There were moments that I thought it might have been easier to give birth to them myself!
It was back in late November when I started receiving the same email from a number of sources, desperately seeking adoptive families for some PMU foals in Canada. A deadline was fast approaching and without adoption, these foals would be slaughtered. I checked out the referenced website and couldn’t believe the numbers whose fate would be reversed if we could each do our part.
Sheepishly, I asked Mark if we could/should do this—the last thing we needed was more animals and especially horses, but…he said yes and I scoured the images to find a pair to bring to Rainbeau Ridge. Can you imagine picking horses based on website photos? Well after all this was a rescue, not a ride—and who knows.
After some back and forth and consulting with the rancher in Canada, I selected Remington and Raquel (their given names, not my choosing). They were 5 month old foals and they were ours! Well in theory. I paid for them; checked the website daily for their status; and I waited…and waited…until the loads could be formulated and transportation into the country could be arranged. The deal was that they’d be dropped 2,000 miles in this direction—you know what that could have meant? Kentucky!
So the good news and bad news—I waited 3 months for these logistics to be sorted out—it was out of my hands and every time it seemed like they’d ship, a truck broke, weather kicked in or I was going to be away…when it finally came time to ship them, they were coming to Dewart, PA (near Williamsport, and near a farm I’m familiar with so the trip seemed doable). However, they were expected in on the heels of the Valentine’s Day storm. And if you heard the news, the interstates in PA have been closed since! My plan of leaving from a conference in NJ and cutting the driving time turned out to be so far from reality—the incremental drive took a harrowing 7 hours—just a little longer than a round trip from NY on a good day.
I crawled into bed by midnight in my roadside hotel, woke up early and headed straight for the holding pen a few miles away—at 5:30am still in darkness. With the help of the truckers who shipped them, the two (now) weanlings loaded quite easily. We quickly locked them in before they could have other ideas. After all, it was less than 24 hours earlier that they finished their cross-country haul and if memory kicked in, I was sure they’d run off the truck!
Not having gotten a good look at them, I traveled the reverse course of poorly plowed back roads, hoping that the jolting and jostling wouldn’t kill my precious cargo. Much of the trip I tried to imagine what they looked like. The 2 second glimpse I had of them revealed a fuzzy coat that made them look more like bears than horses. I wouldn’t see them clearly until 5 hours later.
Pulling into our farm, I couldn’t wait to get out of the driver’s seat—Kevin took over and masterfully aligned the trailer with the paddock gate. It took a little coaxing but both horses left the trailer before too long and set off to explore their new home.
It was a scene out of Charlotte’s Web or whatever that other English pig movie was…All the animals on the farm gathered at their respective fence lines and stared at the new creatures. I imagine them chattering and discussing amongst themselves the pros and cons of the new residents—might they eat too much hay? Would they get all the attention now? Annie, a 2006 doe, was particularly curious—all those kids were until the horses came a little too close and all the does scampered—except for Annie! Zuke, the kitten, climbed onto the fence for a better view. Even baby Jesse (the 5 day old lamb) came out of his barn to check things out. Fred, the turkey, had to weigh in on the situation and came gobbling out of his coop and scared the you know what out of the horses!
It was only a short time before Remington and Raquel took off at a fast trot across their paddock—I prayed they wouldn’t skid on the ice—I suppose their Canadian upbringing prepared them for that. Their fuzzy coats glistened as the bright sunshine reflected off the snow. They settled in and munched on hay, guzzled some water, looked around and decided it might not be half bad at Rainbeau Ridge!
-Lisa
P.S. Here's one quick picture. There'll be more on the web soon!
wow...what an odyssey! they're lovely. i hope that they settle in.
Posted by: anon | February 20, 2007 at 09:00 AM