Foaling Journal for I AM Ranch M

Foaling Journal for I AM Ranch Miniature Horses

February 2010

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Name of Mare	Name of Stallion	Last Date Bred	Previous Gestation Length	Due Date based on Previous Gestation	Actual Date of Birth
Wee Wees Double Magic Lady	Sparkle Plentys Irish Cream	3/4/2009	331	1/29/2010	1/26/10 Filly 328 gestation
Crystals Easter Lily	Chance of Golds Don Juan	3/7/2009	333	2/3/2010	2/6/10 Colt 336 gestation
Tibbs Morning Star	Desert Shadows Moon Warrior	3/8/2009	341	2/12/2010	3/1/2010 Colt 358 gestation
Little Kings Dream Doll	Desert Shadows Moon Warrior	7/21/2009	313	5/30/2010

February 1, 2010 As you can see from the chart below, we still have 3 babies to come. Two are for sure, Dream is not confirmed pregnant yet. Lily is being watched all the time and you can always find either Lisa or I home and "on call."

I am amazed by the response to the video of our Red Bag delivery. The blip counter says that over 1800 people have viewed it in 3 days time. Wow. If you are on our site, looking for it, you can click here to see it. We are praying for no more spectacular movies, just textbook deliveries. They will still be a miracle from our Lord, the great I AM, but not as popular to video viewers. It is the middle of the day and Lily is pacing her stall. Maybe she just wants out to pasture.

So, why do I take so many pictures of their bags? I believe that is where the biggest clues are that can answer the question of "when." Lily's bag is as big as it can get. We have never been able to get milk out of her until after baby is born, so we can't use the milk strips to test her. Of course the other signs of foaling are important too, but the bag has helped us the most.

PFSD has set in!! Click here to see how it has affected our family. Don't click if you can't stand corny and complete goofiness!

I (Jessie) just went to the barn to try to get milk out of Lily and Morning. Morning's milk still has a little bit of blood in it. The one teat is totally white, and the other one starts out white, then turns to blood, and then in about four-five squirts, turns back to white milk!! Odd mare! Lily still has NO milk. Well, I did get one squirt out of her, but it didn't land in the cup, it turned sideways and hit my arm. Her milk is pure WHITE!!! MAYBE tonight.... we've said that for the past week or two though. Her original projected due date was Feb. 3. Here is a series of the last two days:


This is Lily on January 31st, yeah, the picture is a bit blurry. Mom got a new camera, and it can be slightly confusing	This is Lily today, or February 1st. I'm getting a little better with the camera. It doesn't seem like she could be fuller.	2/1/10 Her belly has dropped more!

I am feeling sorry for Lily. Who would want all of these pregnant pictures of themselves put on the Internet? So here are some when she was not so pregnant. This first shot was back in March 09 when she was being bred to Donny. On all of our carts, my wonderful hubby drilled in a water bottle holder. You can see it at my feet. There is a Fuze in the holder.. This one was in September 09 when she is 6 months along and one in November at 8 months I get plenty of research time during "mare stare." This time it resulted in me ordering a Muffy Seaton video on driving and the 1 of 101 Longeing and Long Lining Exercises book.

February 2 Lily's due date is here in an hour. February 3! She is peaceful in her stall right now. We took Magic's one week old filly on a walk today to meet a neighbor who is 100 years old. This elderly lady is just about as cute as the filly. Joy looks like she is going to be a very sweet, calm filly. I am hoping to share her with the folks at the care center. They loved Supreme when we took her. Click here to see Supreme's visit and click here to see Joy's visits.

Lily is highly suspicious to me!

February 4 No baby yet. Lily is as swollen, as loose and as ready as they come. She is just waiting for a young neighbor boy to get well again so he can come witness the birth.

10:23 PM Ok, the young neighbor is all healthy again and ready to watch. We told Lily and are now waiting on her. The inside of her vulva is streaked red and yellow which is another sign of foaling. All the signs are here! C'mon Lily!

February 5 Lily's bag is amazing!! Earlier I (this is Jessie again, who just turned 13) was milking her WITHOUT a cup and I got 2 squirts and a couple drops.... I went back down there WITH a cup and she gave NO milk! Murphy's Law !!

I can't believe how big her teats are. I was about to say that she probably can't hold out longer, but we were saying that 3-4 weeks ago!! She's amazing

You can see that she's dropped.

So, I then went to milk Morning... she has a endless supply of milk. It is pure WHITE!! No longer is it bloody!

But, her teats are still tiny... and pointing in.

