolds and begins to assert some independence.    It is a beautiful process to watch.  Not all mares and foals engage in the dramatic bonding process that I describe here.  After foaling, some mares struggle with confusion, anxiety and nursing woes – but the mystery of each relationship and the process of discovery for each mare and foal is remarkable to witness no matter how the two struggle or glide through their first days together.