Bambi, at 5 days old, or so. She is so tiny, that mini baby halter she is wearing has a knot tied in the leather crown piece--and it still hangs. She is a little oompa.
You cannot know how long I have waited this season to say this!
So far so good!
We had our first preg- check yesterday morning--Diablo. She is now 21 days in foal to TR Dual Rey. YAYAYAYAYAY! I am so excited for this. Meanwhile, Diablo's son Young N High, who lives in Canada, became the father of his second child, out of Playboys Rondeevous, who is Melody's daughter and also lives in Canada. Big day in Diablo-world. For some reason, when we were ultrasounding her, she was shivering all over the whole time---then I realized it was only about 40 degrees and we were all shivering. This weather is weird.
Also yesterday, we checked up on Haida Girl and Cash, and oddly both had exactly the same 49 follicle, starting to lose shape, which means it is getting ready to let loose of the egg. I ordered some Kit Dual semen for HG and some Peppy Plays for Cash for Cash, and hoped they would hold on until this morning.
Off I went at 7:30 this morning, praying HG would not give me any trouble about getting in the trailer, but leaving her son at home. I should not have worried about her--she was perfect. I was very pleased with her.
We made it to the vet on time, and our first hangup was a missing can of semen. The shipping stallion station had failed to have the can held at the Fed Ex warehouse, so it was jaunting all over southern Illinois in a delivery truck. Usually that means it can be hours before it gets where we need it and it can mess up a whole. Fortunately, Fed Ex was on the ball and got it to the office in record time. It was there by 9:15.
The Kit Dual semen was good stuff---not all the way warm when we checked it, but still pretty active stuff. HG had a 51 follicle, so now we hold our breath that all these good circumstances result in a conception.
The Peppy Plays for Cash semen was excellent as always. Those little fellers were practically jumping off the microscope slide. Cash was down to a 46 follicle, but that is okay--it had changed shape so much that ovulation had to be imminent. Cross your fingers on that one too.
And on top of all that, I get to take the rest of the week off from the vet--I don't have to go back until Monday morning to see if Squeak is ready to be bred.
Meanwhile, Aries is getting pretty close to foaling. She has been waxed up for a while, but is not tonight. It could be any time. I sure hope it is by Thursday morning, since I have to leave town that late afternoon for work, etc, and won't be back until Saturday evening.
I love foaling season, but it sure is a lot more fun when it is not raining non-stop like it has been lately. Tomorrow is supposed to clear up and get close to 80 degrees--now that is prime baby watching weather.
Man was I excited about this one getting here! And looking at Aries at 7:30 tonight, in this condition, I knew it would be tonight. Poor girl. I went home, started dinner, fed the dogs and tried to watch the ER Finale. I should have known she would pick now. Once I decided her fidgeting was for real, I shut the computer off, put it in my bag and drove here--I swear, no more than 5 minutes passed. When I got here, he was already born! She was up standing over him and he was totally trapped in the bag, making goofy noises. I broke it open and saw the sweetest little redhead I have seen in a long time. At least a few weeks!
Then Aries laid down with him. She loves being a mom, but we did not get to see her with her first last year--just found that all was well in the morning, so I assumed they got there peacefully.
This one is kind of pissing her off, and I am not sure why. They are working things out though, thank goodness. I spent most of my time in there doing the doctoring, the ProBios, the e.coli endotox, treating the belly button...I passed on the seramune, as this is such a high dollar investment for us that the vet will come probably on Saturday to check antibodies and if they are not just right, the baby will get a plasma transfusion to help him along.
Look at that sweet baby face! I was in there too much and he started following me around, instead of his mama. That made me get out for a while.
But not before I got this different twist on the first mama/baby hug photo. I might work on it when I get time to make it better, but I wanted to share it while I still had it on my mind.
What a relief that he is here, and all appears to be well. When he gets the all-clear from the vet, I will really be able to enjoy him. I cannot wait to call his daddy tomorrow, to let him know he has arrived. You can see him at Buffalo Ranch, under Meradas Blue Sue. My next call will be to her next kissing lover, Sophisticated Catt, who you can see at Brightstone Ranch
This is Aries at 7:30 p.m. last nite. This is what led me to suck it up and go to the farm to sleep with her after the Illini got their asses kicked in the NCAA tourney.
Unfortunately, this is what Aries still looks like. I went to sleep at 1:30, got up at 2:20, 4 am, 5:45 and 7 am....and the only difference is that now she has wax on both sides.
Oh well, my comforter at the house was still not dry anyway, so I would not have slept better there either. I had to run the dryer for the fourth time this morning. The flood in the laundry room got soaked up by dirty sheets, before they were washed, in case you were wondering if there was still water standing in there.
