From 8-year old Hilda’s diary:
There is a new baby horse at the Bauers. When Mr. Bauer came with the milk this morning, I heard him tell Aunt Hermine that the mother had dropped it. I was so afraid that it was hurt. I asked him how a mother could be so careless as to drop her own baby, but he said that he didn’t mean that she really let it fall, that it is just an expression that we use for horses when their babies are born. They say the mare, that’s the mother, has dropped her foal. A foal is the baby, and it doesn’t mean that she dropped it on the floor.