Gabriel
by Caitlyn Carpenter

"Aww... how cute! A white pony! Can we touch him?" Those are usually
the first words out of everyone';s mouth when they see Gabriel, our little
miniature colt yearling. Surprisingly though, Gabriel was never supposed to
live to see his first birthday. Here is the story of the day we were blessed
with Our Knight In Painted Armor, Gabriel.

The evening ended like most evenings before: the horses with full bellies, the tubs with fresh water, and the sky with shining stars. It was 3 days after Independance Day, 2005, and we were happy that all of the horses
were finally settling back into their normal routine. Blueprints April Fool,
our miniature mare, was a very pregnant lady who was due in just about a
month, give or take a week. We walked back up to the house after feeding,
leaving April and Rebel (a miniature gelding who was there to keep her
company) to spend the rest of the night munching on hay and relaxing.
The next morning, I went out to feed like usual, but was greeted by a lonely Rebel. "Where's April?" I asked, but Rebel just stared back at me as if to say, "How should I know?" So, I began to scan the property and I finally found her.

She was in the far back corner of the pasture and as far as I could tell... she wasn' t pregnant! I rushed up to the barn to find the placenta in her stall. I inspected and was mildly relieved to find all four points intact and as normal as it should be. But, where was the baby? I searched all over the field, behind clumps of trees, underneath brush piles, in bushes... all to no avail.

There was no foal in sight. My mind went into a mild panic as I realized that April would not have left her baby under any circumstance unless something had gotten to the baby first. Gossip about coyotes in the neighborhood ran through my head as I realized that my greatest fear may be coming true. I ran up to April, hoping to find something from her that would tell me where the baby was. She was standing by a section of the fence that she often stood by, but this time, she was looking over it towards the neighbors yard.

"April, where's the baby?" She neighed towards the neighbors house. Hesitantly, I crawled through the fence and searched the neighbors yard, all the while thinking, A newborn foal can't possibly sneak this far away from his mama within moments of his birth! Lo and behold, curled up beside an air conditioning unit, there was the most beautiful foal I've ever laid eyes on. He was shivering and obviously confused. I picked him up in my arms and found that he was still damp. April hadn't even had time to clean him up. This little white baby had two deep-blue eyes that looked up at me and said, Are you my mama? I laughed and cried as I brought him to April, who promptly whisked him away to feed. I stood for awhile watching baby and mama introducing themselves to each other. Something unusual was happening, rather wasn't happening-- the foal wasn't nursing. I thought maybe I should give him a few more chances to catch on... he had been through some major trauma after all.

Two hours later, the baby was hopeless. He was searching for the teat but had yet to latch on. The veterinarian was called out and he rushed to get the colostrum into the baby. Milking April was the only option. The vet said that since our foal had spent so much time away from his mother after his birth, he had grown weak from not nursing and no longer had the strength to keep trying. Twice an hour, every hour, for that whole first day and night, we milked April and fed the little baby. Each time we went out, he was getting stronger and stronger. We were overcome with joy and triumph. Finally, after three days of hand-nursing the foal, he nursed on his own. It was a glorious day that was to shattered with one phone call from our vet. The blood test is back in.

The vet proceeded to tell me that our little guy had serious problems. His platelets and white blood cells were so far beyond normal, he didn't see how he was fighting infection at all. He explained that there was a good chance for him to develop an immunodeficiency problem. I thought, well, people live with this all the time, right, so horses can too, I presume? Not so, explained the vet: the little white horse will probably live through his first few months because of the protection from his mother's colostrum, but after her antibodies wear off, he will have no protection against infection or illness. And so began our journey of journeys. He was predicted to never make it through his first year and we were instructed to enjoy him while we could. 365 days of trouble-making later, Gabriel is acting like any colt his age. We are so blessed that this little guy had such a will to live. The unusual way he began his life will be a story we will tell for ages.