MIRACLE OF BIRTH

A strange thing is happening. Mum and I are walking home from the beach and can hardly see where we’re going as a sea mist has come in.

But we can hear things – an odd sort of snorting and stomping. So we stop and listen. Suddenly I see the ponies. Most of them are standing quite still, in a kind of circle. One, though, seems a bit frantic and now throws herself on to the ground.

What’s wrong with her? I look up at Mum, who shakes her head as if expecting me to disgrace myself. Then we are both drawn into the circle and somehow into the herd. I feel bigger, thinking of myself as part of this family, and I also feel important – too important to bark, or disappoint Mum or the ponies.

Something weird is going on … something that I mustn’t interrupt. Mum and I keep very still … watching and waiting.

The mare stands up and starts stomping again. Her tail lifts and a kind of bubble comes under it.

Before I can take this in, she’s back on the ground again and now the stallion edges forward, putting a front hoof on her big belly as if telling her that he’s helping.

The bubble is getting bigger and bigger until I slowly realize that it isn’t a bubble at all. I can see two little hooves and, as I watch, a whole foal eventually appears and tries again and again to stand up on wobbly legs.

We wait until it is standing on all four legs and then Mum whispers softly: “Well, Sam, now that we’ve witnessed the miracle of birth I reckon it’s time to go home and have breakfast!”