Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Finally!!!

Yes! The pictures are up!! Here they are! Max is ADORABLE! I can't say it enough! He's the most beautiful, frisky foal I've ever seen. I love him! This morning, we let him and Belle out to walk around and get some air. Max had a blast! He went running around the pasture on those wobbly legs and kicked up his heels more than one time. He is so cute! Let me start at the beginning and tell you the whole story.
Saturday morning, Belle had "waxed up", and I posted about that. That evening, I went, like I always do, to feed the horses, except it was a little later than normal. I went up to the barn, shooed the horses out, and completely cleaned Belle's stall, seeing as she might have it that night. I put a bunch of fresh straw down, and then dumped the feed into their buckets. I was in there...maybe fifteen minutes. I then went and opened the door, Silkie walking in and marching to her stall, and then Belle after her. I noticed that Belle's tale was really arched, and thought it a little odd.
"Oh well...she probably just has to go."
I thought that to myself. Then I locked the stall doors, including Belle's, watching her. Mom had read that if a horse wasn't really interested in her food, she was probably going to have it soon. Belle dug right in. I sighed.
"Not tonight."
I turned to get Chester's food, and when I turned back around again, Belle was just...standing. Her tail was still really arched. My heart started throbbing when she turned and began to pace.
"Er...Belle?"
She finally stopped to urinate, except...this stuff was red!!! I went wide eyed and was like,
"Oh man, should I go tell them??? Is the baby coming??? Is her water breaking or is she just going??? ARG! Wait....what if it's a false alarm? You're overreacting, Hannah...NO WAIT!"
Her knees buckled and she LAID DOWN. I shouted and went taring out of that barn like I never had before, running faster than I thought I ever could down towards the house. By the time I simply made it to the end of the garden fence maybe forty some yards away, Nathan hailed from the front porch.
"Hannah! What is it!?"
I yelled back,
"AH! THE BABY'S COMING!!!"
He literally almost dropped the phone he had, racing into the house. I ran back up to the barn, and in that short, 30 second time period, YOU COULD ALREADY SEE THE FEET! She had laid down close to the wall, and I was going
"Oh no! She's too close!!!"
Dad came up to the barn by then. I could see the baby's two hooves, which was good, and soon his nose appeared. I was praising God! He wasn't twisted! She then got up, paced, and laid back down, this time in a worse position than ever. She was laying with her rear end pressed against the stall gate! The baby was coming through the gate! Basically, we were panicking. Bad thing to do. But then dad got the idea to pop the gate off it's hinges, so we did. The gate was removed, and the baby soon followed. His head was almost completely out by now, visible through the pale, slick sack he was in. His eyes were closed and his mouth slack. And...he was black! Woohoo! We didn't see him move, and got worried, but then he jerked his head a little. I got to bend down and touch his head. The sack was slimy! Soon the rest of his body followed, and he popped right out. They laid there for a long time, and he was so cute! We got the sack away from him, and I got to touch his wet little head. How cute he was! The labor only took 17 minutes or so at the max, (literally:), and then it took him about 10-12 minutes to stand. How cute is that!? We had to stay up there all night because he wouldn't latch, but now that he's figured it out, he's dandy and wild! He was frisking around the stall this morning, and then freaked out when we let him out of the barn. Max is a healthy baby! Praise the Lord all went smoothly! And now that you've been so patient, here are the pictures. :)

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