Page 52 of Pistol Perfect

“James! Where is it?” she asked immediately as her eyes landed on him.

He hurried toward her, pointing back to where the foal still lay on the ground.

“Oh my goodness,” she said, hurrying toward it. “It’s still alive!” she said as she got close enough to see it move.

“Yeah. But I haven’t seen it stand up.”

“Did you talk to the person who dropped it off? Did they say what was wrong with it? Did they give you any idea how old or what the situation is?”

“No to everything. I heard a motor, got dressed, and came out, and all I saw was taillights when I got downstairs. Maybe a dark SUV, but I didn’t see any note, didn’t see anything else other than this little guy lying right here.”

She was already kneeling beside the baby, and after lifting a leg, she said, “It’s a little girl.”

“All right. That’s good to know.”

“I guess we’re going to assume that this little girl either had her mom die, or her mom didn’t have enough milk for her, or something happened to her. Maybe her mom rejected her. Possibly she’s a twin, but she looks too big for that.” She talked a little more about what breed she might be, engaged in some speculation, all the while she took her temperature, checked her eyes, ran her hands over her body, and did all the things that he would never have thought to do.

“All right. I think the first thing I’m going to need to do is get some formula. I don’t have any foal milk replacer, but I know people who do. I’m going to send a couple of texts and ask if I can borrow some, then I’m going to send you a link, and you can order some for me. My wallet is in my purse hanging on the hook inside the door. You can use my card to pay for it.”

“I think I can pay for it,” he said, pulling out his phone. “I’m ready whenever you send it.”

“All right.” That’s all she said as her fingers flew over the phone.

Less than twenty minutes later, someone dropped off foal milk replacer, and Mabel had it mixed up and ready.

James supposed he shouldn’t be surprised to see a neighbor was not only up but answering their phone and ready to do a good deed. It made him appreciate his rural area as he stood with Mabel by the sink.

“Aren’t you going to put it in a bottle?” James said as he followed her back out to the foal, carrying the bucket of milk replacer for her.

“A lot of times, a foal won’t take artificial nipples, because we really don’t have anything that mimics her mom very well at all. But even a very young foal will drink from a bucket. We’ll try this first, and if it doesn’t work, I’ll need to go to Lark’s and grab a bottle since I don’t have one here.”

“I see.”

“Now, I’m hoping that we’re going to be able to get her to stand. I’m going to show you what I need you to do.”

“All right,” James said, setting the bucket down and standing beside Mabel so she could give him instructions.

“Horses get up by stretching their front feet out in front of them, and they put a lot of their strength on their front end, until they get their hind underneath them, and then they push up. So, I’ll be working to mimic that with her and stretch her front legs out.” She did that while she talked, and then she said, “Now, ideally, if I come back here to her rear and just push a little bit on it, lifting up some, she will hopefully get the idea and give me a hand, pushing up with her legs.”

“All right.”

“Now, what I’m going to ask you to do is to keep your eye on her. If she looks like she’s wobbly, see if you can help her balance. Maybe by putting one hand on both sides and just keeping her from tumbling over. If it looks like she can’t quite hold her own weight, maybe you could put a hand under her and give her a hand with that. We can feed her while she’s lying down, but I would prefer for her to be standing up. It will be less messy.”

He didn’t ask questions but positioned himself beside her front shoulders and stood there while Mabel worked on the rear end.

It worked just like she said, even better, since once the filly was up, it took her a couple of moments to balance, and then she gave a soft whinny and took a step.

“That’s better than I thought,” Mabel said with relief in her tone as her eyes tracked the foal. “But she is extremely skinny, and depending on her nutrition level, and whether she got any colostrum or not, there are a variety of problems that can crop up in the next few days to a week.”

“That would stink. Serious things?”

“Yes. If a horse gets an infection in their joints, which is one of the things that can happen, you almost always have to put them down, because they’re not really good for anything, and they won’t have a nice life.”

As she talked, she had gotten the bucket and dipped her fingers in it, rubbing them over the filly’s nose.

“She smells it. And look, she has her tongue out. She’s tasting it.” She giggled a little at the sweet little antics of the filly. “I put some corn syrup in it because that sweetens it just a little bit.”

“Horses have a sweet tooth?”

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