A new arrival _GRAPHIC WARNING

[csziggy]

Yesterday morning we had a new arrival here:



This was the first picture I managed to take that turned out. When I first saw him, he was still in the birth sack and his mamma had her back leg over the top of his barrel. I had to pull the sack AND mamma's leg off so he could breath.

Even with that set back, he stood and nurse very fast - within an hour! Within two hours he was already cantering around, keeping Mama moving.

Here he is today, dried off and steady on his feet:

[RebelOne]

1. Cute little guy. Best wishes to Momma. n/t

[csziggy]

7. Mama's doing good

Vet checked them both this afternoon and Mama had very little bruising. She did good.

[Curmudgeoness]

2. Lovely baby!

Colts are so awesome. I love how developed they are at birth and how fast they get up and moving. Beautiful.

[trueblue2007]

25. WHAT A LOVELY LITTLE PONY!!!!

[Demoiselle]

3. His legs are almost as long as his mama's already!

I think it's amazing how those long limbs fold up and actually pass through the birth canal.
What sweet beautiful serenity in that picture...Thanks!

[csziggy]

6. One of her earlier colts was nearly that big

But comparing the pictures, I think this guy is just a little taller. If so, he's going to be a BIG horse.

Mama is big - she's 15 hands 3 inches. And the sire is 16 hands, so the colt has the genes to be big. (A hand is 4 inches, so 15 hands = 5 feet, 16 hands = 5'4", measured at the whithers, that hump at the top of the shoulder, just where the saddle sits.)

The foals come out as if they are diving - front feet first with the nose in between the legs. The worst part is getting the shoulders out. After that, the rest of the foal slips out pretty easily.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. He is so adorable!!!

And Mama is beautiful! I love his markings! Congratulatons! And thanks so much for sharing...

[csziggy]

10. His mama is kind of special to us

She was the first horse I ever had to really help deliver. The rest, it was just stand back and watch. But she was premature, her mama was having problems and I had to help pull this one out.

Then she had contracted tendons and couldn't stand. We had to put splints on her legs for months to help her stand and to help her tendons stretch. Her legs are still a little funky, but since it was not a genetic condition, her foals have had good legs and no problems.

But after all we went through with helping this mama survive, we decided we'd keep her all her life. She's thirteen now and should live a good long time. Her mama lived to 25 so we should have this mare for a long while yet!

[Rhiannon12866]

15. Goodness! You're a regular James Harriot! ;)

She really is a beautiful horse and I'm sure your history with her makes the little one even more special. I love the little guys with their long faces and spindely legs. And he really is brand new! LOL. His Mom was certainly fortunate to have you when she first came into the world and so is he. Does he have a name yet?

[csziggy]

19. LOL! Not really, but I used to be a bit of a horse whisperer

We're thinking of Seamus for his name. I thought it would be a good name for a red head!

[Rhiannon12866]

21. Really?! That is incredibly cool!

I met an actual horse whisperer last summer. When I was a kid, I went to summer camp in Vermont on Lake Champlain, the main activities were swimming and riding. Last summer we had a reunion and one of the honored guests was the man who was head of the riding department in 1960, a bit before my time, LOL.

His name is Bill Robertson and he was also on the Olympic Equestrian Team, probably in the '50s. We met him at an indoor ring and he worked with the most beautiful young horse, walked around the ring, all the time explaining about the horse and what he was doing. The horse did pretty much anything Bill asked him to do, and all he had was a little stick with a piece of cloth stuck on the end. He would rub the horse with it or flick it in one direction or the other and the horse seemed to understand what he was asking...

The whole time I assumed this was Bill's horse, since he kept his eyes on Bill and Bill barely touched him except for the occasional pat. But afterwards I found out that this was the first time Bill had met this horse! Friends of the camp had loaned him one of their young horses for Bill's exhibition! I was very impressed, both with Bill and his feelings for horses and I so wished I could take that sweet horse home with me...

And I think Seamus is a wonderful name. His Dad is simply stunning! Let us know how he's doing... Love the pix! And your feelings for horses do seem very like Bill Robertson's...

[csziggy]

22. I was just really good at working with horses, mostly on the ground

I could read their body language and know what they were thinking about doing next.

I still can read their body language but my body no longer lets me do the work (see my 'whining' thread). And since so much of what I used to be able to do depended on me anticipating the horses' action, it's not something I can talk someone else through.

The young man who is working out of the farm now seems to have the ability. He's just now learning to work with babies and young horses, but I think he'll have the knack for it.

I think I've heard of Bill Robertson, but it would have been long, long ago when I was young.

[Tsiyu]

5. Awwwww

How precious.

Congratulations all around.

[Snarkoleptic]

8. Too cute!

[handmade34]

9. Congratulations!

a beauty...



oh, I long for the days of delivering babies

[csziggy]

12. Thanks!

This may be our last year with foals. I just can't handle the physical parts of it. Helping this colt yesterday really put me in a world of hurt last night and today.

But if I have people looking for our babies, I will probably try to breed again. We have a young man helping us out some and he has friends who like the horse he got from us and want ones like him.

[femmocrat]

11. How beautiful! Thanks for posting!

He doesn't look like his mama.... what color is the daddy? Beautiful marking on his face, and a white stocking to match! Adorable!

[csziggy]

13. His sire is a red dun - and that is the color he will likely be

It's hard to tell at this age.

Here is his sire at two years old:


Duns and buckskins, the colors I breed for, are the same genetic mutation as Siamese. They carry a dilution gene that removes the red color from the coat. If the base genetic color is bay, the dilution gene produces a horse the color of the dam. If the base color is chestnut or sorrel, they will be red dun like the stallion.

There are other variations, like the stallion's dam who is a grulla:


Her genetics are more complicated but it is one of my favorite colors.

[femmocrat]

14. Oh, he is magnificent!

Thanks for the explanation. Beautiful creatures.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

16. how wonderful! congrats to all

[sakabatou]

17. Does he have a name?

[csziggy]

23. I think we've decided on Seamus

Good name for a red headed boy!

[Kali]

18. Excellent!

congrats!

I just had to call on three odd little pony mares somebody dumped on us. No more babies around here for a while. Got way too many useless bums as it is. (and now my saddle horse is an old man off a guest ranch. I am pitiful)

[csziggy]

24. I guess it's gotten too settled around here

No stray horses have shown up for about a decade.

I shouldn't have bred last year, but the grulla mare (due April 1) is 15 and the last two times we tried to breed her she didn't carry and we wanted to see if she could still make a foal. It turned out to be a good decision - the stallion that she crosses so great with had to be put down in the fall so the foal she is carrying will be his last baby.

Then we didn't want to have one lonely foal with no one to play with so we decided to breed our second oldest mare - that's the one that just foaled. She's 13. Her foal is by a son of the grulla mare and the stallion that had to be put down. As you can see, that is a really nice cross, too.

My four mares will be buried here whether or not I ever breed them again. The foals on the other hand will need to go down the road eventually, but not until we find good homes for them.

I wish I could use a saddle horse, but I haven't ridden in over a dozen years. I wonder how replacement knees do with riding?

[libodem]

20. So beautiful

Both of them. Glad they are both okay.

[Highway61]

26. OMG

How beautiful! Thanks for sharing.