The Shakeup Shook him out!

I actually knew this by the time the earlier post posted, since I wrote that at 2:30 or 3:00 am and scheduled it to post this morning. By then, I had all kinds of other news, but no energy to write about it.

I stayed up watching her on the foal cam until a little after 4:00. I was watching a movie in bed and keeping an eye on her, and must have fallen asleep at 4:30 or so. Something fell in the floor right at 5:00 am, and it woke me up to see that Haida Girl was ready to foal. I rushed over there and got to see it all.


She was a little restless, and had already broken a sweat by the time I got there. I could tell she had been at it for a while, but not a lot of progress had been made.

In the above picture, you can see his two little feet positioned exactly as they should be, followed by his little snoot. The problem was that the snoot kept coming and going. She pushed her little heart out but could not seem to get his head all the way out. When it appeared she was getting worn out, I decided to help her. That is always hard work, and I was this close to having to call Barry to get up and come help, but I gave it one final shot and we got it done, Out he plopped right into my lap. (I totally forgot about this until I was getting a Diet coke and paper at the gas station, and dripped a puddle of amniotic fluid off my jeans--that is kind of embarrassing)
His feet had broken the sack already, so I peeled it off of his head and went to hide in the corner to take pictures. He is just minutes old in this shot, and not all the way born yet.

HG seemed to know what to do right off the bat. She talked to him really quietly and seemed to be an old pro. She liked him very very much, which is a huge relief when it is a first foal for a mare. You never know when one will have no idea what the baby is, or be scared of it, or try to hurt it, or just not know what to do. She was perfect from the start.
Right away, she started licking him dry all over and loving on him. I was excited to see those gray legs---I love a bay and we do not seem to get many of them any more. When he blows his foal coat, those legs will be black.

This pic is so not even in focus. That is what you get at 5:30 in the morning, and you do not get a second chance to shoot baby's first steps.
He fumbled all over the stall, trying to get those long legs under control. He was very good at going backwards. It was cute how that was easier for him. At one point, he went over backwards, did a few back rolls and ended up all the way across the stall under the hay feeder. When he tried to get up, he ended up in this rubber feed dish. Good thing babies are so flexible, cuz they sure do crash a lot.


I promise HG is a pretty girl, she just cannot seem to show it in these pictures. Sorry. Flash indoors is not flattering, esp when you are limited to a small area and cannot use distance to balance out distortion

I finally went back home around 7:30 and went to bed. Barry went back to check on them around 8:30. At that time, HG was very angry about Rock looking at her from the stall on the other side. Barry turned her out to give HG some peace and things looked up from there. Baby boy nursed well and bucked around the stall like a fruit loop. It is so funny to see them experiment, so I hate that I only saw one little awkward buck on my shift.
I slept a little and went back this afternoon to convince HG that she was not the boss of the baby and that I could do what I wanted with him. She was not a huge fan of this plan, but that is too bad--things have to be done to take care of him. She is already way better tonight, about letting us handle him without threatening us. That is not uncommon for a first foal, and I would rather see that than a lack of concern from her. I knew she would come around though, she is very disciplined and knows who the boss is. Quit laughing about that, Headleys. There has to be an exception to everything

It is supposed to stop raining tonight, so maybe Madison and I can get him out for actual pictures tomorrow. We might lose him in the standing water though, so it may take a couple of days to get it done.

As always, I need naming help. Dad is Sophisticated Catt (High Brow Catt x Shania Cee) and Haida Girl is by Haidas Little Pep, and out of Doctors Playmate by Son ofa Doc. No people names for call names, and I need both registered and barn name options.