Back at the beginning of the summer in June, a friend called me to ask if I'd heard about the rescue horses here in our town. I said no, but was curious. My friend didn't know much, but she said she'd heard there was an Arabian in the bunch. I have an Arabian, so this made me very curious. I did some more calling around and learned that it was actually a herd of Spanish mustangs that a local lady had, about 27 in all I think. They weren't all Spanish mustangs, but the majority were. In fact, she didn't live but a few miles from us, and we often passed her place going into town. As it turned out, she was not a mentally well person, didn't feed the horses enough, the water was broken, and the horses often went days without water. Our local animal control officer, a real hero, after trying to work with the lady to take care of her horses, finally organized a legal rescue. It was quite an effort. From what I understand, the owner had bought a herd dispersal, never had the stud cut, and he ran with the mares. It was very hard getting him loaded into the trailer. Most of the horses weren't used to being handled. I learned where the horses were being kept after the rescue and decided to go take a look. This mare was close to the fence by the highway. She was obviously beat up. The pen they were in wasn't that big, but it was the only place available to keep the mamas with new babies. The other horses were in other pens. My heart went out to her. I came back a few days later and went into the pen and offered her some hay pellets by hand. Baby was about a week old. I came back again with my husband. The mare remembered me. She allowed me to halter her, she lead a little, let me pick up her feet. I volunteered to adopt her. It was not until 3 months that the litigation was over and I was allowed to bring her home. I decided to name her Dover for her white eyelashes. I took her because I thought I could make her a part of my herd, that she wouldn't be a mean dominant, pissy mare. Dove is about 5 years old. I named her colt foal Max, after my husband. I like to say his name, Max.