Thursday, April 23, 2015

Day 351 - Welcome Baby!!


Right after I posted my last little blurb, P went into active labor! First thing in the morning, how great is that? No overnight foal watch required! Right after L sent me the picture of the udders dripping milk, she called to say that P was definitely acting like she was going into labor - getting up and down, sweating, curling her lip. I was on my way to work but I promptly rescheduled everything and turned my fanny around to make the trek back up north. It's a good solid hour drive from where I was, not to mention there was rush hour traffic... I opted to take the back route and I'm sure glad I did!

When I got there, it was 9AM and her water had just broken. We were hurriedly cleaning her stall to ready it for her, but she had other plans - she flopped down outside in her run and in the blink of an eye we had a foot. Presentation was normal - two feet and a nose, good to go! The baby was HUGE so I helped her a bit with the shoulders.





You guys are not going to believe this... but when I pulled off the sac, I found....

A CHESNUT FILLY!
The odds were super small genetically, but apparently the horsey gods decided that redheaded mares are my fate now!

"Wtf how on earth did I end up with ANOTHER ONE OF THESE?"

Poor Pmare got the dirt ground into her eyeball... looked much better after a good cleaning though!



O going, "WHAT IS THAT I MUST HAVE IT"







From water breaking to presentation was about 15 minutes. Actual birth was about 5 minutes, if that - she just popped her right out. The second I pulled the sac off, her head shot up, and she was breathing and sitting upright. Talk about a strong filly!

Within 15 minutes she was already halfway onto her feet - and she had been trying to get to her feet the moment I put my hands on her.




O was very interested!



HUNGRYYYY

She grabbed right onto my finger and had a strong suck reflex. At 1/2hr of age, she was ready for the milk bar and got to her feet, unassisted. Once she was up, she stayed up - not one single tumble. She stayed up for well over an hour! It only took her 10 minutes to find the food - and she latched right on like a magnet, no problem at all.







Meeting of the minds... these two are going to be serious trouble when they get together!



We brought them back into the stall, where there was fresh straw and fewer things to wipe out into. The baby kept going round, and round, and round again, torturing her poor momma who just followed her nickering nonstop. P passed the placenta intact by about 10:40AM.

She has unfolding to do for sure, and she is a bit lax in her hind pasterns, but she'll straighten up soon.


Especially if she keeps dancing like this. 1 hour old and already frolicking around!



Strong latch on both sides!

She is going to be a real handful, I already can tell. As strong as she is and as big and she is, it is already all I can do to hold onto her when she pitches her little red filly fits - which she is already doing. We'll be working with her every day to reinforce the rules with her - we'll definitely regret it if we don't!!







Both momma and baby are doing great. Baby is a super-nursing, meconium-passing machine, and gets up and down easily without assistance. P is super attentive, eating and drinking well. And as for O, she is alternating between talking to the baby, eating quietly, and rearing manically in her stall because she wants to come steal the baby for herself. Typical!

There was something like a 6-12% chance that I'd get a red baby. I also was sure that I was going to get a colt. Who knew!

I had names for a colt but not for a filly, so I'll have to start wracking my brain!

WELCOME BABY!!


53 comments:

  1. Congrats on a beautiful, healthy baby!! She looks like she will be a real handful. P is not going to get much sleep ;)

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  2. OMG!!! Congrats from a silent stalker :) She is adorable. At least with this red filly you get to start from the beginning!

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  3. Another mare! Congratulations. She is gorgeous.

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  4. Congrats on the safe and quick delivery of that bouncing red filly! She is totally adorbs, and yeah, I think she's got DIVA written all over her, LOL.

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  5. OMG Congratulations! She looks gorgeous. And BIG. 3 mares though - have fun! Good P mare. I've been stalking your blog for the last few weeks waiting for the arrival. So glad it all went well. And I had to laugh about the gods of genetics... I currently have a palomino filly in my paddock, when I thought I was pretty safe asking for a buckskin colt, given that mum is bay and dad is cremello. 25% chance of palomino...

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  6. congratulations- she's a real beauty!

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  7. Hi baby! She is so huge and red, wow. I think she will be super fancy, what a good mom P seems to be too. Congrats!

