It was warm in the stable. The horses’ breath and the straws on the ground made up for the -16 Celsius degrees outside. Some little birds were flying inside, carrying food to their nests.

As I walked around, admiring some of Romania’s most beautiful Furioso North Star horses in the Rusetu Stud Farm, I noticed a mare put separately in a stall box. She was tall, with reddish-brown hair and a white spot in her forehead. She lifted her head and stared at me. Her eyes were so tender that I instinctively felt the need to go to her.

A few steps and…surprise. I heard a thin neigh. She was a mom. Her foal was nine days old and had never been outside the stall because of the bad weather. The baby girl was a smaller version of her mom. Only her hair seemed a little longer.

It was sunny, windy and cold outside and we decided to take them out to see how the foal would react to the snow. In the beginning she was afraid to leave the stall, so the groom had to push her a few meters. But then she jumped out after her mom into the snow. The mare was so happy to be free again that she started running. The baby followed her with uncertain steps, then at her full speed, jumping like a goat.

It was a feast to look at them. Two happy horses running and playing in fresh snow, the wind and frost turning the hair on their noses white. The mare stopped and sniffed around. The baby girl immediately took advantage of the moment and tilted her head, looking for her mother’s milk. First meal outside.