Six months have flown by since the last post. Bela and Sooner are now at Heeley's Pleasure Horses, being trained on the longe line, readying them for showing in the coming season. Both fillies are gorgeous, well-developed and good-minded. Handling them daily from birth has kept them easy to work with. They have good stall manners, are relaxed and display no bad habits - so far. Bela's leg is completely healed and she's totally sound. Aunt and niece love being together and show no jealousies...neither shows any aggression.
This is Sooner. Pic taken in January 2010.

So here it is, August 25, the summer, such as it is, fading into autumn. Bela has had an amazing recovery...until today, when she began limping. Could be just the hard ground and hopefully, nothing more that a day of stall rest won't cure. It's supposed to rain tomorrow so she and Honey can spend the day indoors and we'll watch her movement to see if we need to call Dr. Kelli. She's turning into a little beauty....well, not so little anymore. She's almost the size of Sooner, who's five weeks older. Registration is underway with the ApHA so Bela will be registered as Mighty Miracle Chip.

Dr. Kelli came to see Bela on Canada Day and pronounced her fit to go outside...in about a week, for about half an hour, once a day...to begin with. In a flat, grassy paddock where there's little chance of slipping and falling . So for the next while, this bundle of energy will be closely monitored as she's introduced to the outdoors ...for the first time since the beginning of June. More than half her life has been spent in that stall and she appears eager to get on with life.

It's almost summer and Bela and Honey are still stall-bound. Their stall has been extended to 12'x24' so there's enough space for them physically and mentally. Honey doesn't seem to mind nowadays since it's fly-free in the barn and she hates bugs. Give her feed and water and she's content. Bela's leg seems to have improved immensely, to the point where sometimes there's little evidence of a limp. By her antics, she's eager to get out in the wide open spaces, but that won't happen for some time yet. Luckily she probably doesn't remember being outside at all. So she's not missing what she doesn't know. We are now more optimistic for her full recovery.

Here's Sooner today, June 1, enjoying the tall grass with her mother. She's two months old and growing steadily. Still has a great personality, friendly and willing. She's bound for blue ribbons!

Bela update

It's June 1 and there's an unfortunate update to Bela's growth and progress. A week ago, she fell while acting the giddy goat and although innocuous at first, this tumble turned out to have caused what appears to be a break in a growth plate. To date, she's responded to the double-daily doses of pain, anti-inflammatory and anti-ulcer meds, and is able to get up and down on her own, but she'll require stall rest for three to four months and likely weaning much earlier than normal. If she does survive, it'll be a long and slow process. We're hoping her young age at the time of the break will be a positive factor in the healing process. Honey is getting a bit bored being inside 24/7 and tried to bite off my arm the other day. She got a mouthful of sleeve instead , but she's obviously ready for a good bit of exercise. And I think I mentioned before, she hates cameras, so it's almost impossible to capture any snaps of her baby.