Story told as recollected by our pony friend Suzanne.

I remember well the day we spotted the two sick foals. Surfer and his mares were on the Wildlife Loop and often when we find ponies we just stop and watch. I think we had been watching the two foals when the little colt (Dude) tried to get up.  I saw the struggle and turned to (Kelly Lidard) the photographer who was also watching that something was wrong. Kelly said let's don't panic and just keep watching. Your Dude tried again to get up and he could not. The filly (your Belle) was still laying on the ground just like she was taking a nap. No sign to us at that time that she too was sick. After Dude tried a third time to get up we knew something was very wrong. We flagged down one of the Park Rangers, he tried all his contact numbers and could not reach anyone, so I made the call first to the Pony Hot Line, the phone picked up to a voice mail. I knew that this was more than a message to leave on the answer machine so I called the Fire Department.

Now all this time visitors were driving around the Wildlife Loop and to look at the foals from your car no one would have ever known the foals were in trouble.  In fact at this point we only thought the colt (Dude) was in trouble.

It wasn't long and the Fire Department and Pony Association arrived. Once they checked on Dude, we told them to check on the filly as we now had been watching for about 1 1/2 and she had not tried to get up.

Come to find out she was sick as well. The Fire Department and the Pony Association left and returned very soon with a horse trailer. They laid out a tarp and where able to get the foal on the tarp. They had to pull the tarp with the foal on it for a good ways. The mare was running in circles of course not understanding that the foal was going to be taken from her. Next they tackled Belle with the same procedure.

The Pony Association had to walk in deep marsh that was really muddy and if I remember correctly it was rather chilly. Anyway, they finally got the two foals in the horse trailer and off they went.

I'm in Florida right now and I don't have access to my pony notes but this all happened before Mother's Day.

We checked daily at the fair grounds. The pony association had put up some blue tarps to protect the foals from the wind and cold. All of my pony friends were praying that these two young foals would be all right.

Finally, looking through binoculars we were able to make out that two foals were in the pens. After many weeks we finally saw Lloyd and he told us that the colt was the sickest. I am sure that Lloyd and Naomi spent many long hours taking care of Dude and Belle.

Yes, is was a very happy ending. First that the two foals even survived but that the pony association decided to sell them as a pair.

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