All the pretty little horses

Yesterday I came very close to causing an accident with the horses. Alan and Eleanor were more than gracious, but I still feel, 24 hours later, very shaky about the whole thing.

I was lucky enough to get to Ireland just as two of the four Ballinderry mares foaled. They both had colts, which is considered exceptionally lucky. Alan breeds the horses for the National Hunt. Ballinderry has had a long association with jumping races; our cousin Jasper is evidently something of a local legend in the breeder circles. There are four mares now at Ballinderry. In addition to the new moms, there is an old mare who has just been retired as a breeder. And there is Sybill, an eccentric horse who has so far resisted all attempts to break her. Eleanor calls her mad, and she does seem that way at times, frenetically galloping and whinnying in the big front field.

The foals need to be cared for like children. They are led to the small pasture, called a craft, one mare and foal at a time, each morning, and brought in each evening, or earlier if it is raining. There are visits from the vet and the farrier (not for shoes, as these animals who are always on grass or hay and aren’t ridden, don’t need them). Alan and Eleanor must clean off the foals’ bottoms, as Alan says, each evening, and Alan gives each of them injections of yogurt from a large syringe that he sticks in their mouths.

On Friday night the larger colt kicked Alan as he was being given his yogurt injection. This turn of events is some cause for concern, as it could mean that the colt will not be trainable; since the colt is half brother to Sybill, this is concerning. At the very least a certain amount of strength will be required to handle him. So on Saturday when it was time to bring them in, Alan and Eleanor were more watchful than usual. Satco Street, the older mare, came to Alan relatively calmly; sometimes she gallops from them and needs to be cornered in the field. He slipped the bridle on her and led her to the gate, where I waited. My job was to open and then quickly close the gate, since the young mare tries to go through the gate with Satco rather than wait her turn.

For some reason Eleanor did not stay back with the young mare as she had done in the past, which threw me a bit. As I began to swing the gate closed the large colt left its mother and headed back to the field. At the same time the young mare and her colt were crowding through the gate to follow Satco. Not knowing what to do I swung the gate closed to keep the mare in, but the large colt was now trapped on the other side of the fence and his mother went crazy. Eleanor yelled at me to open the gate fast, which I did, while Alan desperately held onto Satco’s bridle. The colt came back through the gate, which I this time successfully closed to keep the young mare inside. But the colt was enjoying his freedom and was not inclined to follow his mother to the stall.  ‘Get behind him!’ Alan yelled, and Eleanor moved around behind the colt. I followed her and tried to hold my arms out as I had seen her do many times to contain the horses. By blocking off the large colt’s escape route they were able to get him back with his mother and soon all four mares were locked in their stalls.

Eleanor phoned her brother Robert, a big man whose passion is tractors, to come and help with the yogurt dosage that evening. When I left he was just arriving. As for the colt, he will be kept with his mother through her next stud, which happens in about two weeks, and for the rest of the summer. He’ll be weaned in the early autumn, and Alan and Eleanor will need to make a decision about what happens to him and to the incorrigible Sybill, who must be on their minds as they watch this newest animal test their mettle.