This is what Aries looked like after I pulled half a horse of hair off of her last nite. She has just the tiniest bit of summer coat growing on top, so she is bald and scurfy. She will not make pretty mama pics until she gets a bath, and even then she might be questionable.
If she does not spit this baby out tonight, she will be on her own tomorrow to work it out for herself, as I am going on a shopping trip for summer clothes in this size. Which to be honest is not that much smaller than my previous size. I did get the nerve to weigh last nite and I have not gained any more than the original pound or pound and a half, which is amazing to me.
Anyway, the trip tomorrow is to celebrate Crispy Critter Day--32 years since I got burned. That is amazing to me.
I am looking forward to posting some other stuff and other pics, I bet you are all getting bored of baby and business pics by now, aren't you?
And this time I am not talking about mine. We already did that, didn't we?
This is Miss Melody. She is due on March 14, but last year she was a tricker and went two weeks early. If she does that again this year, she will spit forth her spawn this weekend. Of course, since I am expecting that, she will do no such thing. I am trying to trick her to hang on til it is a little warmer around here. I stopped over to feed her and check all the soon-to-be mamas this afternoon, and while she is not bagged up far enough for me to think she is going to foal soon, she is uncomfortable, so who knows.
I won't be finding out if something happens via the living room though as Barry did not get the foalcam set up yet and he is leaving in the morning. Nor did he get the horse trailer moved over there--for the first time ever, I am looking forward to staying there on the nights when I am watching multiple mares, because I will get to stay in the new fancy horse trailer!~
But it aint there yet, so that is not going to happen either. He swears he will do it this weekend---
That is a lot of karma running into each other for one situation, isnt it? Me sick and unable to be at the top of my game, Mel not showing signs, so not stalled, foalcam not up anyway, trailer not there for me to be on standby, but Barry leaving town for three days.....that ought to make the universe work extra hard to get things lined out.
Big Xan is due at the same time as Mel. She too went early last year--12 or 13 days, I cannot remember which. I am watching her ass too--but she is not even starting to bag up. I am not having her slide by me this year like she did last year though, no sirree Bob.
If those two trickers are not enough, Hotrod is also due at the same time as them! Sly was wearing himself flat out on these girls last year, knocking up four of them in the space of 24 hours (and no, he did not breed all four of them the same day--but they managed to ovulate within 24 hours of each other or so--I could not make that happen had I tried to).
These top three mares are my biggest girls size wise--and not just height, but girth as well. They are all also about the same age, and I know what to expect from them when they deliver. Absent any mal-positioned foal or other unforeseen complications, I do not worry about them very much. I do want to be there for them though, as I have seen so many births that it has become normal for me to see them rather than abnormal. I know how wonderful it is, and now that I have the good camera, I want to be on top of things.
This one gives me some pause. Baby Cash--I guess we should stop calling her that now that she is about to become a mother--is due on March 13. Since she is a maiden, there is no telling when she will go. And while I say she is "due" then, there is really no such thing as a due date for mares--let that be todays horse trivia. They are considered full term after 32o days, and normal terms are from then until 360. It is habit for me to fix their due date at 340 days, which is what a lot of people do, and to expect a baby around that time. Some never do that, for example Playmate who always foaled at 326 days even if she had to back up to you and birth it in your lap to get it done on time. She was like magic. Other horses are not so reliable, although many will make a pattern of going around a certain number of days. With mares who have never foaled, though, it is a crap shoot.
Cash conceived on April 8 last year. That is how I picked March 13 for her day. However, we have passed the 320 day mark, so if she foals anytime, it will likely be okay for the baby as far as being developed enough--some just do not have to cook as long as others. She is started to bag up, which is cute on her, since she is such a roly poly.
I wonder if she knows what is going on? Is she scared? Or excited? Last year, she stole Gypsy's baby from her right after it was born (another surprise a couple of days early with no warning), and was trying to take care of it--so I hope that carries over to her own baby. Horses are so weird, a maiden can do any fool thing like not have any interest in the baby, or hate it or be scared of it, or try to hurt it--so I dont want to miss this one under any circumstances. I have only had that happen once in all these years and that was one of our first babies, and I pray to God it never happens again, as we had to put the little baby down. I hate that.
On to other medical matters of interest besides the birthing of babies, Tequila is making it het job to lick herself into a bald oozing sore. She currently has these nice two lick granulomas or hot spots she is working on like it is her damn job. They are not nice. They ooze. I am not a fan of that. So she is back on prednisone and an abx for any infection it allows in. The pred makes her pee, which makes me glad I dont have the kind of illness that makes me queasy for sure.
