Bint Helwa - “The broken legged mare”
Aziz x Helwa
As told by Lady Anne Blunt:
“Bint Helwa had come from the Egyptian stud (Sheykh Obeyd) with two other mares (Johara and Fulana) and the three turned to pasture together on arrival in England. In the evening the other two came up to the stables but Bint Helwa was missing. On searching, she was found in a ditch. She had jumped the enclosing fence of the pasture, landed in the ditch so that her leg and shoulder were terribly broken, and the other mares following had jumped on top of her, breaking two of her ribs. As she was within six weeks of foaling it was decided not to destroy her, but take her to the stable and try to save the foal. The mare was gotten out on to a drag, pulled as gently as possibly to her box stall, suspended in slings, and cooling applications made to the injured parts. The breaks were too extensive to knit, but such was the soundness of her health and constitution that the days passed and no rise in her temperature ensued. When the day came for her foal to be born, she was lowered gently in the stall, the little one came into the world all right, and since that time the mare has bred seven perfect foals. Now in 1906, the broken-legged mare is 19 years old and she is due to foal this spring.“
Bint Helwa lived with her injuries for 9 years before passing in 1907.
