Page 27 of There I Find Hope

She called him, even as she walked slowly closer to the mare. Matt didn’t have any horses that were exceptionally wild, so she talked softly, coming around to the mare’s head and touching her wide forehead.

The mare seemed to be in distress and also seemed to be exhausted.

“Hello?”

“Matt. You need to come out to the side field right away. You have a mare out here who’s having a baby. And she’s in some kind of trouble. I only see one leg.”

“Be right out.” Matt hung up, and she swiped off as well.

When they had the farm, she’d helped deliver more than a few calves, but horses were different, and she didn’t know what to do. With a calf, she knew they needed to have two hooves.

The mare didn’t seem to notice when she left her head and walked back to take another look.

Still just one foot. The mare seemed to be straining, and Sunday wanted to help but didn’t know what to do.

Upon closer inspection, she realized the mare looked skinny and seemed to be in rather bad shape.

Matt never let his horses get run down like that, and she wondered what was going on with this one.

She heard the four-wheeler before she saw it careen over the crest of the hill. Matt slowed down before he got to her, stopping some distance away, most likely so he wouldn’t scare the horse. He had a bucket of water with a lid on it and a few other things that he grabbed as he jumped off the four-wheeler.

“I called the vet, but she’s on call with someone else. What’s up?” he asked as he got closer.

“I told you. Just one leg. She seems to be straining, and she looks exhausted.”

“I got her from the kill pen and was told she wasn’t due for another three months. I just put her out here by herself, because she needed so much conditioning. I figured when she had her foal, it would need to be supplemented. But I wasn’t expecting it to come today.” Matt spoke as he moved around her back, then set the water down, and used a disinfectant wipe he had with him to wipe his hands and arms. “I might need you. My arms might be too big.”

“Me?” Sunday said, although she heard him well enough. It had been years since she’d done anything of the sort.

He didn’t bother to answer her but grunted as he ran a hand down the horse’s rump and used his other hand to carefully work his way down the leg sticking out to see if he could find the second leg.

“I need you,” he said simply.

Sunday didn’t question him, but grabbed a wipe, and wiped her arms and hands.

If it meant saving a life, she’d do it. She removed everything else from her head and focused on what Matt was telling her about feeling for the second leg and possibly needing to straighten it out. Telling her to make sure she felt the nose and that the foal was in the same position a cow should be as he came down the birth canal.

She heard him and did her best. The inside of the birth canal was wet and warm, and Sunday could easily feel her way up the leg they could see sticking out.

But as she made it halfway up, she could feel the second leg, twisted back.

“I’m going to have to straighten the second leg,” she said, carefully feeling to see if it was just twisted or completely bent around.

“I think you need to do it quickly, no pressure,” Matt said, and it was her turn to grunt.

She couldn’t work any faster.

“I think I’m going to need two hands.”

“That’s what I thought too,” Matt said.

They worked in silence for a bit, with her working by feel and Matt attempting to hold the tail away, stroking the horse’s side, trying to keep her calm.

He mentioned a few things that the vet had said, advice that she’d given, and he also said just before he hung up the vet had warned him that they might have to make a choice between saving the mare and saving the foal.

“Which are we going to do if it comes to that?” Sunday asked.

“I guess it will depend on the situation,” Matt said grimly. “My ideal would be to save them both. That’s the goal.”