Prepare yourself for LOTS of pictures! I'd like to describe and show him and his "story" so far, both to introduce him to you all and for my own memories.
My mare was on a webcam and a good month overdue by the time she decided to foal. She'd been acting funny all day, but mares can actually put off labor if disturbed in the early stages so we just left her to her own devices, and she started to really get to serious around 7 pm. I was about 35 minutes away and watching her on cam, but did not leave soon enough. Once she got serious she pushed him out fast! So though I drove like a (mostly safe) maniac, I missed the birth. Thankfully it was recorded by the owner of the barn and I got to view it later.
The craziest part? My mare had him *standing up*! This is extremely unusual for horses, and dangerous because they're certainly not giraffes and are not designed to land on their heads! Thankfully he was fine. If you'd like to see the video of the birth you can bring it up in Windows Media Player. Click File in the menu (you have to have "Show Classic Menus" checked to see the File, View, Play, etc options showing - let me know if you don't know how to do that), and "Open URL" and then paste in the following: http://www.horsesnsuch.com/LadyD-birth-5-21-09.WMV
It's a long recording of about a half hour - mostly labor, and the actual foaling occurs at about 23:00. The woman rushing in is the owner of the barn, and she of course went in to make sure he was ok after his unusual delivery, pull the afterbirth off his head, clean out his nose, etc.
I showed up probably 10 minutes later, and found this:
D was being a great mom and was very interested in him - licking and sniffing him all over. You can see some of that in the end of the video, it's just precious. However, the little guy did have a hard time standing (not for lack of trying!) and so after about an hour he was all tuckered out from trying. It was clear he was not going to be able to get up on his own so we helped him stand. Once he got his "sea legs" he did great.
However, here is where some problems began. D, being a maiden (first time) mom, was very nervous about letting Breeze nurse. Her udder was so full that it hurt, and she didn't understand that if she let him nurse she'd actually feel better. She just associated any touching in that area with pain. We ended up having to tie up one of her front legs (she was beginning to kick at Breeze and we didn't want him hurt) and put a lip chain on her (neither hurt her - they just restrained and distracted her enough to let him nurse). Even then, Breeze was very slow at figuring nursing out, as many colts are. D relaxed quickly after she realized him nursing was actually a relief, and restraints (other than a hand on her halter) were not even needed by the second or third time he got up to nurse.
Problems didn't end there, unfortunately! D had yet to pass her placenta after several hours. At one point earlier in the night she'd kicked at it and tore off a large chunk, so it was no longer heavy (gravity is a major contributing factor in passing the placenta). We called the vet after quite a few hours and she recommended tying something to it to add weight but I knew that wasn't an option, as D would have freaked out. So we ended up having to pick up a shot of oxytocin to cause her to have contractions again. We were also advised to provide gentle traction if necessary. I felt so bad for D - the shot made her very crampy and uncomfortable and she didn't make much progress on her own - I ended up doing most of the pulling on the placenta in the end to get it out. Thankfully it all came out (pieces left behind can cause infection).
From then on, pretty much everything was a "breeze" (hehe excuse the terrible pun). Breeze was a scrawny little foal even though he cooked for a long time, but he filled out quickly. Here he is just a few days later:
Meeting my (at the time) 98 year-old grandmother. I imprinted him from birth and he was very easy to handle:
He did, and still does, love to sniff all over my face:
First trim... he's a big boy now!
He must be growing up, shedding that baby fuzz:
Learning to be ponied and led alongside mom:
And first time tied by himself:
Wait, what the heck is this??
That's Breeze's first winter coat! He thought dark bay was the way to go, the weirdo. He didn't even look like the same horse!
Then he was weaned, and alllll alone (though it really went very well for both mom and baby):
Aaaaand back to his summer coat, of his 1 year old year (same color as mom again!):
Finally, here he was a few months ago, in his second winter:
He looks more like his mom every day (and has obviously inherited her hair)!
Now that you've been thoroughly pic-spammed I will just fill you in on his current status. :) He was gelded the first of March and is an absolute gem. I recently moved both horses to a new farm and he was very easy to load into the trailer. He leads, loads, ties, he stands for trims, grooming, and baths, lunges, and generally everything else I think a horse his age should know how to do! He's extremely intelligent and he loves to run and play. I'm not planning to start riding him for *at least* another year, and I will do a separate post on my reasoning sometime in the future.
Finally, I will leave you with his two most popular videos:
This video will give you the best feel for his personality. He is an absolute riot!!
And that, is Breeze in a (somewhat large) nutshell. I'm very proud of my boy and feel very blessed to have him.
No comments:
Post a Comment