It's a Boy!!!! (Wait, didn't Nick just write this one?)
Whew...after two months of telling people my horse was due to foal 'any day now', I finally have a new baby horse...born sometime between 1 am and 2 am (yeah, that's fast and sneaky for a horse). Ross and Marla had been outside at 1 am trying to figure out what was chasing their ducks around, and Tot didn't look even remotely like she was ready to give birth (aside from looking massively pregnant, which she's good at, because she's been practicing it for the last three months!)
At 2 am, Marla got up (she's pregnant, as well, and wakes up several times a night whether she wants to or not)--looked out the window just in time to see Tot turn around...and catch the gleam of the barn lights off the placental membrane, still hanging from the mare. So, they ran out, checked on the baby, spent fifteen minutes trying to get their cordless phone to work, managed to get through to me just long enough to tell me there was a foal on the ground, and then the signal cut out, so I had to call 'em back.
Tot's knack for being contrary or inconvenient doesn't stop at not giving us any hints she was foaling tonight...the last time I talked to Marla, she asked when would be the most inconvenient time for me to have a foal arrive. I thought, immediately, of the big paintball game I'm planning on playing in early next month--but, in actuality, this weekend is a doozy. I'm covering for people at work for the next three nights...so, unless I wanted to drive up, take a peek, and turn around and drive right back down again, the earliest I can get a look at our new arrival is Sunday.
But, let me tell you...what a relief!!! (I'm sure Tot feels the same way, for different reasons...) We'd been worried that she might be having twins...it's still an extremely remote possibility, but with the foal having been on the ground for well over an hour now, and no second arrival apparent, no continued hard contractions, and the foal being relatively large, all signs are pointing at a single birth. And that's a relief, too...not only is the waiting done, but it has ended without the worry of whether or not an animal that's designed to raise a single child would be able to raise two at once (twin births in horses almost always result in one of the foals being lost, sometimes both).
The foal is healthy, long-legged, well-conformed, and has done, so far, all but one of the things you want a baby horse to do after hitting the ground...and Marla's watching for the last one (also watching to make sure none of the placenta is retained, because that can result in really severe, if not fatal, infection for the mare...apologies to those of you who are browsing my blog while eating...) Now I've just gotta figure out a name for him--since the stud is Thor, we've been giving all the foals names out of Nordic or Germanic mythology. If anyone's got suggestions, I'll be willing to consider them...;)
Pictures will be forthcoming...the lighting is not particularly good for picture-taking out there, so Marla's going to take some tomorrow morning and email them to me. I'll have them ready for posting by the time I figure a name.
Ugh...okay...I've made my announcement. I'm going back to bed. G'night, all...
Whew...after two months of telling people my horse was due to foal 'any day now', I finally have a new baby horse...born sometime between 1 am and 2 am (yeah, that's fast and sneaky for a horse). Ross and Marla had been outside at 1 am trying to figure out what was chasing their ducks around, and Tot didn't look even remotely like she was ready to give birth (aside from looking massively pregnant, which she's good at, because she's been practicing it for the last three months!)
At 2 am, Marla got up (she's pregnant, as well, and wakes up several times a night whether she wants to or not)--looked out the window just in time to see Tot turn around...and catch the gleam of the barn lights off the placental membrane, still hanging from the mare. So, they ran out, checked on the baby, spent fifteen minutes trying to get their cordless phone to work, managed to get through to me just long enough to tell me there was a foal on the ground, and then the signal cut out, so I had to call 'em back.
Tot's knack for being contrary or inconvenient doesn't stop at not giving us any hints she was foaling tonight...the last time I talked to Marla, she asked when would be the most inconvenient time for me to have a foal arrive. I thought, immediately, of the big paintball game I'm planning on playing in early next month--but, in actuality, this weekend is a doozy. I'm covering for people at work for the next three nights...so, unless I wanted to drive up, take a peek, and turn around and drive right back down again, the earliest I can get a look at our new arrival is Sunday.
But, let me tell you...what a relief!!! (I'm sure Tot feels the same way, for different reasons...) We'd been worried that she might be having twins...it's still an extremely remote possibility, but with the foal having been on the ground for well over an hour now, and no second arrival apparent, no continued hard contractions, and the foal being relatively large, all signs are pointing at a single birth. And that's a relief, too...not only is the waiting done, but it has ended without the worry of whether or not an animal that's designed to raise a single child would be able to raise two at once (twin births in horses almost always result in one of the foals being lost, sometimes both).
The foal is healthy, long-legged, well-conformed, and has done, so far, all but one of the things you want a baby horse to do after hitting the ground...and Marla's watching for the last one (also watching to make sure none of the placenta is retained, because that can result in really severe, if not fatal, infection for the mare...apologies to those of you who are browsing my blog while eating...) Now I've just gotta figure out a name for him--since the stud is Thor, we've been giving all the foals names out of Nordic or Germanic mythology. If anyone's got suggestions, I'll be willing to consider them...;)
Pictures will be forthcoming...the lighting is not particularly good for picture-taking out there, so Marla's going to take some tomorrow morning and email them to me. I'll have them ready for posting by the time I figure a name.
Ugh...okay...I've made my announcement. I'm going back to bed. G'night, all...
posted by Curtis at 2:35 AM
2 Comments:
So what happens now, Curtis? Do you sell the baby when it's old enough or do you keep both horses? Or is Marla interested in keeping the horses around, too?
We have, with this baby, fourteen horses out there. The plan has always been to sell the baby (babies, actually, as we've got three mares we've been breeding for the last two years). I've actually got a friend that I owe a horse to (he came out there last summer and did a LOT of work with all the horses, especially mine, and was promised a foal in exchange for his labor)--if he wants this one, it's his. If not, I trust Marla to find someone to sell him to--she's got a knack for picking out people who know their horses well.
I was a lot more anxious about selling Faith...which ended up being kind of wasted energy, as she didn't survive much past her first year (she might have lived longer, but I really couldn't stand seeing her barely hobbling around from a hip injury that was never going to get better). Having to let her go, in that way, I think has made it easier for me to deal with the idea of having a foal that I'm just going to turn around and sell.
But I do hope this one 'stays in the family...' I've got a few friends that are getting horses, or have a little land and could board horses for other friends. With a little luck, he'll go to one of them and I'll get to watch him grow up.
And, if not...well, saying goodbye to people is a constant in life, isn't it? Sometimes you say goodbye, only to turn around and say hello again a few years later...and sometimes, you say goodbye and that's it. Time will tell which one this will be. He wouldn't be the first horse I've had to bid farewell...and he won't be the last.
We're hoping, ultimately, that someone buys one of these foals, trains them as a brilliant show horse, wins a lot of awards, and thereby increases the stud fees for her stallion. We've already had a lot of people who have been showing horses for years comment on how beautiful these foals all are. Now we just need one of them to be needing a horse at the same time they're out there looking...
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