Spring is a time for renewal, and what better display of rebirth is there than a new foal?
There are fewer than 200 Ojibwe Spirit Horses in the world today. (Madahoki Farm Facebook photo)
A newborn colt was foaled at Ottawa’s Mādahòkì Farm and is a rare Indigenous horse breed known as the Ojibwe Spirit Horse. We wrote about the breed and Mādahòkì Farm in 2022 and how the horses were being used for reclamation, education, and celebration of indigenous cultures and traditions.
There are fewer than 200 of the Ojibwe Spirit Horses in the world today, and it’s a native breed even older than the American mustang. The rarity of the horse makes this new foal all the more exciting and precious.
“Each foal is so important, and this one even more so because it’s a new stallion for our herd of Ojibwe Spirit Horses,” Trina Mather-Simard, who runs the farm, told the Ottawa Citizen.
The gorgeous colt has been christened Asemaa, which according to the Madahoki Facebook post means tobacco, a sacred medicine plant in Indigenous culture. His mother is Sweetgrass, named for another sacred medicine, and this colt is her second born at Mādahòkì (she arrived pregnant two years ago), but the first to be conceived at the farm. According to the Ottawa Citizen, Asemaa’s father is Migzi (Eagle); it’s his first offspring.
Breeding is done with careful attention to bloodlines, Mather-Simard told the paper, and is overseen by Canada’s Ojibwe Horse Society.
