Our odd couple

As it's been quite a while since I posted pics of our critters, I should re-introduce them. That's the polite thing to do. Lightning is our horse. She isn't truly white, she's actually a white & cream paint with 'glass' (blue) eyes. She's dirty in this picture as her favorite past time is rolling in the dust. The cow in the picture with her is Tinkerbell. Together they make up two halves of an unconventional little family.

We bought Lightning before she was born (we paid half before she was born and half when she was at our house). One of Husband's co-workers owned her mother (Tara) and they made a deal on the colt Tara was expecting. We went to see Lightning the morning after she was born. I have to say she was odd looking. Her glass eyes are unsettling as most horses have dark eyes, and she was VERY leggy for a quarter horse colt. When she was old enough, Tara & Lightning came to live with us. Tara only stayed long enough to get her colt used to the new place, then she went back to her owner. Lightning was not happy when her mama left.

At the time we had two Holstein calves (Porter & T-bone). She grudgingly made friends with them, but got really attached when we bought a heifer calf from FIL later that summer. Tink (the new calf) warmed up to the gangly colt pretty quickly and they were soon inseparable. When Husband would try to divide them, Lightning would pace the fence and whinny while Tink paced the opposite side & mooed until Husband put them back together.

When Tink was old enough, Husband took her up to his dad's bull to breed her. Lightning wasn't happy that she was gone, but she coped. When the time came for Tinkerbell to calf, Husband locked her up in the woods for protection from the elements and to keep Lightning away from the calf.

The entire time Tinkerbell was in labor, Lightning paced the fence row whinnying at her friend & keeping vigil. She reminded me of the nervous fathers smoking in the waiting room at the hospital while their wives were in delivery in all those 1950's movies. All she was missing was the cigarette and a plastic chair to occasionally set in and fidget.

The next morning we went out side to find Magnus (the new calf) laying under the barbwire fence fast asleep in between his mom and the horse.

After that Husband had to keep her away from the calf for the first month or so because the horse would try to stomp on him occasionally...jealousy, irritation? Maybe both. After she got used to the idea of the little steer, she turned into the overprotective parent. She and Tinkerbell would follow the calf, herd him where they wanted him to go, & keep watch over him. When the steer got a little bigger, it wasn't unusual to see Lightning and Magnus racing around the pen with Tinkerbell watching on.

When Husband penned Magnus up alone to wean him, Lightning and Tinkerbell would stay at the fence separating them from the calf and "talk" to him. They'd all sleep against the fence trying to stay as close as possible.

Since then, Magnus has been sold and Tink had a second calf...it was pretty much the same story the second time around. Currently Tink is in the pen with the Jersey calves and our new Angus calves. Lightning is in a separate pen by herself. In the picture above you can see the two strands of fencing between them. They stand there and visit, seemingly touching base on occasion. Lightning is none to happy about being away from Tink, but she can't be trusted with the little ones at the moment.

**The Angus calves: Wendy and Ella Enchanted (I'm not sure which is which)**

I wonder what will happen when Tink has her next calf. Our herd has grown substantially since the last two were born. Will Lightning still take the roll of surrogate father & doula, or will she ignore Tink choosing instead to romp with the younger crowd? Who'd have thought we'd have a female horse that's convinced she's the father of two steer calves and a cow that allows a horse to help her parent? Definitely an odd couple.