Foaling Journal for I AM Ranch Miniature Horses

March 2011

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Name of Mares due in 2011

Name of Stallion

Last Date Bred

Previous Gestation Length

Due Date based on Previous Gestation

Actual Date of Birth

Crystals Easter Lily

Desert Shadows Moon Warrior

5/22/2010

333 in 2008

336 in 2010

4/19/2011

4/20/11

I AM the Rose of Sharon(333 days gestation)

Lazy Rs Rhythms Angel Eyes

Woodland Acre Bi Dandys Fire Design

12/19/2010

Maiden

11/20/2011

We lost her baby due to placentitis at 268 days.

McCarthy's Cameo

Whitneyvilles Steam Roller

12/11/2010

Maiden

11/12/2011

11/20/11

I AM Steam Rollers Legacy Lass (344 days gestation)

 

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!

 

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
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.
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.

 
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!

 

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!

4/6/11

4/7/11

4/8/11

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?

4/14/11 Morning

4/14/11 Afternoon

4/15/11 Morning

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.... 

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.

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.

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.

 

 

May 5, 2011 We did our first Wee Foal 120 test tonight. It told us that McCarthys Cameo is indeed pregnant by Whitneyvilles Steam Roller!!! I can't wait to meet this baby in the fall of 2010. Click here to read this next foaling journal from Fall of 2011

 

 

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