Each Time, a Miracle

As busy as things are just now at my Ravenseyrie Studio Art Gallery on the village waterfront, I still make time to visit with the horses, even if it cannot be the long hours of co-mingling which are my luxury during the off season. I am stronger in the morning, more clear headed and enlivened by the coolness of the dawn and so during the summer months, this is primarily the time when I get to connect with the horses. Typically, in the evenings, after a tiring day at work and the 45 minute commute home on my bicycle, I've little left to give, save making a meal for Kevin and myself, and I only hike out to see the horses if we cannot spot them grazing in the open through our field glasses.

It is important for us to know that before night falls all the horses are accounted for and that there are no apparent injuries that might require our attention. When we are expecting a foal to be born, our diligence in checking in with the horses is even more pronounced.

With Ciente (our Kiger Mustang mare of Sorraia phenotype) having decided to skip a year for foaling, and with both Bella and Belina having delivered their foals earlier in the spring, this left for us just Zorita to complete her gestation and bring forth a new entity to the landscape of Ravenseyrie.

My 2009 calendar notes that Zorita delivered her filly, Segura on August the 21st and that she was covered (and settled) by Altamiro during her foal heat which started on August 27th, with no further heat cycles being observed. That would have her ready to deliver eleven months later on or around July 27th in 2010.

When a mare is still nursing the prior year's foal and nears the time when one expects a new foal to be born, I find it impossible to detect any changes in her udder that assist in helping pinpoint how close she might be to delivering. The diagnostics I work with in such a case then are limited to her overall bearing and behaviour, the shape of her abdomen and the tone of her pelvic muscles.

Sovina's Zorita, half-purebred Sorraia/half-Sulphur Mustang

When Zorita's calendar date of delivery was a little over a week away both Kevin and I heightened our powers of observation, and when a few times Altamiro's family band did not come into view in the open during the evening's grazing either he or I would hike out to find them and assure that all was in good form.

On Friday, the evening of July 16th, after having mentioned to Kevin that I believed Zorita's pelvic muscles had looked slacker in the morning, even though I was extremely exhausted, I hiked out to find the family band when they didn't come out into the open to graze as usual.

While walking out, the magic of the landscape altered my perceptions in such a way that all the human chatter lingering in my head from the busy day at the studio completely dissolved and was replaced by the sound of the wind in the summer grasses and the occasional cawing of Ravens and clattering of Sandhill Cranes. Everything moved slower, with a dance-like quality. Though I began my hike expecting to find the family band peacefully grazing with no foal born yet, midway through crossing the Scanty Field, I knew that tonight was different--intuitively I knew that when I found the family band there would be one member more than before.

It was a spectacular sensation...this feeling of "knowing".

Let's let the photos now speak for things themselves:

Zorita and her 2010 filly, born during the afternoon of July the 16th

It doesn't matter how often foals are born here at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve, each time it feels like a miracle...each time I am moved on a very primordial level as I recognize how significant and important it is that we have brought together these wonderful mares with Altamiro and can follow their lives on this special landscape.

These next photos are from the following day:

I have received emails from my friend Eva and also from Ruy d'Andrade's great-granddaughter, Constança who have both expressed a desire to learn more about our special mustang mares. I am working on a journal entry devoted to Bella, Belina, Ciente and Zorita for some time in the future. As dynamic and inspiring it is to revel in the charisma of our purebred Sorraia stallion, Altamiro--it obvious the mares deserve equal accolades, so I will deliver on that very soon.

"The unique thing about the Sorraia horse is that it is not a breed, but a relic; a horse which largely embodies the indigenous South Iberian wild horse, and the prehistoric form-III horse."

"The fact is, that we can find individuals among today's mustangs which resemble the Sorraia to such a degree that one cannot tell them apart."

"If horses mate who all carry many of the genes of a certain form, and live in an environment ideal to the needs of this form, it is only a matter of time until individuals result which represent that form completely."

