P.S. to LOCKDOWN AT FALLON: RESURRECTED FOAL!

       P.S.
       On this last tour we saw more sick foals still in the general population pen, and we saw a foal resurrected from the dead!  I don't use exclamation points much, but this is exciting...

       I took the below photos of this sick foal on Thursday, June 10.  He looked sick and uncomfortable, and his nostrils were (still) encrusted with mucus. He is the resurrected foal; his name is Resurrection.   I thought he looked familiar... 

      ©Photo by Elyse Gardner   This photo was taken 6/10/10

    ©Photo by Elyse Gardner  This photo was taken 6/10/10

       Last week on June 3,  Dean Bolstad had informed us that Dr. Sanford had treated the below foal with  penicillin prior to our arrival.  In his followup correspondence posted on my blog last week, Dean informed us that this foal was found dead the following day.  Here are photos of the "dead" foal taken last week by Cat Kindsfather.

©Photo by Cat Kindsfather   taken 6/3/10

                     ©Photo by Cat Kindsfather taken 6/3/10

               This begs the questions:  So who died?  Apparently there was yet another very sick foal. 

               So who got the penicillin?  Did this sick baby get penicillin, or any treatment at all?

               For goodness sake, why are these sick foals still in the general population pen?  We will have no way to verify any information we're given because BLM has unilaterally decided Fallon is now closed to the public.  What are your thoughts about that?

   
©Photo by Elyse Gardner

                                 Another sick foal. I believe this is the buttermmilk baby who was having acute respiratory problems last week.  This week he had mucus and displayed signs of fatigue and lethargy.

               On this last tour we also saw a black mare trying to steal foals.  She did not have a foal in the pen.  It was a very sparsely populated pen with mare/foal pairs, and it was evident she was foal-less.  I have video of this I haven't had time or power to load  yet.  I am preparing for my trip to Denver, so I don't know if I'll have time - -it takes a good bit of processing time to put together a video, but I'll try.  

               But here are some stills I managed to shoot while shooting video.

               The foal is told to run ahead, and here the want-to-be mother is being told in no uncertain terms to back off  by a strong mother.  

©Photo by Elyse Gardner

             The black mare nearly lost her teeth in that encounter, so she chose to look elsewhere.  The mother of this next foal she went after was more easily intimidated and became very nervous but seemed afraid to tell the black mare off.  

©6/10/10 Photo by Elyse Gardner 

This is a different mare and foal.  Note the white socks of 

this mare on her hind legs.

      Why is a motherless mare still in a nursery pen? 

       I did not see the Kiger/buckskin mare, Wishful, from last week.  It is good she is out of the nursery, but what is happening with her?

      Time to get some rest.  

I remain,

For the horses, captive and free, and their humble burro friends,

Elyse Gardner