It wasn’t even 6:30 am when I heard Rembrandt screaming from the pasture. He NEVER calls! One of his pasture mates was either dead or out of the fence. From the bathroom, I did a scan of the security cameras, and I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was something white standing beside Ava!

OMG!! How could this be? I couldn’t get dressed and out the door fast enough. I think Ava was in as much disbelief as I was. I had brought Ava home late last summer as a yearling, and there was no way she was pregnant. So I thought.

I brought Mama and her newborn into the barn to get out of the rain. The little one kept trying to nurse, and her rock star first-time Mama was encouraging and gentle with her. While I was inspecting this astonishing discovery, I was voice dialing vets at 7am.

A doctor arrived fairly quickly and was able to extract a large amount of colostrum and get it into her. As the hours ticked by, we kept checking the newborn milestones. The gal I got Ava from was as shocked as I was, but she was able to put the mystery together. 355 days earlier, her neighbour’s horses had escaped and trashed her fences. During that brief window, the stud (no relation to Ava) had been in contact and did what boy horses do when girl horses are in heat. She had no idea what had happened.

The first name I considered for her was “Prom Night Shenanigans.” Besides being a shocking surprise, she was born by Pleasant Road, and since we work in the film industry, Pleasant “Holly”wood Surprise seemed to fit.