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March 20, 2011 I started our foaling journals back in 2008 when Phil in
Maine emailed me and asked to share foaling tips with him. Phil became a
good friend and the foaling journals were born. They became a reference
place for even me; a set of notes I could refer to. This spring we just
have one mare due. It is my steady driving mare,
Lily, who was bred to Desert Shadows Moon
Warrior on May 16, 18, 20 and 22nd of 2010. Her previous gestations
have been 333 and 336 days. This trend has us expecting to meet the baby
on April 19-20th. I used our Foaling
Calculator to figure that out.
I like giving a vaccination within 30 days
of foaling. Thus, Lily may want to run from me in the morning. I will
greet her with a needle. (killed virus of WEE, Flu, WNV, and Tetanus).
It is also time to find my book, The
Complete Book of Foaling, and review it. I also will want to review
our notes from a presentation by Dr,
Harris a few years back.
I shaved Lily today due to our warmer
temps. Lisa also trimmed her feet. I drove her regularly up until about
a month ago. She was in the Buckeye parade with us and did great. Since
I have been training Design to drive, Lily
has been pasturing with Beamer to keep him company. We love parades and
sharing the minis with the public. Click here
to see many of the parades we've participated in.
On March 19, we attended The Carousel Show
in Scottsdale. Minis were not part of the show so they asked us to come
and drive a bit in the arena. They also asked us to set up pens and
share our horses with the public. The miniatures were very loved and all
went well.
Click
here to see a video of our day. The show officials brought us fancy
ribbons to hand out to the children and it was wonderful seeing their
faces light up.
Back to Lily, she is starting to bag up.
She usually does not get milk until the moment before she foals. Tricky
mare!
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March 20, 2011 She has now
had her vaccination, has been moved to the foaling stall
and is bagging up. Lily is one who bags up full, but
then waits to have baby.
Click here to see Lily's progression before her Feb
6, 2010 baby. Click here
to see her progression before her April 6, 2008 |
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March 29,
2011
We were in our first AMHA
show, The Touch of Class! So fun, but our notekeeping suffered.
Lily is on camera now and someone will always be here with her
now until baby arrives. |
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April 1, 2011
Our church has their men's prayer meeting here at our
home tonight. Of course, my girls could not resist some
April Fools jokes. We had a miniature chicken sitting in
the Living room on some elk antlers to surprise them.
The antlers came from a dear man from Maine, Phil, who
now owns 2 of our minis, one being
Lily's 08 filly. This
little Serama rooster weighs almost 1 pound. Then, Jess,
rigged the kitchen sink so that the sprayer would soak
whoever turned it on. My clean home will be
destroyed..... Lily
is busy making faces in the camera. Honest, she is
laying down with her nose turned up in the air and she
wriggles it around. We forgot that she did this last
year too until we just saw it now. Her bag is full, but
she really does not look dropped yet.
Nancy Rivenburgh sent me
the best surprise today. She sent a video of
Grosshill Dandys Special Edition
( "Eddy") as a baby. This stallion sired Santana,
Baritone, our Beamer,
Columbia's Dancing Queen and others. I had asked her if
she knew that she was looking at greatness when she
first saw Eddy as a baby. She said yes. Now, I can see
it too. He looks like a miniature modern
Shetland....this was unheard of 13 years ago when he was
born. He had the look that I and many others want to
achieve today. |
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April 2
Thus far, I have only heard of preg testing mares using blood,
urine, ultrasound or palpation.....but, I was just reading about
a test where they analyze the mare's poop. Anyone heard of this?
Or, is this a scam? I am really wondering who is pregnant in my
pasture for next year!
Touch of Class was really a fun
show for us.
Click here to see my daughter showing Justine for the first
time. Lisa trained and showed Justine without any help :) Also,
if you would like to see Design at Touch,
click
here. I trained him "all by myself" too. Love these minis!
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April 5, 2011 Troublesome
thing going on here. Of course, I have to find something to
worry about. But, Lily's milk bag has started getting smaller! A
shrinking bag instead of a growing bag?!? |
April
8, 2011
Her bag changed course once again and
is filling quickly. Below are pictures of the last 3 mornings!
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April
12, 2011 We have been watching
Lily carefully for the last week since she obviously dropped. We
are still unable to get milk so milk stripping is out of the
question. Tonight there are big changes. She is swollen up below
her tail and her bag could not be fuller. She is also laying
down more tonight. I think we are very close! |
April 15,
2011 Wow, can a mare
get any bigger of a bag? And, Jessie who can get milk
out of any mare, still cannot get any from Lily. This
has been the case with her other 2 pregnancies. We have
lots of children visiting who are anxious to meet baby.
