Babysittin'

This week was Spring Break for my oldest Grandson. His Mother had to travel to another state, so he has been here for four days, he is going home tonight.

My other Son and his Wife traveled to another state today to attend a gun shoot. So I am watching their two youngest children for the day, ages 17 months and 3 years. They arrived at 5:30 this morning and will be picked up late tonight or during the early morning hours.

I woke up this morning early to receive the kids and had a terrible headache. Thankfully both went back to sleep after their parents left. My head hurt so bad that it made me sick to my stomach. I didn't have anything but Aspirin to take and I couldn't hold them down long enough to help. I finally went back to sleep but my headache has continued all day.

This is my 17 month old Grandson's first full day without his Mother. He is still nursing and has never had a bottle in his life. He has only recently, like in the last two weeks, learned to drink from a sippy cup.

Since his Mom knew that she was leaving him she tried him on Cow's milk yesterday and he wouldn't drink it. He did drink it for me this morning but very slowly and with disgust. His Mom pumped and left about 5 ounces of her milk for him. When I offered it to him he chugged it and cried for more even though it was ice cold. Nothing like Mother's milk! More later...(kids to take care of)

...It is now 11:00 pm and his sister is fast asleep after a busy day with no naps, he on the other hand had an early evening nap and isn't ready for bed. He keeps going to the door and looking up at it, waiting. At one point he laid down in front of the door and I thought that he might go to sleep but I think that he is just watching and waiting for the return of his Mother, he has surely missed her today, poor thing.

Sanity Returns

Calico's sanity has returned. She must have been traumatized by her labor and delivery because she is letting her babies nurse now. Thank the Lord! She isn't walking all over them anymore either. They are both happy and healthy, they are still a little wobbly in the legs but they will straighten up in a day or so.

Nursing On Her Own

Our weaker twin, Topaz is now able to get up without any help and is nursing on her own. We still have to make sure that the mare continues to produce enough milk for two foals. She has always been a good milker, so we are hopeful that we won't have a problem there. We also have to make sure that Topaz passes all of her meconium (first tarry poop). Sapphire has already accomplished this feat on her own with no assistance. Topaz may require an enema.

Twins

We put Dandee in the stall last night, we knew that she would foal soon. My DH had checked on her at around 3:00 AM and had come back to bed, he said that she wasn't doing anything. At around 3:20 I heard her lay down, so I got up and looked out and could tell she was in labor. I woke my husband up and we both got dressed. Under normal circumstances, we usually have plenty of time to dress and gather needed supplies but not tonight. By the time we got out there she had already delivered a normal sized black filly.

Dandee always gets very heavy in foal, she always looks like a blimp but she had been blimpier than usual this year. But we never once suspected twins, I was just afraid that she would have a very large foal.

When she kicked that normal sized (but smaller than she usually has) filly out on the ground and didn't even look like she had foaled, I said that maybe she was going to have twins, to which my husband replied, "Well, I didn't want to say it." Anyone who breeds horses knows that twins are a very dangerous and rare thing in horses.

Mares will normally abort twins or one will be still born prematurely and the other will be carried full term and deliver as a normal single but usually both foals will die and sometimes you will lose the mother as well.

Dandee was due yesterday, so many things just didn't add up here, she was full term and had a normal healthy foal but she was obviously still in labor and soon a bubble of placenta presented itself and I ran for a kitchen knife. My DH cut through the placenta and another bubble appeared immediately with two more feet in it. The second baby was born normally and quickly with no problems but is smaller than the first.

Both of our new foals are fillies, the first born is coal black with a blaze, two hind socks and two partial front socks. The second is solid bay with no markings whatsoever. The bad news is that they are Appaloosas with not one spot between them. But the good news is that our Appaloosa Stallion is a 100% color producer, so they will both roan out into colorful, spotted ApHC horses.

The second filly is small and a little on the weak side, she did stand and walk quickly with some assistance from my DH. But we did have to milk the mare and give her a bottle because she still has not nursed on her own.

Of course, Dandee has not been a problem in the least, she is a great mother that nurses other mares babies, so having two of her own is no big deal. She has tandem nursed before with a foal on each side and one of them was just a thief.

Dandee is a Quarter horse mare, a few years ago we had bred her to a paint stallion. she had a loud dun paint filly. One of our Appy mares had a Leopard colt, so here was Dandee, a solid bay mare with a loud paint foal on one side and a leopard foal on the other, that was quite a sight.

Here are the first pictures of our twin foals born at Pintura Springs.