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  8. Yay! Congrats, she's beautiful!

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  9. CONGRATS!! what a gorgeous little baby - and P looks fab too! so glad both are well and that everything went so smoothly!! yay for another chestnut mare :D

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  12. Laurasia would be a good name, and continue the theme. It split off of Pangea, along with Gondwanaland.

    Apparently I can't spell tonight. :P

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  13. So gorgeous! So much chrome! I'm glad momma and baby are both doing well, and CONGRADS!!!

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  14. ZOMG SO CUTE! Yay momma P! She did such a good job. And now you have two. Have fun!

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  15. AHHH so amazing Andrea! Congratulations! She's beautiful!!!

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  16. Yah!!!! That's awesome. Congratulations. SO much chrome on that beautiful girl. Also, P looks fantastic!

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  17. Another redhead girl! You'll have a matching team someday.

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  18. She's beautiful! Congratulations!

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  19. Hello baby! I'm already smitten and now horse baby clucky! Such exciting times ahead, happy name hunting!

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  20. Both Laurentia or Kalahari are continents that sprang from Pangea! Just sayin'....

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  21. She's beautiful Andrea. Many congratulations!! Looking forward to hearing what you name her. You always come up with the best names!

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  22. Congratulations, she's absolutely gorgeous and super-duper adorable!!

    bonita of A Riding Habit

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  23. Congratulations on a healthy birth and a gorgeous filly! I love the O pictures!

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  24. BABY!!! Congrats to you and P! I love that she's a red mare, there's really no other way :) love how interested O is too.

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  25. Well done P-mare. Gorgeous healthy foal.

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  26. Congratulations! What a beautiful filly!

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  27. YAYYYY!!!!! I may have teared up a little bit. MAYBE.

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  28. Congratulations on the big healthy foal! I cannot believe she is as big as she is!!! Wow!

    Please tell me she is going to have a "Kill Bill" inspired name ;)

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  29. Congratulations! She is beautiful!

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  30. Welcome to the world little ginger nugget!! Good cooking, P!

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  31. Congratulations!! She's so pretty!

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  32. Are you sure she'll stay bright? I had a filly born a bright chestnut that turned dark when she shed her baby coat.

    And I was thinking DeMarco's Taffy.

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    1. And seeing her first thing this morning made my day. There is nothing better than a baby horse.

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  33. Congratulations!!!! She's adorable, & I'm so glad everything went well!

    I kind of think you should stick with the Kill Bill theme (for a name), if you can. :)

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  34. Eeee! Congrats! What a beautiful baby and mama!

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  35. Welcome baby! This was a great way to start my morning, thank you for sharing this awesome experience with us! I'm so glad it went so smoothly.

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  36. I'm so happy for you! What were your ideas for a colt's name?

    What a great mom?! What a cutie?!

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  37. Congratulations!! She is so adorable, and I can't wait to hear what you come up with as her name.

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  38. OMG love! Love, love, lover her! Red with chrome....she's going to be stunning!

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  39. Congratulations. I teared up yesterday at the photos on FB and am tearing up again now! She is just so perfect and precious and I'm so happy the delivery went well. Good Momma P, good Auntie O, and welcome little redhead!

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  40. YAYYAYAYAYAY!!!!!! So wonderful. More baby pictures please!

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  41. So cute! I love her already! Can't wait to see her grow up.

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  42. Congrats "Mom" on the new addition. Thanks so much for posting all the adorable photos of your new filly. Let's see -- you've got "O-Ren" and "P-Mare" -- maybe this little girl should be "Q-???". Enjoy all the fun days ahead!

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  43. SQUEEE!!! Oh congratulations! What a lovely baby! And that photo of you with a hand on the baby's leg, while she was still in the sack and about halfway out ... truly one of those most beautiful foaling photos I have ever seen. So cool!!!

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  44. YAY!!!!!! Go Redheads!! we are going to have so much fun watching her grow up!

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  45. I've been following your updates on Facebook, but I need to get caught up on the blog. She is sooooo cute!!! I still can't believe you got a chestnut filly! :D

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