You Can Lead a Mule to a Teet, but You Can't Make Her Drink (Part Three)

Start at the beginning.

On Sunday, I awoke with a renewed heart. I had a feeling something was different.

Knowing that my trainer and family could take care of the first feeding, I put a pan on the stove and started frying up a couple eggs for breakfast. Then the phone rang.

"The Barn" flashed on my caller ID screen.

"This is Jenny."

"Hi, Jenny, this is your trainer."

"How are things going?" I just knew she was calling with good news.

Well..." *pause*

Wait, don't pause! A pause is never a good thing, unless your standing in front of 45 million viewers awaiting your fate on "American Idol."

"We had a tiny problem last night," she continued as I tried to focus on my frying eggs. "The mare pulled out the feeding tube. We tried all of the feed stores down here, but they're closed for Mother's Day. Would you be able to pick up a bottle on the way down today? We can't feed her until you get here."

"Absolutely," I said, relieved that her news was not the end I'd been dreading. "I'll be down in about an hour."

Personal observation: One of the things I'm most thankful for when it comes to my trainer is that she and her family do not overreact to situations. Yes, I could've rushed out of the house and gotten there sooner, but then I'd go hungry and be less effective all day. After all this time, I knew an extra 30 minutes wasn't going to kill the baby.

After a quick breakfast, I went to the feed store for a bottle and headed down to the barn. When I arrived, we began the ritual of milking the mare. Then I poured the milk in the bottle and snapped on the nipple.

I held out the bottle for Madge. She was curious about this new object, but she wasn't really sure of it's purpose. Gently, I pushed it into her mouth, but it was difficult to get the milk out without her help. I grabbed my knife from my belt and cut the opening in the nipple so that is was wide enough to let milk out with a squeeze of the bottle. Now I could drip it onto her lips in hope that she'd be drawn to the taste. Unfortunately, she wasn't. To make matters more difficult, she wanted to lick the milk from the bottle rather than suck on the nipple.

Determined to get some food into her tiny stomach, I pushed the bottle into the side of her mouth and squeezed the milk down her throat so she was forced to drink it. She wasn't too thrilled with our efforts. As she struggled against us, I held the bottle in her mouth. She chewed on the nipple in vein. We could actually hear her back teeth grinding as she chewed—they had already broken through the gums.

"Momma, I think you cooked her too long," my trainer said laughingly to the mare.

After about 40 minutes of continuous struggle, we convinced Madge to drink most of the milk in the bottle. It was time for a rest—for everyone involved—so we headed up to the house for lunch.

A few hours later, we came down for another attempt. While she still wasn't wholly amenable to the bottle, this time she was making an attempt to suck on the nipple. Still, we had to hold her in the corner to keep the bottle in her mouth. After 20 minutes, she'd drank the bottle and we called it good.

Later that evening, my trainer and I went down for the next feeding. We hadn't fed her as much that day because we hoped that a hungry stomach might lead to a success story. My trainer's dad hadn't made it down to the stall yet, so I milked the mare and filled the bottle. I reached for her halter and then stopped.

"You know, she doesn't really like to have this forced into her mouth, so she spends more energy fighting us than drinking. I think she's got the idea by now. What if I just hold out the bottle this time and see if she'll come to it?" I asked my trainer.

"That's a good idea. Go ahead and try it."

With fingers crossed behind my back, I squeezed the bottle to get the milk flowing and held it up to her mouth. After a short investigation, she took the bottle and began to suck down the milk. My trainer's mom had arrived by this point and we all stood in awe as Madge eagerly sucked the entire bottle full of milk.

That evening I went home with renewed hope that Madge would soon find the buffet. I fell asleep with my fingers crossed.

Photo: Madge begins to figure out that nipple = milk = yummy = full tummy!