I'm invisible

The foal was born early Sunday morning and I spent all day Sunday watching over them and showing them off to friends and relatives all the way into Sunday night. My mom even drove down from Angelfire to see the new little one.

Lisa, my mom, and I finally had those strawberry daiquiris to celebrate. When I finally crashed around 10:30 PM, boy, I was tired! I must have been up over 40 hours!!

Well, Monday morning, I arose fairly early, around 6:30, and felt sort of refreshed. I had to go to school and run some errands so I left for town around 11:00. My daughter came out an hour or so later to see the filly.

I was sitting in class and I had a text on my phone from my daughter. She wrote, "Important, call me!" I left class and called her. She told me she and her friend had gone to the barn to see Annie and the filly and the filly was not there!

She was missing!!!

I couldn't believe it! The filly was only one day old! What could have happened to her? I had visions of her falling into the water barrel and drowning.

My mom went to get Lisa and her boys to help search and my daughter and her friend kept looking around the entire neighborhood.

Where could a tiny foal have gone to? They told me that Annie was standing silent in her stall. Scout and Nadia were interested and watching but they always do that.

I was trying to stay calm because I was 30 miles away and there was nothing I could do. I suggested that she had laid down and rolled under the paddock rails and to look all over in the barn.

My daughter called me back and said that they had found her. Lisa's boys found her standing in the stall next to Annie's, as if nothing had happened at all. But, she wasn't there when they first looked. And they didn't see her in the barn when they looked.

Where did she go?

I guess that she really did roll under the rails and because they were almost together Annie didn't get frantic. Or maybe she was getting tired of her newborn? Do horses get postpartum depression? Poor thing, she was still having huge contractions. Only Annie knows the real story.

My daughter had the huge chore of leading the filly out and around the barn to Annie's stall.

Whew! I give her enormous credit for a job well done. She wrapped her arms around the little body and kind of tugged her along, with the filly getting frantic at this point because they were heading away from her mama.

I did some research on Arabian coat color and I found some interesting facts. It is universally believed that the original horse was a drab little dun-colored fellow with a bay-type coat that could vary slightly as a camouflage measure according to the area in which he lived. I think Annie's filly has an invisibility cloak.

Today, at three days old, Lisa and I turned Mom and baby out in the big arena for some leg stretching. The little one was jumping two strides sideways yesterday. She was so cute, backing up to the fence and bolting down the paddock, wheeling around and running back. She definitely has her daddy's cutting horse moves and her mommy's racing blood. We decided she needed a bigger area to stretch out in and that Annie probably could use the outing too.

I have decided on her formal name. I think I will call her Kaheema Fantastka after her parents and grandparents. Her mother is Fantastyk Gal and her grandmother is Fantastka. Her father is Kakhem Sahib and her grandfather is Khemosabi.

I was going to call her Kheema for short but I have changed my mind. It reminds me too much of cancer (my husband died of pancreatic cancer) and the word, chemotherapy. Watching her run around and frolic so much, I decided that her barn name had to be special. I googled Arabic words for fast or quick and I came up with a common word for "let's go" or "hurry up".

Ladies and gentlemen, I'm pleased to introduce Yalla!

I'm invisible - song: Conversation Piece, artist: David Bowie, album: Heathen extras