Pierre looked over at Loulou who stood only a short distance from us, fussing over her new baby, but the rain was making him wet again as fast as she could lick him dry. As the wind drove the rain towards us in bleak sheets, she moved to use her body as a shield to protect her newborn from the elements as much as she could. But her efforts could not stop the floodwaters from rising. The storm had yet to reach its peak and the water was still climbing and showing no signs of receding. The foal had fed, and he looked alert and bright now, but it was only a matter of time before his young body succumbed to exhaustion. Newborn foals cannot remain on their feet for long, they need to sleep. And when this foal lay down, he would be lost, he would take his last breath and disappear forever beneath the floodwaters.

“What can we do?” Pierre shouted to be heard above the storm. “The foal will not leave his mother’s side. And we can’t take him alone. He needs the mother, he has to keep feeding or he’ll die.”

I looked at Loulou. She was exhausted, by both the force of the elements and her own efforts to bring her reluctant foal out of her belly and into this world. Her tiredness was evident, and yet in her eyes there was still that same fire and spark there had always been. Her ears swivelled forward and back as she listened to us talk, as if she instinctively knew that her fate relied on us now. In these past months, my bond with Loulou had become so powerful, and I knew she trusted me, I was sure of it, and it would be that trust that I needed to rely upon now.

“Use your cattle rope,” I said. “Take it from the saddle, knot it into a halter and put it on Loulou.”

Pierre looked at me, confused. “You want me to halter the mare, not the foal?”

“The mare is accustomed to the hand of man. She is branded – which means she has been saddle-broken in the past, you said so yourself. She can be ridden and the foal will follow at her feet. If we can get Loulou home, then the foal will follow us and we save them both.”

Pierre shook his head. “I cannot ride one horse and hold on to you and lead another horse all at the same time …”

“You won’t have to lead her,” I said. “I’ll be riding her.”

“But you cannot!” Pierre’s reaction was immediate. “Rose! You have no legs.”