Monday, June 23, 2014

Better than Christmas!

To me, the week before a mare foals is better than Christmas.  "Why?" you might ask. 

This is Tulah, Durkkhal x Malikat, here on a foal lease from Kelsey Kempfert.  She is due July 9th, but could foal anytime in the next few weeks.

Well, after doing this for almost 30 years (which is kind of amazing in itself), I've found that the week before the mare foals is full of lovely speculation...that foal is the right sex, the right color, has perfect conformation and is as healthy as can be.

Once she's in labor, the tension heightens;  "Will it be a colt or a filly?"  "Will it be buckskin/palomino/with lots of chrome?"  "Will the delivery be easy?". 

As the hours fly by and the dead of night approaches, some of your foaling buddies give up and go home.  Some stay.


This was a few years ago, from Monica's blog, Horsebytes, http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/ during foalwatch for Cady (a boarder), I think.  Note the helpful dogs as lap warmers.
 
Then, the excitement begins!  Usually a foaling is over within minutes after the water breaks.
 

 

Annie and one of her foals from the Horsebytes blog.  Maybe in 2010?  Is it a filly?
 
 
No, a nice colt. The foal gets up and greets the world, Christmas has come and all is as it should be.
 
This photo is from 2010, from the Horsebytes story "The Foaling Moon" http://blog.seattlepi.com/horsebytes/2010/06/02/the-foaling-moon/
 This is Miras, Annie's 2010 foal by Murgab.


 

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