My vet came out to do her check-up on Annie and Morgana this afternoon/early evening & said that she couldn't even tell that Annie had foaled this morning! No bruising or anything. Morgana's teeth haven't erupted yet since she was born so early, but she's very healthy so no harm done. I bet Annie's relieved not to be carrying all that extra bulk anymore. (My mother thought she looked smug about it all.) She's a good mom & helped us with Morgana during her exam -- Annie stood and licked her while I held her for the vet to keep her calm. Morgana got a little pissy towards the end, but that was the longest she'd had to stand still ever, so one can't really blame her.
May I present Trevethan Lady Morgana, a.k.a. "Ana":
Annie had a little surprise for me when I went out to the barn this morning: a nice little filly foal on the ground. Nevermind that she was a good 2 weeks earlier than even her supposedly usual 2 weeks early, or that, while bagging up nicely, she hadn't shown any sign that foaling was immanent. ::sigh:: Mares. What can you do?
I now have to call my boss and see if it's okay to push my scheduled PTO up a week (or at least part of it). And then the vet to get her out to look at mom and baby before she goes on vacation. I will post pictures later.
Just had to share a couple of pics of one of my barn cats (Owen) on his quest to rid the barn of birds...
In other news, it's damp and cold here (my least favourite combination). We did need the rain, though, so I try not to complain too much. Myf has finally lost all but the last little bit of her winter hair & is much darker now than in the last set of pictures. Annie continues to expand. How she is going to carry that baby another month is beyond me. I have visions of her getting stuck in her stalldoor a la Winnie the Pooh, she's gettting so big. (She won't, of course, but it's hard not to have the thought when seeing her lumbering up to the door to say hi.)
Still no real preferences on what to name Annie's baby if it's a filly. I'm debating whether I should go Arthurian (my current inclination) or other fantasy character name. My theme, if you will, for naming is fairytale/myth/fantasy/scifi characters. This gives me a large pool, though can make decision making difficult.
Jack likes the fence...
So do the horses...
And just 'cause he's cute, Ianto:
But first, a peevish barn cat:
Myf & me by the girls' old paddock fence:
And in their own, newly fenced in paddock:
The paddocks aren't quite finished yet. The gates need to be installed (I'm using my Preifert panels as gates right now, as you can kind of see in one shot above), and there are a couple short sections of the central paddock that need to be finished. When Annie gets closer to foaling, Myf will be moved to the middle paddock. Annie will still be able to see her there, but she won't be underfoot.
These were taken by the husband of one of my law school friends when they came down for Easter, and posted here with his kind permission.
Everyone was so fuzzy then! They've all lost a lot of hair the past couple weeks. Everything is much greener now, too.
Next set of photos posted will be of the new paddocks!
Just had a fence guy (from near-by Madison Lake) out to look at my place, talk material options, and pick up a drawing of the new fence I want put up so he can give me a quote. He had a good suggestion that we could do the woven-wire (like the stallion paddock) with metal posts with caps and top-rail, a-la chain link fence, which would be neat, visually unobtrusive, and nearly maintenance-free. He can also build gates using the woven wire so that the paddocks are totally enclosed in it -- no little spaces for a baby to get wedged -- which I really like the sound of. He's going to write up the quote both with traditional wood posts and with the steel so we can see if one is significantly cheaper than the other. He'll also be quoting the gates as both a solid eight footer and as a "snow gate", which has a smaller walk-through portion so that I can duck in and out without having to swing the big one open.
Sounds like he can start pretty much as soon as I decide what I want & if I want him to do it, which would be really excellent. He figures it'd take about three days to put up the three paddocks. I'll probably take them off work so I can be there to move the girls around and consult, if necessary.
The electric has really taken a beating this winter with the ice & wind, and I cannot wait to have something more solid for the girls, as well as to have some options for turning the horses out in different spaces.
