Dr. Friend administered some sedatives so that Blue would calm down. After the tranquilizers had started to take effect, we guided the filly to her long-overdue first meal. Even sedated, Blue reacted harshly to the filly’s presence. I’ve already mentioned that this mare has a quick-trigger rear kick… well, she put it to use and added some new dents to the stall door. More sedatives, plus securing Blue to the tie-ring in her stall, bought us enough time to satiate the foal’s appetite. All that to get a mare to feed her foal–things weren’t looking promising.

Exotic Blue’s filly at six hours old–she’s a big girl! The foal has started to prefer human company, here shown with co-owner Tabitha Dotson.

Blue started to regain her senses about an hour later (all those sedatives had made her kind of loopy) so Chris and I led the mare and foal out to a small grass paddock. We hoped that the new activity would bring the two together. We released them and retreated to give the horses some time alone to bond