It's a Filly!

I had a plan, was looking forward to working the plan but Jetta didn't want to cooperate. I stayed up with her all night on Tuesday night. I had the new Mary Higgins Clark book, so I sat in my lounge chair out in the barn with my headlamp on, reading. She was anxious and nervous all night. This is just not her character, so I thought that she might be in early labor. We had tasted her milk, it had turned white and was just slightly sweet, so it was possible.

She had calmed down by morning and by around 10:00 a.m., she had waxed.When my DH got home from work he put her back out in the dry lot, so he could clean out her stall. I decided to take a nap to prepare myself for a long night. Before I laid down I took her picture eating some hay.While I was napping, my DH came in to get something to eat and the next thing that I know he is waking me up saying that it is a filly and she is already dry. I jumped up feeling cheated and mad. I wait all year for this and then miss it because I take a little nap!

If this had been twins we would not have been there to get the second one out quickly and since we knew this one was going to be really big, she probably could have used a little help. It helps to get the baby out as quickly as possible because they just get up faster and learn to nurse easier. With slow, hard labors the foals can have dumb foal syndrome and just have a little more of a struggle in the beginning.

This is what I found when I arrived on the scene...I named this filly "Sky" on the spot because of her unusual eyes that were the first things that I noticed about her. She is very large and didn't want to nurse as quickly as we would have liked but with my Husband's great skill at getting a newborn foal to nurse, she was nursing within a couple of hours.

She is a dark brown or bay with roan mare and tail, blanket with black spots and she has partial blue eyes. This is the first blue eyes that we have ever had here at Pintura Springs other than Grandkids.The above photo was taken as she first found her feet.



There will be no running under Mommy's belly to hide from danger with this big filly.
And last but not least a Family Picture that includes Sky's sire who came to look her over and pass out cigars.
It is dark and rainy here today, so Sky and her Mother are still in the stall and it is too dark to get any new pictures unless the weather changes.

Mare Waxing

This is for Kyfarmlife. I tried to leave you a comment, Rae, but I couldn't again, it may be a Firefox thing. But anyway, Georgia's udder doesn't look quite ready to me, in the picture that you posted. Mares are not as predictable as other animals. Before last year we were foaling out about 10 mares each spring. This year we only have two and then another in the fall. With the price of horses being what they are and the price of feed being what it is, we only bred two old mares that we would like to keep the bloodlines on.

We very rarely miss a foaling but we taste the milk, it goes from salty, to oily to sweet. When it turns sweet they will foal within 12 hours. I don't think that your mare will let you milk her, she sounds and looks like my TW mare. Is your mare gaited?

Here is a not-so-good picture of a waxed teat. The waxing will build up and get quite long but then fall off. Some mares never wax at all and one of our mares waxes for a full seven days before she foals.