A Bond Between a Boy and a Horse
- September 18, 2025
- |
- Jan Swan Wood
Posted in: Featured, Horse Care, Ranch Life
We’d gotten a call to go help at a branding the next day, so my boy Colin went out in the pasture to catch his horse to have her in for an early start. His horse was turned out with the broodmares on the
hayfield by the house, so he headed out across the hayfield with a coffee can with some cake in it and a
halter.
About halfway across to the other horses, a mare named Josie came at a trot toward him. That she was
alone was odd enough, but she wasn’t generally one to come at a trot so he stopped and she came right to him. She was breathing a little hard and had a touch of sweat on her neck, so he realized quickly that she was getting ready to foal. It was her first foal so she was a bit concerned and apparently needed his
reassurance to continue.
As he petted her she flopped down on the grass at his feet and labor set in immediately. He sat down on his coffee can next to her and watched her progress. She stayed right with it, no getting up and down or any of that silliness. From his seat at her hind quarters, he saw feet emerge, then a muzzle. All was
presented correctly, he knew, so he rubbed her hip and talked to her while she rested a moment. When she started pushing again, he kneeled down and grasping the foal’s legs, put gentle pressure on it to help a bit.
Soon Josie had the foal out and lay quietly, resting, and letting the important transfer of blood take place. Meanwhile, Colin cleared the foal’s nostrils, as he’d seen me do, and was enjoying these first
moments introducing this little horse to people and forming a bond from the start.
When Josie finally got up, she got busy getting the foal cleaned off, periodically licking Colin too, and was sure happy with the little thing. Seeing all was well, Colin petted Josie one last time and took off
to catch his horse. As he rode back by he saw that the foal was trying to stand up, so he came on to the
house, not wanting to interfere with the process.
After putting his horse in the corral he came in the house and announced that Josie had a filly and that all was well. He told us all what had taken place and that the filly seemed to be nursing when he came to the house.
He and Josie had bonded early on. She wasn’t his horse, but her mother, Lily, had claimed Colin as her own since he was a tiny baby, so when Josie was a foal and Colin a very small boy, they had napped
together, played together, and been watched over by Lily as though they were both her foals, not just Josie. So their friendship had started early and it’s no surprise that Josie would seek him out when she
was distressed by this new experience she was having.
The filly was named Willow and when she was three, Colin started her. She started easily, trusting
completely the first person she’d ever met, never doubting his good intentions toward her. Like her
mother, Josie, if things were scary or uncertain, Willow turned to Colin for direction and comfort.
Generational bonding had sure taken place between him and the three mares involved. Now Colin’s
toddler daughter is buddies with the very elderly Josie, and Josie follows her around, head down, keeping an eye on her little friend.
Related Posts:
Posted in: Featured, Horse Care, Ranch Life
About Jan Swan Wood
Jan was raised on a ranch in far western South Dakota. She grew up horseback working all descriptions of cattle, plus sheep and horses. After leaving home she pursued a post-graduate study of cowboying and dayworking in Nebraska, New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota....