The prognosis was good Sunday for a wild horse found suffering from hypothermia after being abandoned at birth by its mother in the high desert of northern Nevada.
Wild horse advocate Shirley Allen said the animal -- named Heidi -- continues to recover after being placed on antibiotics and housed in a bedroom of her Dayton home.
"She's running and playing and bucking and having a good time," Allen said Sunday. "She's a bouncing baby girl."
Things looked bleak after she was born in freezing temperatures Wednesday morning in Stagecoach about 20 miles east of Carson City.
Her mother soon bolted from the area with some other wild horses, and a Stagecoach resident notified authorities several hours later after the mother had failed to return.
Nonie Higley, Lyon County animal control officer, found the foal later that day with her tiny head poking over the grass, unable to walk.
She took her to Allen, who rescues the animals along with husband Bruce under a program sponsored by a wild horse advocacy group known as Least Resistance Training Concepts.
Heidi now weighs about 60 pounds and is allowed to play outside, Shirley Allen said. Plans call for her to stay in the home for several more months until she's adopted.
"We try to leave Mother Nature alone and try not to interfere unless there's a situation that God puts right in our face," Allen said. "If God puts something in front of you, it's our responsibility to help that baby or critter."
Heidi may have a permanent home awaiting her as a Wellington family has expressed an interest in adopting her, Allen said.
"I've been in on a lot of rescues, but this one was the greatest," Higley told the Nevada Appeal. "I love the mustangs. I think they're a gift from God to us here in Nevada, and we're kind of pushing them out."
More than half the nation's wild horses are in Nevada. "Nevada quarters" recently issued by the U.S. Mint depict three wild horses galloping across a valley.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