She is a piece of work, but her back end was working pretty good today--enough that I saw her playing with Ratty boy and peeg today
Then I have the eye injury of unknown origin in Aries. She has somehow caused her right eye to swell shut--the lower lid is swollen pretty good, and it is almost all the way shut. She started eye with an ulcer treatment yesterday, just in case, but that takes a while. Eye injuries are weird. A little bute got the swelling down some tonight, enough that she fought the eye meds due to pain. Poor girl, I hate that for her. She is due in April, and I hate using a bute on one that close but it is not good to let her hurt either, so maybe a couple days of that will help her out.
I love that horse.
Yeah this is a pic of nothing--one that I focused on funny when trying to take shots of babies that will not get out of my way--it kind of turned out a little artsy though with the focus in the background rather than the fore.
I think my fever is making me loopy.
Echo was having a laydown when I arrived. In the mud. In the rain. What do you think that is about? They have a perfectly nice shelter and she chooses this instead. I do not get it.
This I understand. There is food involved, so I get standing in the rain.
Uno was having a perfectly good nap this afternoon--you have to get it while the getting is good around here. The wind had been blowing like mad all day and it was overcast, but he found a good spot and got serious about sleeping.
Unbeknownst to him, his mother was being aggravated by flies. Eventually it made her so crazy that she had to roll. Unfortunately, she did not look first at where she was going and the next thing you know, poor Uno had a rude awakening.
He managed to get loose of her so she could roll all she needed, and then gave up altogether and left the area. Smart boy.
I personally could not see these bugs that were bothering her, but they sure were interrupting her groove tonight. She could not even get up from her roll without them bugging her, and she ended up sitting there practically on her butt chewing at the bugs.
Uno had an odd approach to his first turn out session--he was fascinated with the new fence line. Why I do not know since he never knew it before it was new, but whatever. He ran up and down the fence line skidding and turning and playing, but it put him between me and the sun, so most of the pics are not good. 
These two show his interesting launching techniques---
I think this was the beginning of a good buck.
This was not the new fence, but the fence perpendicular to it. He eventually added it to his repertoire, and made big triangles in the pasture
And sometimes, he reversed and went back the way he came---with Aries in tow the whole way
And finally, they came out into the light like normal people, so I could get a decent photo of them
Aries has never looked so good since the day we bought her. She has filled out, is amazingly fit for someone how has taken the last year off from training, and not done a thing except eat and grow this baby.
Maybe it is moves like this that keep her in good shape?
I love these babies, I took a jillion pics, so I will spare you all but a few and slowly add them in over the next few days. It will be hard to pick the good ones----I kind of wore myself out over there. BUT, both babies are so cute, I cannot stand it.
They are both gorgeous---a lot of it is relief on my end, since these were my only maidens this year. We have had the regular issues, but Aries is so proud of her baby, it is a hoot. And she squeals and talks and groans through all his nursing, which is like a symphony over there. A bad one, but a symphony all the same. Bree suggested the name Uno, which I like
And this bay filly---she may look like a regular filly to everyone else, but this one is special to me.
The bay filly is sure a long legged monkey to come from such a little mama.
Gypsy did not have an easy delivery and I will feel much better after she is flushed and has an internal exam
and 6:30 am when Lorna got up. My guess is middle of the nite as he was up and dry by then.
Clearly Aries did not get the memo that you do not wax for a week before foaling. Tonight she was actually spurting milk when she walked and must have been dripping all day as her legs are funny looking.
This is her on her actual due date (well as close as you get with mares--they average 340 days but really anywhere from 320 -360 days is normal), which was Monday. See why I mean she is the only one that does not know she is pregnant? She is not huge, which is not strange for a maiden, and since she is so much longer bodied than most of my girls, she can hide it better--if you had not seen the conception like I did, you would wonder if we had it wrong. But we don't, cuz we did.
Here is the freaky way she is shedding--I always have one or two that do this, usually Lucky does but she only is long haired on her belly and legs this year--you can actually roll the hair off with your hand---for some reason, I cannot stop myself from doing it. It is kind of like chewing your fingernails, or peeling a sunburn peel. This seems strange to me that she is doing this as she has been under lights for weeks, and been groomed religiously virtually every day for a while. We have pulled pounds of hair off of her, and I cannot believe she had anything left to roll up like this, but there you go. Underneath, the new fine baby hair is so soft, but so far, it is still dull and pale and not the pretty color it will be, but I think that is because it is so short still. 
She kind of looks like she has the mange, doesn't she?
I really think she will go tonight--partly because of the streaming milk and her whipping of the tail, but also because I am so exhausted, I am going to bed early. Thank goodness for my backup foalwatcher Lorna who is giving it a couple of hours of observation so I can get some sleep. Thanks Lorna!
and jumping in with today's activites---I got this big plan yesterday to have the next two mares due stay in the sand pit for a while. It has dried out finally, and by putting them in there, I do not have to clean two more stalls (I am not even sure I HAVE two more stalls), yet can still give them an extra feeding and check them very easily for signs of foaling. And if God forbid, they sneak one by me, it is a safe place to foal.