Please pray for Lily....we are doing so too!
Any guesses as to when we
will meet baby? |
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4/14/11 Morning
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4/14/11 Afternoon
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4/15/11
Morning
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April 16,
2011
Another night passes and no
baby. We have a family living with us because they want to see
this baby enter the world so badly. Then last night, a young
girl, named Faith slept here trying to see it. Grrr....if Lilly
would just give us milk to test, we would have a better idea.
Because I can't leave her, driving trips to our general store
are out of the question. But, we did have fun as the sun went
down. I drove Design, Lisa drove Justine, Faith drove Faith,
Jess drove Cameo and then Missy, and Noah drove Faith. They also
jumped Beamer and Cameo. Beamer did get some round penning in
the morning. When we sold all of our big horses, that allowed us
to remove the sand from our arena. It gave us a nice area to
drive.
Last year, this same
family stayed the night to see her delivery. In the morning,
they left to take care of their own chores and she had the baby
without them around 10 AM on Saturday morning. This family only
lives about 5 minutes away, but it was 5 minutes too far. She
did give us milk about 15 minutes prior to birth. The little bit
we can get out right now is sticky and sweet.
Once again, I ask you
to pray for a safe delivery here.
Lily's dad, lives at
Bamboo Acres, with Christa. She emailed today to say she is
praying....thank you, Christa.
We had an unusually
hot day here today with our high just above 95 degrees. I still
was able to work Beamer and
Design. 5 of the mares got their
tails washed and braided and Lisa trimmed
McCarthys Cameo and
Faith. Afterwards, she started
groudnwork with a Design daughter that we own. We call her
Deedee. She is very leggy and has
excellent movement. Her Grandpa on one side is
Grosshill Dandys Special Edition and
on the other side is NFCS Dandys Moon
Man. I think she will be really nice in the cart. Hubby
cemented in some poles in the barn for us. And, Anna helped with
chores too. Busy days! Tonight, our neighbors are once more
sleeping in the Living Room and a young girl from church is
sleeping in Lisa's room. All are hoping to welcome baby into the
world.
Around 9:30 PM, after
cleaning up in the barn area, Lily threw herself down. She was
so sudden, I thought that this was it....but, here I am typing
away on the computer and baby is still inside. Lisa thinks she
had wax....
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April
18, 2011
Jess was able to get .02cc of
milk from Lily! This is an extremely small sample, but we
were able to test and we believe we will have a baby within 24
hours!!!! |
April 19,
2011
Honestly I am shocked that we
did not see a baby last night. Lily was so swollen
up....looked like she had used botox.... and we were
fairly sure it was going to happen. We stayed up late
watching movies until we couldn't keep our eyes open any
longer. As we drifted off, we counted on our breeder
alert to wake us if something happened. Today we
collected only .04 cc from Lily and added .24 distilled
water. Again, she tested as ready. I am going to add the
PH strips to tonight's test, and see what that tells me.
She is not acting distressed at all, other than she
wants to be in the pasture and not in the barn..
We were excited to have
Magic come back into heat.
She bred with Beamer this
morning. Next year will be a busy and exciting year for
us! Angel is due in the fall
with a Design baby.
McCarthys Cameo
might, might be pregnant by
Steam Roller.
Angel already looks
pregnant, McCarthys
Cameo does not. But, neither have come back into
heat. From my days of working at Lasma, we have learned
to keep a white board with our records on it. We tease
everyday and chart each mare's response. |
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April
20, 2011 Today I feel pretty
worried. This mare usually foals without even giving us any
signs of laboring. She has had quick easy deliveries. This time
she is showing lots of stress....all night and all day. Rolling,
pacing, biting side, etc. All of this can be very normal, but it
is not so with this mare. I pray she is just repositioning baby.
We are about as prepared as we can be, but can use prayers for a
safe delivery and calm spirits.
She did finally have
more milk in her bag. Her Ph tested a bit high, but her calcium
levels are perfect. She is very loose, very full of milk and
uncomfortable. |
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11 PM and she made it
here safely. Thank you to all of you who prayed and to
those who called. The delivery was fast and wonderful.
It was so fast that I did not have time to hand the
camera over to my daughter. I was the one with the
camera and the video was blurry. I need younger eyes
again that can focus without glasses!
This baby has already met a million and one visitors and
she is loving it!
See more of "Rose" by
clicking here. |
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