A beautiful spring morning greeted us on May 11, 2016 along with a beautiful little filly out of Keeper. Keeper’s dam Josie was in the next pen waiting for her foal to be born. She was showing lots of interest in the new filly but then so was every other horse on the place. A new baby is a big event even for the geldings. We called her Oreo.
Another beautiful spring morning greeted us the next day, along with an elegant fancy colt out of Josie. All good. We left them all in their own paddocks for the day while we revelled in the happiness of 2 such nice foals.
That evening we let them out in the big paddock together. They knew each other well and had lived together with no problems.
The next morning we were greeted by Keeper telling us we had a problem. Mom Josie had stole the filly we called Oreo and advised Keeper that “Swap” who was really her brother was now her responsibility. Keeper was letting Swap suck but still really wanted her baby girl back.
We soon realized that we weren’t going to convince Josie that the filly she so adored was to be returned to it’s real mom. Keeper would take her but Josie wasn’t at all interested in Swap. So… we figured best that we just go along with the new program. Keeper settled in with the idea that Swap was her baby. Everybody had a good mom.
Luckily we had a whole day of watching Keeper with Oreo. Then a whole day of watching Josie with Swap. And… luckily we have DNA testing which confirmed that there had been a swap.
It all ended well. Both foals were raised by good moms.
A Life With Horses 