So Snap and Gyro are in there. Gypsy and overdue Aries are stalled, and then are turned out in the front pasture with the already foaled mamas during the day. It is absolutely gorgeous out so I do not want them to stay inside during the day, but I also have the issue of Aries terrorizing Squeak--I think she is the one who ran her poor blind ass over the fence last week. I am not going to put one that close to delivering in the middle pasture where the others can aggravate her, and it is such a big pasture, if she wants to make life hard on me, it would be a pain to chase her. Since she is acting so crazy, I sure do not want to give her a chance to do anything goofy. Anyway, all that long story to explain things that really have nothing to do with all that anyway.
This morning I got really smart and decided to put all four of the soon to foal girls in the sand pit where they could move around, have shelter from the sun if they want it, and plenty of room to roll and stretch out for an afternoon nap in the sun.
Things never go according to plan for me----in the end, I got Gypsy moved 90% of the way to the sand pit, and sunk almost up to my knees in mud and shit that is at the gateway to that pit. That whole area needs to be gutted with the tractor and new rock is coming tomorrow to remedy that situation....but the bottom line is t
hat Gypsy took that chance to haul balls out into the middle pasture.
Look at this poor child. She is due on Sunday. Not only can she not take a decent photograph, they do not show how HUGE she is. She is such a little girl, that this pregnancy has her looking like a snake that ate a basketball. She is so cute, and I swear she is beautiful in real life--just not in pics. She even had a bath after work yesterday (something I should NOT have attmpeted while I am still hurting this bad), so she looked so pretty--not that you can tell by these pics.
The good part of the story is that after work tonight, I FINALLY got Barry to move all that mud and crap that was on the concrete apron leading to the middle pasture. Life will be so much easier now, I cannot tell you how much. I almost cried when I saw how much he got done while I was running errands and trying to mow the yard (I ran out of gas, which is really irritating, since it now costs 20 bux to fill the stupid gas can)
.
This is toward the very end of the job, and I bet there was still several tons of mess left to move. Such a difference this makes--do you know how disgusting it was to plod through that mess every day, in order to feed? DISGUSTING, it held water, it stunk, it was foul. The horses do not have to stand in it, but to get to them, I had to go through it. Life will be so much better now.
It was a good nite.
Aries is streaming milk, cramping up and whacking that tail around like a whip--surely we will have a baby any minute.
Today when we went to turn Aries out, I saw the tiniest dot of wax on the right side---but not worth keeping her in for. I planned to bring her in tonight, but Barry said she was bering a witch and running from him. He waited for her to come to get a drink, and would go to catch her and off she would shoot like a bat out of hell. At least it is nice out, but I sure hope she does not foal outside tonight--I worry about her since she is a maiden, and she was not particularly nice to Triton trying to make friends out in the pasture. It is giving me some concerns about how she will treat her own baby.
Anyway, she was full of it when she got out, I got some funny pictures.
I have given up on trying to take decent photos of these girls, as clearly, I am not capable of it. So you just get new ones, even though they are not in any way decent and make them both look like deformed freaks.
Gyspy has a cute tummy in real life, so please ignore that all her feet are pointing a different direction than her body. I took this shot in a hurry while I was hunting my phone today and they were coming to mob me.
Miss Aries down here looks like she is all head and no ass, and since that has been the topic of discussion before, I want to state for the record that it is not the case. If she had a forelock, she would not look so wierd in the head, she actually has a nice shape to her head--plain, but not wrong by any means. And when her belly is not pulling her down, she looks much nicer than any photo I can take. I am actually excited for this baby and if things work right, I plan to breed her to Meradas Blue Sue.
Since Missy is playing "Colt or Filly" on her blog, I want to play too.
This is Aries, she is due early to mid-April or so with her first foal. She and Gyspy are my only maidens this year and they are due within days of each other. They are carrying completely differently, but then again, they are built differently as well--Gypsy is very compact, while Aries has more hiding room in her abdomen.
I saw the strangest thing tonight after feeding. Aries evidently had an itch. Partway throught taking pics of her and realizing that photos would never show how odd this was, I remember that I can do videos on my camera, so I did a short one.
She did this twice, and then went on with her business. She feels fine, so there is nothing to worry about with her, she just itched!
Gracious, who would think that it is time to worry about 2008 foals? But it is almost time to start the rhino shots. Yuck yuck yuck, one more thing to put on the list!
I realize this is not such a flattering angle for a photograph, but it shows Aries's tummy so well. She is just getting as cute as she can be. She is the second one I have noticed that looks better knocked up than not. I am preally pleased with her development.
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