Changing Colors

Sapphire, our little black twin filly that survived, changed from black to brown and is now changing to blue roan. So, her name will fit her now.

Garnet, our sorrel blanketed colt is changing to either blue roan or gray, so his name will not fit him anymore.

Zircon, our little crooked legged sorrel leopard isn't changing colors but he is growing and his legs look much better, he also thinks that he is king of the world.

Chicks and Foals

I went out to check my chicks after Sunday School and found two had somehow gotten in the waterer and drown. I had considered it a risk but really didn't think that they could get up that high. So I went from seven chicks down to five. I haven't been out there yet today to see if anymore have hatched.

My husband has been working a lot of hours and hasn't had any time to spend on the things that require his attention, like fences, mowing, hoof trimming and horse training. He decided to spend some time with Badger our grullo stallion yesterday and that somehow turned into an all day fiasco that left us both in pain.

Badger is five years old this Spring and has never been broke to ride and we have never used him as a stud yet. He is a beautiful animal and a real sweetheart to handle.

The DH had groomed and saddled him, longed him and worked with him for awhile. He then decided to turn him out in the lot that we have the mares with foals in, so that he could run and get some exercise. We have been keeping him in a small lot where he really can't run and play. In order to do this he had to put all of the mares with foals in Badger's lot which should have been a simple thing to do.

The three mares and two of the foals went right in when he opened the gate, but Ruby was not going through that gate. We spent three hours trying to get her in, she is getting old enough to have some independence, so just following her mother was something that she didn't feel compelled to do.

All of the foals should have been handled more than we have had time to handle them. When my husband carries hay out to them he always tries to spend a few minutes petting the babies but Ruby has never let him touch her. She sees him rubbing and scratching Sapphire and she is curious, she wants to be brave and walks up to him but so far he hasn't been able to pet her. He would have liked to just given her time to warm up to him but she forced his hand yesterday.

We tried everything to get her through that gate and believe me when I say it was hot and she can outrun either of us. Which is pretty easy on my part because I can't run at all. But I could keep her moving and we finally just exhausted her. When she was hot, tired, out of breath and longing for a drink, we brought her mother back out and she followed her through a different gate. She actually won that round, because we never did get her through the gate she was suppose to go through but we will make sure she goes through it at some point.

By keeping her mother moving and not allowing her to nurse we managed to get her into our round pen that isn't actually round right now. Then with gloves and a lasso, he roped her. She is one big girl made of nothing but muscle, and by this time she thought that she was a wild mustang that had never been touched by human hands. We did handle her a lot when she was born but she has forgotten all of that.

She fought hard and long. She is very strong willed and for awhile I was not sure who was going to win. He finally got a halter on her and we brought her and her mother to the barn/house and that is where they still are this morning. We didn't get our feeding and milking done until after we got home from Church last night, when all of that was done, he brushed her all over and we petted her but she still doesn't like it.

I am going to spend some time with her today, as soon as she loves us as much as Sapphire does, we will turn her out and go to work on Garnet but I don't think he will be much of a problem.

Great Day!

Miracle had a great day today, she has eaten well all day and has acted almost like a normal filly, maybe not like a week old foal, but at least like a 2 day old foal. She is about to turn one week old, the time has flown by and been a blur for me. But just maybe we are over the hump.

We kicked Dandee and Sapphire out of the barn today and then late this evening we took Miracle down to their pen for a visit. Dandee nickered when she saw her and even let her nurse. I was a little surprised that Miracle even remembered how to nurse. She ran and played while she was outside and even kicked at my husband.

I measured her intake today and she is taking a little over one and a half gallons per day at this point, I am sure she will increase with each day.

Sorry this blog was so late but we were completely swamped today and I am exhausted.

Good-Night...

Miracle

I thought that the names Sapphire and Topaz were cute for twins, but I just have to change Topaz' name to Miracle, I have no choice. She survived the whole twin experience and that is just amazing in itself but surviving what she went through in the last couple of days is nothing short of a miracle.

She is so much better it is just miraculous. She is walking and nursing on her own. She can stand up by herself but she is having problems laying down, we have to help her with that.

She was so bad Friday morning when my DH went to work that he had really given up hope. A couple hours later I heard some noise, went to check it out and she was sitting up. She had no muscle control just two hours earlier, her little head was just dangling when we tried and failed to feed her.

Now she was struggling to stand on her feet and I had a problem, she was flopping around all over the barn and was going to injure herself. So all I could do was just stay with her and protect her as much as I could.

Finally she wore herself out and went to sleep, I ran in the house and called my husband in a panic, he was just floored when I told him what she was doing. Next I called my Son to come and get hay out of the loft and build her a padded cell.

When I hung up with my Son and looked back out she was standing and looking at me, I was more than shocked. As soon as she stood up Dandee started talking to her and she started towards her mother, when she got to the gate I just opened it up and let her in. I stayed right beside her to steady her but she went right to that udder and made an immediate connection, I couldn't believe it!!

My Husband told me later on when I told him on the phone that she had walked to her mother and nursed, that he had come very close to just putting her down Thursday night.

She has continued to make progress all day. We can't leave her with her mother and sister, of course, so we are having to take her into their stall every two hours to nurse, then put her back in her padded cell. We are not completely out of the woods yet but things are starting to look much brighter.

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.

Newborn Twin Foals

Here is a short video clip of our new twin fillies. Their names are Sapphire and Topaz, Sapphire is the black filly and Topaz is the bay filly. Pictures have been posted in the previous blog.