How Switch came into our lives

Switch today is very much a part of our lives and yet we have to remind ourselves constantly that she doesn't in fact belong to us at all....Switch is owned by our neighbour behind us, Belinda.

We didn't even know that Belinda had a horse until January this year. Our horses have always been able to graze the length and breadth of our plot - except for in the sheep paddock, where the sheep were shut in at night time.  Never before had the horses or we seen any horses next door until suddenly Switch arrived at the fence one Saturday morning in early January.  She kept parading up and down the fence line and as we soon realized, was in season and driving Navajo dilly.

Attempts to raise Belinda on the phone proved futile....By this time we had a stallion who now had a problem....in his eagerness to get to this mare he had entangled himself in the fencing and was cutting his legs to shreds. Johan had no option but to cut the fencing to extricate him. My poor husband had a job and a half on his hands as Navajo would not keep still and nothing we did calmed him down.  NiQi in the meantime had led Switch back as we were still hoping to get hold of Belinda.  Once free we led Navajo to the crusher and kept him in there whilst Johan and NiQi drove round to Belinda's place.  Not finding her home and being holiday time we concluded she must be away and unavailable.  I left her a voicemail and a whatsapp message telling her that for sanity's sake as well as for the well being of Navajo, we had brought her mare through to us.

It was a few days later that Belinda came back to us and she said she really didn't mind Switch being with us.  She was lonely on her own and the company of our horses would do her good. It took a while for Switch to get used to us and only with constant attention and grooming by NiQi did she finally fully trust us.
Having fallen pregnant with Navajo's foal, Belinda and NiQi came to an agreement that if the foal was a colt then Belinda would keep him and if a filly, then NiQi could have her....so the foal is a colt and belongs to Belinda. As sad as it is for us, we will not be keeping him after he has weaned and we also aren't naming him.

NiQi had so many 'filly' names in mind, wishing and hoping that it would be hers....alas, maybe next time...