*C-C Hattie arrives!

On June 5th at 5am, our last mare due "Izzy" foaled...what seemed like a very normal and easy foaling was soon to present a real challenge...Izzy foaled, never looked back and walked off leaving her newborn alone and hungry. I made attempts to get Izzy to acknowledge her foal, but the mare acted as if the foal did not even exist...only when I led Izzy close, did she then react, and it was in a violent/non mothering way...I was afraid we were in for a very long haul.

I have know folks that had mares that did not let their newborns nurse..I suppose it is not all that uncommon, though we ourselves, have never had this happen in our herd. We did help some friends once, and it was a fairly easy operation. You simply restrain the mare so she can not kick, and once the foal nurses, the mare understands that the foal is her way to relief from a very full milk bag. Problem solved..once that happens, the mare accepts the foal, and you are off and running.

I had an odd feeling though, this was not to be the case....I quickly called my horseman friend, and mentor "Virgil" and had him help restrain Izzy so that the foal could nurse. After several nursings in this manner, it was apparent that Izzy was not going to accept her foal....we stalled the two horses next to each other, and I made my plans...we would give Izzy some time. Izzy certainly deserved some time to figure this out, I have even heard of this taking several days...

For the next 4 days, and 3 nights, 24 hours a day, I restrained Izzy while the foal could nurse. It was not a pretty situation..Izzy nearly bit the foals ear off at one point, once she kicked and caught her foot in the foals blanket, and slammed the baby to the ground. On day 4, I gave up....tired and hopeless, I headed to plan 2...find a nurse mare for this darling little foal. By this time, the new foal was not looking the best, she was guant and thin...we loaded up the foal, and headed to the vet clinic...it took several times of tubing milk down the baby, but we finally got her strength up. We tried a couple of potential nurse mares, but alas, this time, no luck....so, we were headed to plan 3.....I brought the foal home, and attempted to teach her to suck out of a bottle, or drink from a bucket...after 12 hours of trying, she took her first milk out of a syringe that I held for her..at least we were getting some nutrituion in her....we kept at that for another day, and she finally, after what has seemed like an eternity, took her first sip out of a bucket....

Now, we were headed in the right direction....2 more nights at the barn, the new foal waking me when she got hungry, but preparing milk and putting it in a bucket, is alot easier than loading syringes to have her suck out of....

We got more good news when we talked to that mentor of mine, Virgil. One of his lesson folks has used the method of preparing some milk, freezing it as huge ice cubes and then during the night, putting out the milk, with the ice cubes...this method works well. The foal can drink at will, but you don't have to be there for constant refills. We even took it a step further, and now freeze one serving of milk in the bottom of a small bucket. We give our foal her dinner, and then hang the partially frozen bucket beside the dinner bucket....we find that in the morning, almost every drop is gone! OK, I cheated and had to check in the middle of the night to make sure it was working....twice..LOL...

A couple weeks ago, my oldest son James was out here..he told me he did not like my choice of names this year...so, I asked...what would YOU name the next foal? When I told him it had to be an "H" name...he came up with "Hattie"....now, if you look at her picture, and see that obvious hat, do you wonder how things like this happen? so, Hattie it is...Micro curly/pinto/filly named *C-C Hattie !!!

Hattie is doing well, today I added "Krinkle Clown" in with her, I am hoping she will buddy up and Krinkles can teach her all about how to be a horse. Hattie continues to gain weight, she has LOADS of energy, she loves making laps around our indoor arena that is her home for the time being. She runs and bucks and plays and thinks this old world is an alright place to be...even without a biological mom...