The friends that were mentioned in the January journal that brought us pizza have been staying every night here! They are dying to see it. Mom likes it because she sleeps better knowing that there are an extra 8 eyes in the room!!! Lily used to walk in circles all night, now she has started up, down, up, down, probably 5 times in half an hour!! Again, she's incredible!! As I started on this, she has been up and down twice.. and it hasn't taken me ALL that long!!! We'll see what happens, it's not even 8:00 PM yet. We have a long night ahead of us! And then, we got a squeeze of hay this morning, so you can guess what we'll be doing tomorrow... moving hay!!! We have been spoiled.. Mom, Lisa and I used to move all the hay.... now we have two teenage boys that help!! Makes it a lot easier on us!

February 6.....Those same friends missed it!!! They left our home early this morning disappointed because Lily still had not had her baby. We slept in and it felt so good. Jess got up early and rode her big horse. She put him away and decided to see if she could get milk from Lily as Lisa was saddling up Chief for a ride. By the way that Jess came sprinting up to our back door, I could tell she had exciting news. She bursted in exclaiming that "Lily has milk, Lily has milk!"

This was a first and I was just going to look in the cup when the Equipage beeper sounded off. Back in the bedroom, Bill was already looking at the cameras and saying, "I think she is pushing!" Yes, she was. Now, it was me sprinting to the barn. I took Chief by the reins, telling Lisa to go check the presentation while I unsaddled him. I have much more confidence in her abilities than in my own.

We all witnessed a text book birth of "I AM Buck's Kin!" (Buck for short???) Boones Little Buckeroo graces both the top and bottom of his pedigree. Click here to see a video of his birth.

He is leggy, strong, very active, blue eyed and we are grateful to our Lord. I can't wait to share him with our 100 year old neighbor and the folks at the nursing home.

There have been a zillion visitors to welcome him into the world already. Thank you Vicki, David, Noah, Skye, Denise, Chris, the Fed Ex man, Tyler, Sadie, Maryann, Pat, Carole, Kelli, Pam and Kailey for stopping in and adoring him!!

OH NO. Lisa does not like the name.....we will have to see if it grows on her or we choose a new one!

February 8

We added some new pictures to Joy's page. Joy was our survivor in the Red Bag Baby birth. She is a beauty. Little boy is a looker too. Soooooo leggy and such neat colors. He is needing some help in the pooping department. Colts especially can use the help of an enema to get things started right. When there is poop is black, the babies are still cleaning out the meconium but once you see yellowish poop, you know you are seeing mom's milk work its way through their digestive tract. I also always worm mom after they foal using Ivermectrin.

He is active and loves his time in the front yard.

February 11

So tonight, a family from church came over and we went driving all the mares that aren't pregnant or nursing. Afterwards, we came home, checked Morning, and played with babies! Joy and "Mister" are sooo cute! We still haven't decided on a name for Lily's baby because I (Lisa) do not like the name Buck.

There is still no change in Morning. I mean, her bag is slowly, slowly getting a little bigger, but nothing drastic. She is 341 days tomorrow which is when she went last year. On Saturday, we are supposed to take Joy into the care center to meet everyone, but if Morning hasn't foaled, Mom and I will be staying home.

Here are some pictures of Little Guy from tonight.

February 12 It is the 9 in the morning and I was just told that there has been a change in Morning's bag by Jess. Now, it is 10:30AM and Jess just put her head in my window saying her vulva has elongated greatly. She is at 341 days since she was bred. She also only accepted Warrior one day and that was on 3/8/2009 so there is no mistaking her breeding date or conception date. Her last pregnancy in 2008 was a 341 day gestation and then out popped cute Cinderella.

It is almost 11 PM and I don't think there will be a baby by the morning. We have been testing Morning's milk and the milk test strips do not say she is ready yet.

February 17

Morning is KILLING me. I dashed to the barn at 3:30 AM early early this morning. Lisa and Anna were right on my heels. All that was going on was the eerie call of 2 Great Horned Owls. I should've video taped that. Sounded like Indians in the woods. Off to bed. I just cracked up and threatened my daughters with a to the barn again tonight in our PJs. "Morning is pushing, Morning is pushing!" And, you should see us all bounce out of our comatose sleep and sprint to the barn on an adrenaline rush.

Only 2 mild squares are changing so I don't think it will be tonight. But, in 2008, her milk changed rapidly. We had tested her in the afternoon and it was a no go, no baby....then, we tested her after dinner. That time, the milk strips said she was ready and they were right. I know....I should go test her milk again right now, but it is cold, I am tired and hubby is already snoring. Thankfully, I can rely on the Equipage beepers and the cameras and go to sleep. We do test the beepers every day to make sure that they would say something if she laid down for any amount of time.

