straight ahead.
‘No struggling,’ she said sternly. ‘Benjy, tell your friend Ben’s trying to help. Flicker, look at us.’ She jerked the halter. ‘Look at us.’
Ben was in the hole. He was scraping at the last of the mud, trying to break through. Nearly there. The last barrier of mud was collapsing down on itself, freeing the mare’s legs.
Flicker appeared not to notice. Her eyes were looking inward. There was a foal in there, battling to come out.
‘OK,’ Ben muttered, and hauled himself up and onto the far side of the hole from Lily. He reached out and grabbed the other side of Flicker’s halter. ‘Let’s get you out, gorgeous. Lily, pull.’
Lily staggered to her feet.
‘Stand aside,’ Ben ordered Benjy.
‘Shall I sing?’ Ben’s face was a picture of bewilderment, fear and the beginnings of excitement.
‘No,’ Ben said. ‘Get behind her and shout. As loud as you can.’
‘Only her front feet are free,’ Benjy said doubtfully, staring at Flicker’s still trapped hindquarters, and Ben grimaced.
‘I know,’ he told Benjy. ‘But she’s a strong horse. It should be enough.’
It had to be enough, Lily thought, for to dig under the abdomen to free the back legs was impossible. It’d be impossible even if they had time. Which they didn’t.
So Lily and Ben pulled and Benjy shouted. For a long moment Lily thought the mare simply wasn’t going to try. There’d be so many sensations hammering the mare now that being stuck in mud would be the least of them. But Lily pulled as if she really believed the mare would come free and Ben pulled, too. Flicker suddenly hauled a foreleg upward, the mud squelching as it released its grip. One hoof hit the canvas-covered wood and found purchase. Encouraged, she tried the second hoof and it, too, found purchase.
‘Now for the big pull,’ Ben murmured. ‘Come on, my beauty.’
‘Please,’ Lily muttered. ‘Please.’
And then it happened. The mare gave one last despairing whinny, found purchase with both hooves and hauled herself forward, with a movement so sudden that Lily sprawled backward in the mud. Ben didn’t stop. The mare was lurching out onto the boards, and Ben was tugging the mare forward, further, further, leading her as fast as he could over the soft ground so she couldn’t sink again. While Lily lay in the mud and tried to regain her breath, man and horse made it to the pasture.
Safe.
Lily lay on the mud and watched them, and smiled and smiled. Benjy came up to her, worried about why she hadn’t risen, and she tugged him down and held him tight and grinned.
‘Wasn’t that the best?’
‘You’re covered in mud. Just like me.’
‘And I love it. Just like I love you.’
‘Oi!’ On dry ground Ben was holding the mare’s head and looking back at them in bemusement. ‘Benjy, could you remind your mother that she’s a doctor. We have a baby to deliver, guys, so if you’re finished wallowing in the mud, maybe you could help.’
What they needed was a nice easy delivery but, of course, that wasn’t going to happen. Flicker was exhausted and distressed to begin with and she hardly had the strength to push.
But Ben had thought past getting the mare out of the mud. He’d filled a couple of huge Thermos flasks with hot water and he’d tossed buckets and rags and rope into the back of the truck.
‘Practically a whole birthing unit,’ Lily noted. ‘But no incubator?’
‘The sun’s incubator enough,’ Ben growled. ‘If we can get it out.’ He glanced at Benjy, who was starting to look distressed again. ‘I meant if we can get it out quickly. Benjy, do you think you can keep these buckets full of clean water? If you took one over to the river and half filled it, then we’d have it ready. We’ll top it up with hot water from the Thermos. That way we can have as much warm, soapy water as we need. Stay on the firmer ground where there are rocks to walk on. Don’t go anywhere near where we’ve been digging.’
‘Sure,’ Benjy said, desperate to be doing something to help.
Lily was the same. She stood in the sun, the mud drying hard on her body, and felt like she needed direction.
It was Flicker doing the work.
‘Hold her head,’ Ben ordered, so she did. Ben cleaned the mare down a little, washing away the worst of the mud. The mare submitted to his ministrations with uneasy patience. She kept looking behind her as if she couldn’t figure what was hurting. And then what must have been a deeper contraction hit. She whinnied a little and sank to her knees, then rolled onto her side.
‘Where’s the vet?’ Lily demanded nervously, as Benjy lugged over his fourth bucketful of water.
‘Why do we need a vet?’ Ben asked.
‘How long do horse labours last?’
‘I have no idea. But let’s not panic yet.’
‘I can’t think of anything else to do.’
‘There speaks a thoroughly competent doctor.’
‘You went to the same medical school,’ she snapped. ‘So what are you doing that is useful? Any minute you’ll tell me to go help Benjy.’
‘It’s better than you both pacing the waiting room,’ he retorted. ‘Maybe you could go buy some cigars.’
‘Or maybe I can just pace,’ she muttered. ‘Hurry up, Flicker.’
‘I’d reckon she’s doing the best she can.’
‘How would you know?’
‘And how would you?’ They glared at each other and Ben put his head on one side and surveyed her, a strange smile behind his eyes.
‘You’re beautiful when you’re panicking.’
‘Shut up and deliver a foal.’
‘There’s no-’
But his words were cut short. The mare gave a mighty heave. A gush of water flowed, followed seconds later by a tiny hoof.
‘Two hooves?’ Lily murmured. ‘Come on.’
Another contraction. No second hoof.
Another contraction.
No hoof.
‘There has to be,’ Ben muttered, worried, and Lily guessed what he wanted before he said it. She emptied a Thermos into the closest bucket, then swished soap round in it, handing the cake to Ben. It couldn’t be harder than a human baby. Could it?
Ben was already soaping his arm. He felt around the tiny hoof and then had to pause until another contraction had passed.
Now.
But it wasn’t now.
‘My hand’s too big,’ he gasped. ‘I’m not as sure of what I’m looking for as I am in human birth. You try.’
She was already soaping. She knelt, then figured she was still too high so she lay full length on the ground and waited for the next contraction to pass.
‘Ease back, Flicker,’ Ben told the mare. ‘Breathe for a bit.’
‘I bet she skipped prenatal classes,’ Lily muttered. ‘Irresponsible ladies…’
And then the contraction was past. Lily soaped her hand some more, then carefully slid her fingers past the one tiny hoof.
Where…? Come on…
Her fingers found another hoof.
Fantastic. There had to be a nose, she thought, and then wondered if it was a front hoof or a back hoof. Did horses come out forward or backward? Was that a nose she was feeling? Whatever, she shoved her fingers as far
