That is when I met Princess. We adopted her when she was one-and-a-half years old. Her best friend was a one-year-old piebald pinto named Billy the Kid. They had been brought up together on Celina's farm. They had lived in her backyard and been handfed like dogs, so they followed you around and demanded a lot of attention. We decided to get Princess, and brought her home to our small farm to join our three other horses.

  Rusty, Sioux, Charro, and now Princess. Her full name is Princess Bailey's Irish Creme. From day one, it was a fight over the new baby. Rusty, who was 27, and Sioux, who was 18, both wanted a new baby so you always had to watch your back.

  Five years later in 1998, we only hadthree horses. Little Buster the pony had been given to a young girl down the rode and Rusty had since passed on. So Princess, Charro and Sioux were left. My dad had done some excavator work for the neighbors next door, so we were going to barter...for their stallion's sperm. Sounds almost comical, a very funny deal. So Sioux and Princess were going to have babies.

  Sioux and then Princess had to get shots of hormones to get them into heat. It required a huge needle that had to be put into there rumps, but the hormones only took a couple of days to work. Then they met Hercules, the three-year-old black stallion who was a purebred Welsh Cob.

  Three months into the pregnancy, Sioux lost her baby. But nothing could be done to save the baby she had reabsorbed. The vet said that even though she had had 6 babies before she would no longer able to have more. So, Princess was going to be a mommy alone. The full term of pregnancy of a horse is 340 days although it varies considerably. Princess had to get 3 different vaccinations during her pregnancy. And during that year, she gained a considerable amount of weight. Irene, the resident expert who owned the stallion, told me that all the fillies had been born early and all the colts had been born late. (A filly is a baby girl horse, and a colt is a baby boy, and a foal is either/or.)

  Sioux was sold to a lady up the road to make way for the baby, and in June 1999 Princess looked like the Goodyear blimp. (Everyone would ask whether or not Charro was the one pregnant. He is a gelding!) We had to buy 4 bales of straw to put as bedding in the stall so that the foal would have a comfortable bed.

  June 17th, a week earlier then Princess's due date. I had just gotten home from work and was going out to feed Charro and Princess. My mom was already out at the barn with the generator humming. Princess was sweating, and pacing back and forth. I braided her tail and gave her a quick brush. My mom and I figured she was really close to having the baby. Her teats were waxing up, a sign that the baby will come within 24 hours. My mom went inside and I stayed out with Princess for a bit. She was going to get some towels and supplies just in case. Not even 10 seconds after that, a foot poked out of Princess. I spread the straw out quickly, then ran inside and yelled at my mom to phone Irene and get everybody up because the baby wasn't waiting any longer. Five minutes went by and my whole family and the neighbors were standing at the stall door.

  A burst of water, and the baby's nose poked out. Her front legs were first. Her face looked like a goat; but she had dark markings that looked like her mother's. I touched her nose while she was still inside. Then her shoulders started to appear--that looked like the hardest part. Her back legs were still inside when Princess stood up and the baby slid out. Her back legs that had been fused together inside Princess, and had broken apart during the birth. Princess didn't know what to think. Poor Charro in the other stall beside Princess must have thought she was dying or something like that. The baby was in this white sac, and Princess started to eat this mucous-like substance off the baby, while making whale noises. Then the afterbirth came out little baby. We finally found out that the foul was a little filly. She was so little, and most of her mass had been those spiderman legs. We toweled her off, and she lay bright eyed and bushy tailed in the pile of straw.

  Getting up was a task and a half. A horse in the wild has to be able to run quickly so predators will not eat the babies. Princess nibbled and bit at the baby, trying to get her to stand. Baby crossed her front legs but it just made it harder to get up. She kept trying and trying. At 11:30 PM she stood up. Her legs were spread so far apart that her belly touched the ground. She wobbled and wiggled, barely able to keep level. She munched on a piece of hay that was in her mouth and gave a little kick to test her legs. We guided her towards Princess's teat. And she had her first drink. What an exciting night. About 10 people had witnessed the birth of this little bundle of joy, and it had even been videotaped. We weighed her shortly after. She was a whopping 98 pounds (and we think human babies are big).

  To pick her name there were many suggestions: Spot, Mr. Bojangles (My younger sister Jessica's favorite name {she will probably name one of her kids that}), Pintocolada. She was an exact replica of her mother, with a little more white. Her tiny hooves fit into the palms of my hands. After about a week of fighting and bickering over her name, it was finally chosen. She was to be Princess Ophelia. After Hamlet's Ophelia, the one who went crazy and drowned herself in the river.

  This year, Princess is 8 and Ophelia is 2 and almost 800 pounds now. She is in her terrible two's, and has had a saddle on her back and a bit in her mouth. Every day I think she looks more and more like her mother Princess. Its kinda creepy considering I look like my mom and my mom looks like her's. I guess you start looking like your animals. Maybe one day Ophelia will get to be a mother, and she will have a baby just like Princess Bailey. Princess Ophelia, Princess Bailey and Aristo Charro live in my backyard in Port Alberni.