ECHO and MANITOBA

The chronicles of our new PMU mare and her foal

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My husband saw a news article about a shipment of PMU mares that had just arrived from Canada to a facility operated by the group United Pegasus Foundation. The news story told briefly of the PMU mare's plight and implored folks to come out and adopt them.

We has lost two of our horses not long ago and were down to one left, so had the facilities available to take on more. My husband suggested we go ahead and adopt one of the mares, knowing that she would have a foal shortly after her arrival here and thinking it would be cool to have a foal.. Now, who am *I* to argue when my *husband* offered to take on another horse!?

The mares available at the facility were mostly draft and draft-cross mares, and by the time we were able to go there, they were mostly spoken for. However, the UPF web site had thumbnail pictures from several different ranches of mares still available for adoption, so we picked one based entirely on a very brief description ("ECHO-10 Y/O QH cross, bred to sorrel paint") and the fact that she had a kind face in the thumbnail picture. Talk about going out on a limb! We knew *nothing* about her history; whether or not she was even halter-broke, much less ridable! We surmised she would be simply because the mares are handled enough to get them into their stalls for the collection season.

The Foundation let us know that she would be shipped in a few weeks, and they would contact us when she was available to be picked up. When we heard from them, it was late March, and I made the trip to Galt to pick her up with our 2 horse slant load, figuring I'd leave the divider opened to make it a quasi-stock trailer for her. I arrived at the facility to find about 20 acres of fenced and cross-fenced pastures and several rail-corrals, all STUFFED with horses! There must have been 100 horses there! Come to find out that there was a moratorium placed on shipping the PMU mares out of Canada due to their imminent due dates, so they were getting as many out as possible as soon as they could to the point of overloading the volunteers' places who take them in! Anyway, we found our mare in a pipe-panel stall with another mare. She was seriously underweight and covered with mud and feces. The ranch she came from, upon loosing their contract, had turned the horses out for the winter, so she had been foraging under the snow for what grass she could find. We herded her into the trailer with little trouble and got her home to her freshly scrubbed foaling stall, all the hay and water she could take, took some pictures and left her to settle in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Her spine is clearly visible sticking up, and each rib was noticeable even under the heavy winter coat! She explored her new stall and paddock.

 After letting her settle down a bit, we cleaned her up and took her outside to graze for a bit on our green spring grass. We discovered that she WAS indeed halter broke (thank goodness) and was relatively mellow. After getting her quite a bit cleaner, we were able to see her color: A lovely apricot red dun, with a dorsal stripe and some faint zebra stripes at her knees. We were also able to see her conformation quite clearly since her bone structure was so visible! She is actually pretty large, at about 16.1 and with quite heavy bone. While we know her sire is a registered Quarter Horse, we have no idea who her dam is, but we are guessing she may be one of the Draft cross mares common in the PMU industry.  

She tolerated a bath the next day, and settled into her routine of going out to graze for several hours each day, and coming in to be handled, groomed, and so on. We had the vet out to give her her shots and a once-over, wormed her, and showered her with care and attention. Within about a week, she looked SO much better! After her quarantine was up, we introduced her to our other horse and the 2 goats that share the pasture (those are Moony's companions, brought in after we lost the two other horses to ease her loneliness). My mare, Moony (the black Quarter Horse) was thrilled to have another equine companion! She was pretty obnoxious about establishing dominance though.

 

Echo gained weight rapidly and her condition improved very well. She looked like she was about to deliver twins, but on the morning of May 7th, she delivered her lovely red dun sabino foal we named Manitoba:

 

He has grown by leaps and bound in the ten days he has been here, and is (of course!) adorable! Echo is a wonderful mother, very patient with Toby and protective of him. We are continuing her handling as well as handling Toby every day, introducing them to life here with us!

 

Toby will be immortalized as a Stone model horse this fall, as a Special Run available through the model horse show I host every year called the Fall Fiesta!

 

This is a prototype of the Peter Stone Company model horse that is offered for sale as a Special Run for the Fall Fiesta Live Model Horse Show. This model is now available for order- see the show web site, then click on "Special Runs" to find out more! The show is a benefit for the United Pegasus Foundation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I took these pictures today, June 2, 2004. Toby is already pretty big, and hot and sweaty in our California heat! He is starting to shed some of his foal coat, which makes him look a little ratty, but he's still real cute!

 

 

That spot on his butt is where he rubbed it off. But here's a great view of that dorsal stripe and his big hips! He actually does have pretty nice conformation.

     Toby and Echo are both very settled in and happy to be at pasture, even if it is yucky brown grass now. Toby has already started stealing mom's supplement pellets! He has learned not to get too curious about the goats, since he got poked by April's horn accidentally when he was sniffing too close! Moony, the black mare, has also learned to accept Toby as part of the heard now, though she will get crabby if Echo is not too close by to defend him!

 He is still a very pale color, though I suspect he will darken just a bit as he sheds his foal coat. His white marks will become more apparent at that point. Right now, his body color is more of a palomino color, but with the red dun dorsal strip and mane and tail. He does have very faint stripes on his legs, but they are pale enough where they really don't show up in the pictures.

    

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