IN PICTURES: Right time for a little horsing around as foal takes first steps
[gallery] That's my girl! This heart-warming scene of a mare watching her four-day-old foal frolic in a field was captured at Cannock Chase Trekking Centre.
Montana took her first steps outdoors after being born earlier this week.
The young filly impressed staff by needing no help in getting to her feet. She was up and testing her legs within five minutes of making her grand entrance.
Montana was heralding the start of a new era at the riding stables, with work soon to begin on a multi-million pound equestrian centre at the site, between Cannock and Stafford, to accommodate more horses. There will also be a new visitor centre and medical room.
Yard manager Lucy Rostance said the new arrival, who was born on Tuesday at 10pm, was already turning heads at the stables.
"She's attracting a lot of attention already," she said. "We brought her outdoors for the first time yesterday to stretch her legs and she loved it. People are coming over to have a look at her.
"She's the first foal we've had at the stables that didn't need any assistance in getting to her feet or being helped over to her mother for a feed.
"She did it all by herself, so she's quite a clever little thing.
"Montana is the start of a new era here with work about to start in the next three or four weeks on the new stables. She's the first of a lot of firsts for us this year."
The brown-and-white beauty joins siblings Dakota and Oregon, both colts, and twins Arizona and Indiana, who are fillies like her.
She arrived on time with the help of centre owner Lisa Gregory, who acted as midwife, and will now be left to bond with her mother, Larosa, for the next six months.
She will not go on duty at the riding stables until she is four.
Until then it's a case of horsing around at the stables which will clearly delight the 17,000 people who make a visit to the centre every year.
