" Thanks for your messages on Miracle's Birthday"

Here I am again, this time I would like to thank you all for the support and the kind things that you have said about me, specially to Sue
My story begins at the end of February 2007 when I began to be in contact with Sue.  She was having some difficulties with one of her members of staff.  The person  wasn’t doing ” things correctly” and Sue was feeling disappointed. Consequently I decided to do everything that I could in order to help Sue. She had and still continues to have a lot of patience with me because like everyone I have my faults and different habits!  Spanish ones!
When I arrived at NearlyHeaven the only words I spoke were, “Hello" and "Thanks”!  I was so nervous that I wasn’t able to speak to Sue as I would have liked to.  However, thanks to her I feel that my personality has changed and in fact, I now feel like a different person.
The only thing I can say to her is that I will be eternally thankful to her for opening the doors of her house to me.   She has become like my second mother and I will always be by her side because everything I am is because of her.
Once again, thank you very much Sue and do you know what?  I am proud to be in a place like this but the most important thing for me is to be surrounded by people like you.
Thank you for filling my life with smiles
Love,
Your Difficult One

Lucia

"Happy Birthday Miracle " you have survived against all the odds!

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

 

I am going to tell you the history of my Miracle a little Thoroughbred foal,he was born one year ago today  and poor thing, he did not imagine that he was coming into a  world full of joy and pain, the pain immediately arrived when Cassie his mother became really ill after his birth and we could not do anything to maintain her life without her suffering terribly.Cassie" or to use her registered name "Greenham Gal" was the proud mother of nine foals, some of whom are now top international 3 day eventers in the UK.

"Cassie" had been "barren" for numerous years and three different veterinary surgeons had told us that she was unable to have any more foals.

She proved us wrong and secretly became pregnant at the ripe old age of 23 years.

During the previous 11 months she had been boarding at the next door farm with lots of other female horses, however she had a secret, she was pregnant by her grandson who was only 2 years old at the date of this" immaculate conception".

Poor "Cassie" she had a very difficult birth but her eyes lit up at the sight of her new born foal.Sue immediately named him "Miracle" and he certainly has lived up to his name.

From the birth Cassie had virtually no milk and she was very uncomfortable and looked so very sad.

 I think that she knew that something was wrong with her because of the look in her eyes, I made her the promise that I would look after her foal.

 This was truly painful for me, because I never have been so close and attached to a horse like I had been with Cassie.

She was constantly sick and in need of huge doses of antibiotics and she was not improving.She loved her baby so very much and tried to show him that she loved him even when she was really ill.

 

 

 She knew that we were helping her and that something serious was wrong with her.

 Her face told us the story. Three weeks after Miracle was born , it happened, one day she went to heaven and left us  with a very special memory of her ,a gorgeous colt.

Poor "Miracle" he cried and cried for his mother and it truly broke our hearts.

 

At this dreadful  time I decided that I would look after "Miracle "as if he was my baby,therefore I began feeding him first every 30 minutes day and night, and then increasing the time after that  to every three hours day and night .At first he sucked from  a syringe then he was able to drink from a bottle and finally from  the bucket, consequently it gave me very little  freedom!

However it was wonderfully satisfying to help him stay alive!

 

 

It was very difficult to let him behave like a horse because he was my baby and he was following me everywhere, he now believed that I was his mother and that he was a human,in fact, he was trying to come with me inside the caravan, washing room, or even trying to come up the stairs with me hahaha !

He had a silly trick of taking the zip of my coat in his teeth and opening and closing this zip all the time ( it was a toy to him)

 

 

  

 When Sue said to me that I should let him go with the other horses, I was very sad because I didn’t want him to be treated badly by them ,so we decided to put him firstly with Woody who was his 18 year old half brother who just adored foals, at the beginning he was looking for me and calling for me constantly like a crazy thing, “Oh my  poor baby”.

I had to  let him become  a horse because if I did not let him go, later it would  be very painful for him if he was rejected by the other horses in the herd.

Now, he is still  the baby of  the herd, they love ,play and protect him as their own  it’s a pleasure to see him playing and galloping around  with his older relatives!

 

 

  

 When he was turned out with all the other horses,most days, he was getting  himself into trouble  with them and also with me ,so I had to try to sort out his problems for him, I must be honest some days  it was easy to help him  but other times it was very complicated for me.

 

 

 

 

I feel very proud of him I adore and I love him  with all my soul, I’m very happy  to have helped rear a baby like him,  thanks for being in my life MIRACLE!

Congratulations my boy!

You are truly my "Miracle"

 

LUCIA ANDRADE