Foal time
Abby foaled around 6 this morning. Tony woke me up to tell me the news, and I sleepwalked out to the barn—the little bugger had literally just been born—the afterbirth was still hanging out of Abby, and the baby was still wet, and just starting to struggle to stand up. Monet and Carmella were highly interested in the new baby. All the other horses were strangely quiet, despite the activity in the barn.
I helped dip the umbilical stump in iodine, 3 times for good measure! I held his leg gently away from his belly—his hair was soft and still damp from birth fluids (yuck, but cool!). His little hooves still had the protective fringe around them, and when he scrambled, we saw that he'd safely gotten rid of his birth poop. Meniconium—something like that.
Abby lay down with more contractions to expel the placenta, and the baby meanwhile scrambled his way around Abby in his attempts to stand. He nearly got up a couple of times while I was there, but I had to leave to get ready for work before I could see him nurse. Abby stood back up, and a couple of minutes later I heard the afterbirth fall with a soft splat (I know, ewww!) We pulled it out of the stall and spread it out to make sure it was complete, and then threw it into a bucket for the vet to inspect.
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I didn't ride last night, it was too hot and humid. It's 94 degrees now, I think I'll either be riding after dark, or waiting out this heat wave. I don't like the idea of waiting it out, I want to keep Clover in condition—well, I still have a month and a half until Kingsbury Hill … we'll see how motivated I am.
I helped dip the umbilical stump in iodine, 3 times for good measure! I held his leg gently away from his belly—his hair was soft and still damp from birth fluids (yuck, but cool!). His little hooves still had the protective fringe around them, and when he scrambled, we saw that he'd safely gotten rid of his birth poop. Meniconium—something like that.
Abby lay down with more contractions to expel the placenta, and the baby meanwhile scrambled his way around Abby in his attempts to stand. He nearly got up a couple of times while I was there, but I had to leave to get ready for work before I could see him nurse. Abby stood back up, and a couple of minutes later I heard the afterbirth fall with a soft splat (I know, ewww!) We pulled it out of the stall and spread it out to make sure it was complete, and then threw it into a bucket for the vet to inspect.
*
I didn't ride last night, it was too hot and humid. It's 94 degrees now, I think I'll either be riding after dark, or waiting out this heat wave. I don't like the idea of waiting it out, I want to keep Clover in condition—well, I still have a month and a half until Kingsbury Hill … we'll see how motivated I am.
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