To the left is a duo that brought a lot of laughs in a recent AZ parade. Look at the base of the barrel and you can see the person's real feet sticking out. The legs and feet on the outside of the barrel are fakes. My mind quickly came up with other things that could pull such a contraption....a Breyer's horse, a stuffed mini horse, a cat, our Pyrenees....Fun parade ideas!

Our wonderfully eccentric farrier came today and brought us leg wraps and browbands for our parades. Jess and Dream model them. Dream is 5 months pregnant here!

Another miniature owner here in Phoenix had her yearling mauled by Pitbulls. She called me so upset the other day. The colt is going to be OK, but be very watchful over your minis. There were 2 minis that died from a dog attack in New River just a few months back. Then, another home close by had her Miniature donkeys torn up by dogs.

February 19 I don't think that tonight is the night. Her bag is filling, but so slowly. About 3 milk squares are changing. Tomorrow is the Parada del Sol and I am leaving Morning without Lisa or I for the first time in a long time. I do have a mare sitter coming here and Resa is on call in the neighborhood. Please pray that Morning either has the baby tonight or waits for us to come home. The theme for this parade is "tough enough to wear pink" so we went pink!! I think we have 11 carts going total! Nine carts have these very pink umbrellas!

Anna takes over as my horse. She is wearing the leg wraps on her arms and the bridle browband cover on her glasses. Wonder if she moves like a Single Pleasure horse??

February 21 We have had rain, and more rain. I don't know how anyone lives in Oregon. Our Parade del Sol was a Parade del Agua. I will not do anymore rainy day parades. My hands would not even work to unharness the horses at the end, the pavement was very slippery and all of our jeans were heavy, wet and sticky. Boots were even full of water. I thoroughly understand the cliche' "it rained on my parade!" We didn't get many pictures, but tried to put together a video of it all for you. Here is the youtube link for it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQSTjVCEwsE

When we brought Morning back to the barn, she slipped on the mats in the breezeway, which were very wet. She fell and I am worried for her baby. There is nothing we can do, but pray and wait. And, trust God.

February 22 Tomorrow will be 352 days! The mare's eggs can "float" for up to 2 weeks before it implants in the uterine lining. Thus there is a larger window of gestation for horses. We did have a fun thread on our AZminiatures yahoo group wherein one breeder told of a mare that went 384 days and another mare who waited 372 days. Those have got to be record long for gestation times. On the short end, Wendy of Whitneyville Miniatures told of a baby born at 296 days with only peach fuzz, no hair and cartilage for legs. The vet told this lady she would die, but love and determination (along with lots of hours) has grown this baby up to be 4 years old now. They had to be there every 2 hours around the clock and support her while she nursed. After 2 weeks, she was getting up on her own! As you can see, there can be a great amount of variation.

February 24 This is Lisa...I am sitting here vicariously watching other mares foal out on MareStare. Morning is 353 days today and is driving us crazy! We can't go anywhere or do anything because of her, and now we are starting to get worried because she is waiting so long. All the questions, "Is something wrong?," "Is this a dystocia?," "Are we sure that she's even pregnant?" Keep praying for her!

BTW, if you've never "MareStared," it is really fun! A group of geniuses set up a system where you can watch other mares/donkeys/goats/sheep, etc. have their babies via camera. The link is www.MareStare.com. The latest thing is the Barn Alarm. If you have a window pulled up with BarnAlarm on it, it will alert you when a mare is close to foaling. The link is http://www.marestare.com/barnalarm/#. Enjoy!

February 27 Wow, are we going to have to make a March Journal?? I was sure that Morning would have had her baby in February, but the end is near. She is progressing. You can see below how much fuller her bag is from last night. The milk strips are not telling us that baby will arrive tonight, but this is the most her bag has grown.

2/26/10

2/27/10

I have taken over driving Warrior, as well as Glory. Warrior has a long way to go....he needs to learn to bend, and I know we need to get his head up, but we have other things to focus on right now. Jess videotaped him today so that we will have a point of comparison in the future. He is a fun moving horse and likes to work. Click here if you would like to see how he is driving now.

February 28 Morning's bag has really filled up tonight and there is no milk any longer. The top of the bag is hard and feels like there are rocks inside and the actual teats are empty. So, we have no milk to test. Jessie thinks it will happen before noon tomorrow, based on her bag and based on her looseness in the hind end.

Jessie is sure enough that our neighbors are camped out once again with us tonight. Watch them leave in the morning with no baby, only to have the baby born 15 minutes after they leave.