This is an image I took last year of a two-day old foal at a friend's barn near my home. I was always tempted to enter the paddock to spend some time with the foal — he certainly seemed cuddly and pranced around the paddock wanting to play.

Of course, the flip side is that it's not a good idea to play with young horses because they eventually get much bigger and still want to play. The problem then is that when big horses play with humans, the humans can get seriously hurt. And then a professional horse trainer is required to undo the learned trait that it's ok to play with frail humans. Regardless, I'd be lying if I didn't admit it was appealing.

But I was a good human, stayed out of the paddock, and limited my interaction to occasional scratching of his neck and lots of photos.

In this image, you can tell that he's completely content just being against his mom. He's not suckling, just snuggling up against her with his eyes closed.

It's just another reminder of why I so enjoy being around horses!

Besides being an avid trail rider, Jerry Tardif is a computer consultant and a horse and nature photographer in SE Connecticut — see his work at: www.jerrytardif.com. He is also co-founder and President of QueryHorse, the largest equine information resource on the Internet.