--Hardy Oelke

(excerpts from BORN SURVIVORS ON THE EVE OF EXTINCTION)

Altamiro (left) and Ciente




Zorita's new filly, with Ciente in the background

Zorita and Altamiro's Foal Arrives

A newborn filly out of Sovina's Zorita (Sorraia x Sulphur Mustang) by Altamiro (purebred Sorraia)

When I checked in with Altamiro's family band this past Thursday morning, Zorita's udder had the telltale swollen tautness of essential nutrients at the ready. I thought she might deliver her foal later that day, or over the night. By nightfall, both Zorita's abdomen and udder were still full. Friday morning, I jumped out of bed, and while still in sleeping attire, I took the field glasses, ran outside and climbed atop the gate support to scan the western horizon where I could make out Altamiro's band in the dim light. Zorita is the lightest coloured grulla in our herd and easy to spot. When I focused the glasses upon her, I could see she had a light coloured form at her side! I went back into the house to get dressed and Kevin went out for a closer look at the new foal. By the time he got out there, the newborn was laying down, so Kev gave Zorita some alfalfa cookies and lavished praise upon her before returning to the house.

After giving the dogs their breakfast and quickly eating mine, I went out with my camera to welcome the new arrival. It was nearly half past six, the sun was up, humid, sticky air pressed heavily upon us and the flies were already an irritating presence. Most every photo I took was blurry, as the horses were constantly in motion, tossing heads and swishing tails against the invasion of the flies.


Judging by the look of the filly's navel, the cleanness of Zorita's hindquarters and the dry but not yet fluffy coat of the filly, I'd have to guess that Zorita delivered this foal sometime around 4 or 5 a. m.

Though it is extremely rare for me to travel out into the horse herds with treats in my pockets, Ms. Zorita knew that I had some for her and she walked directly up to me to claim them and receive her much deserved accolades for bringing such a fine, healthy filly into the world. I promised her I would visit with her again later in the day, and soon Altamiro directed his family off into the woods to outwit the flies.

By mid-afternoon, high winds and heavy rains came and while I was at work in the studio, admiring the vigorous dancing of the rain upon the lake, I worried a bit about how the new filly was handling such a torrent of chilly moisture so soon in her outside-the-womb existence. I thought about how most traditional breeding operations typically keep the mare and foal indoors in a comfortable stall for two to four days before turning them outside in a controlled setting. I wished to be up on the bluff, to see where Zorita and the baby were during this storm and I imagined them deep into the woods, protected from the worst of the elemental pummeling. I wondered if Zorita was missing the comfort of a barn, like she had with her first two foals, and for the rest of the afternoon, I was feeling a little strange--weighing the benefits of a snug barn against the tempering and nurturing that is so indiscriminately part of life in the wilderness.

Shortly before daylight was due to fade from the landscape, Altamiro brought his family up to the house for display and let them linger around here for about an hour and a half--something he hasn't allowed since he claimed his rulership over them earlier this spring. This made for some great photo opportunities, which I surely was happy to take advantage of.


The wet, cool summer we've experienced this year on the island has given the landscape a prolonged verdancy and my eyes cannot get enough of the wonderful contrasts between that lush green carpet and the lovely grulla colouring of Zorita and this fresh-washed filly.



Kevin and I are relieved and thankful to have the last foal of the year arrive in good form and to see that despite the intense wind and rain over the afternoon, both mother and baby are doing extremely well. I am also delighted to see that Zorita feels confident enough to share her filly with us--which already came up for her first touch of a human's hand.

I took some wonderful photos of the other foals and Kevin mingling with them, but will save those for a new journal entry in a few days. I cannot resist however, to insert one now, showing the fine facial features of Silvestre, Encantara and Fada--each showing that aristocratic Sorraia profile inherited from their sire, Altamiro. Such exquisite beings! They swell my heart with beautiful sensations...these horses bring such depth and wonder to our lives here at Ravenseyrie!