The Great Horse Rescue: part 2

The horse saga continues....

The day after the big rescue, we returned to the stables to check on Milagro. He was looking about the same. Martin said he was crying for his mom. It made me so sad. I asked how old he thought Milagro was and he answered 7 months. He eased my mind when he said he was old enough to be away from his mom. He was being a big baby, I thought. He's a stubborn, little momma's boy. Haha.

The very next morning, I was greeted by Martin at our front door. He told me that Milagro's owner found out he was there and had shown up to take him back. I woke Dinh up from his afternoon nap and we drive down the road to the stables. When we arrived, we saw a scrawny, poor looking man. 

He had rode in on a big white horse. He said Milagro had gotten the gash on his leg from a boat motor. 

His story didn't make sense, but we didn't ask any further questions. We knew that he was not a good man if he left an injured colt on the beach for the vultures. We needed proof that this was the rightful owner. They let Milagro out of the wooden stable and he ran over to the big white horse, his mommy. They rubbed noses for a while and then Milagro started nursing from her. 

I had to choke back my tears. It was so heart warming. It was plain to see that this was definitely the owner. 
We saw that the mom had an obviously broken ankle and the owner continued to ride her. They lived in a village 6 km away . It would be very painful for Milagro to walk that far. We wanted him to have a good life, which can be hard to come by as a horse in Nicaragua. We had come so far to save this little guy, only to have his crappy owner claim him back after he saw his leg was being treated. Dinh and I discussed what we should do. We decided that we would see if the owner would let us buy Milagro, so we told the skinny man that we would pay him $40 for Milagro, which was actually way more than a local would have paid for a horse.
The owner was satisfied with the deal. Soon he mounted the horse and trotted off back to his village. I felt so sorry for the mom horse, she had to walk so far with a broken ankle. I was so relieved that Milagro would never live a life like that. He would be well taken care off from now on. I walked up to Milagro and pet his nose. He had no idea what just happened and how much of a turning point it was in his life. 
Milagro was oblivious to me. He watched his mom trot away until he couldn't see her anymore. He neighed for her to come back. He was whimpering and stamping his feet. I couldn't get over how human-like he was acting. His emotions were an open faced sandwich. 
It absolutely broke my heart to see Milagro enduring so much grief. He had been reunited with his mother, only to have her leave him again. Tears filled my eyes once again. This horse business is too emotional for me!!! 

Now Milagro was ours. Fair and square. When Dinh and I wished we had a horse, we had no idea how quickly we would stumble upon one. Be careful what you wish for!!