Wowza what a week!

and it's only Wednesday, which makes me a tad fearful of what the rest of the week may bring.

We had the rainstorm to beat all desert rainstorms over the weekend. The predictions alone scared us into borrowing a neighbors big horse trailer, and lining up emergency horse digs all around the neighborhood in case we got flooded out. We dug the natural dips in the yard a little deeper hoping to contain any extra flood waters and lead them out to the main wash. We added to and bolstered the tarps surrounding both barns to keep the wind and rain out. I drove John to work Friday morning and he had to stay in town all weekend so A. I'd have a truck in case I needed to haul short horses to dry land and B. he would be able to get to work and not get stuck on the wrong side of all the flooded roads between here and town.


Thankfully, our auxillary wash handled the extra over land flood waters, the water in the main wash didn't top the bank, and although we got a huge amount of rain, the horses stayed dry and cozy. It was just a grucky (both gross and yucky) weekend. However, since it was obvious the horses were going to stay dry, I was actually able to finish a book I'd been trying to read for the past 4 months.


It was so wet and soupy outside that I didn't check my little mare Blondie for two days. I just watched her on the foal cam as I was reading. She'd been trying to bag up for about 3 weeks but hadn't gotten full yet. When Monday morning dawned bright and clear I fed everyone, lifted up tarps to let the sun in, and checked Blondie. Darned if her little udder wasn't filled up like a balloon! It wasn't exceedingly warm, it wasn't dripping, and I couldn't express any milk so I zipped to town and picked up John. My other mares have stayed a couple of days with a full bag before they deliver, so I figured I could leave her for a couple of hours.


When we got John home, he let the horses out into the 2 paddocks that were mostly dry, cleaned the stalls and then sort of half-assed kept an eye on Blondie while I napped. We fed them around 4 and John went to town to get himself a burger. Having been up watching the mare and the flood situation for most of the weekend, my plan was to have a nice long hot shower and go to bed by 7. I got my shower, but that's all I got.


John disappeared into his room to watch TV and half-assed keep an eye on the foal cam. After my shower I came out and sat for a while just observing Blondie behavior on the camera before I went to bed. She was rubbing her side and butt on the stall fencing. "Ahh.. okay.. she's probably just uncomfortable. I'll watch a few more minutes and then go to bed." She paced her stall and stopped long enough to bite at her side. "hmm.. uhh.. okay... she's probably just being a maiden mare drama queen. I'll watch for a few more minutes.." She laid down and rolled. "JOHN!!! Blondie's in labor! We gotta get to the barn!" John filled her stall floor with hay while I pulled the foaling supply cart into the barn. Then we went back to the house to observe. Well... okay... I observed while John disappeared into his room again. He only got about 5 minutes in front of his TV though because within minutes of settling myself into a chair to watch, Blondie cocked her tail laid down and went stiff. "JOHN! SHE'S DOWN!" Back to the barn we went. I went into the stall while John positioned himself in the aisle next to the foaling supplies.


"We have the white bubble! Excellent!"


"We have a foot! Excellent!"


But that's all we got. Blondie groaned with each contraction, but wasn't pushing very well. I waited another minute before requesting the gloves. The second foot appeared but there was no nose between them. "Damnit. Head turned back position." was all I could think. She was making no more progress. About that time Blondie got up, turned around, lay down again, and rolled a bit. Both feet were still apparent. I put the gloves on and attempted to search for that elusive snoot. There it was! Propped on top of one of the legs rather than tucked down neatly between them. At least I was pretty sure it was the nose. If not, the baby would have had a seriously malformed leg with the knee only an inch or two above it's fetlock!


Blondie groaned and pushed a little more but after 5 minutes all I had were two feet. "Gotta be another shoulder lock." Once again, I pushed the trailing leg back a bit and pulled with all my might on the leading leg. "There's that nose!!" "There's the head!!" And that's all we had for several minutes again as I pulled with each contraction. I had John call our neighbors, Danean and Lynn, then call the vet as I continued to work on the problem. Head was out, one leg was out, the trailing leg was still pretty far back. Must still be those darned shoulders. I opened the sac around the baby's nose in case it began to breath, then waited for the next contraction and pulled with everything I had. I was terrified I was going to damage that baby's legs, but we were running down the clock and the baby needed to be born. Just short of planting my feet on that little mare's rump I hauled the rest of her shoulder through. The vet called back right as the rest of the baby hit the ground. I had time to squeal "It's a PINTO!!", before Danean and Lynn drove up. I of course squealed it again as soon as they got to the barn.


Blondie lay still and rested. I rolled the baby up onto her chest, stripped back the rest of the sac, and dried her off while rubbing her all over with the towel to imprint a bit. Blondie was taking a little too long laying down so Lynn encouraged her to get up. She was suffering a bit of paralysis due to the shoulder locked baby, but she was up and moving, even if stumbling slightly in her back end. We'd called the house to alert William as soon as the baby was on the ground and he became the official reader of the foaling manual (The Complete Foaling Manual, by Theresa Jones). He flipped to the segment regarding paralysis of the mare and the book assured us that more than likely all would be well since we'd been able to get Blondie up with no trouble and that she was attempting to walk. Sure enough she was pretty much normal within about 10-15 minutes of rising.

Blondie nuzzled my cheek as I sat by her baby and I smooched her nose and complimented her on a baby well done. Unfortunately, once the baby was up and attempting to nurse we discovered that Blondie really wasn't well equipped for nursing. The after about 30 minutes of watching the baby struggle to find the undersized teets, William ran to his shop to cut the end off a syringe to make a suction device and then Lynn attempted to milk the mare. He managed to get about 15 cc colostrum total which the baby did guzzle appreciatively before laying down to rest after her ordeal. The baby finally learned how to find dinner on her own and we all left to let them bond in peace. Lynn and Danean went home to bed, William went in to bed, John and I sat watching the foal cam to monitor progress, periodically going outside to make sure the baby was nursing. John dozed, I watched.


I watched the baby chasing Blondie frantically trying to nurse, nursing for long periods, then dozing while standing up, chasing, nursing, standing to doze. This pattern continued for about 4 hours. I grew more anxious. Finally after nursing for about 10 minutes straight, the baby flopped to the ground and slept for nearly an hour, clearly exhausted. By 6 am she was beginning to wobble after her mother, whereas she'd previously been chasing mom pretty handily. Forward progress had stopped and she'd backslid a step. Time to call the vet.


We loaded a very upset Blondie in the trailer, and a very tired filly in the cab with us. She stood in John's lap, periodically nuzzling my shoulder for the hour long drive to Durango clinic. Somehow she'd managed to get some colostrum from her mom, but not quite enough. She was given a good extra helping at the clinic and stayed there overnight for monitoring and awaiting the result of bloodwork to determine antibody levels. Blondie's hormones finally got in gear and she started delivering enough milk for the filly to get a full tummy and get back on track. We picked them up this morning and the filly left a brand new fan club behind at the clinic.


For now, all is well!


Below are pictures of the filly with Dr. Osborne at Durango Clinic, and me with a very new, very short horse in the cab of the pickup.

Zoooooooooooooooooom!

My wonderful hubby (you can see him over at his Dubious Maxims blog), has outdone himself this year. I've been finding it increasingly difficult lately to get around and work the minis. It would seem the warrantee on my shoulders and back has expired and nothing pleases them. Can't rest well because something always hurts no matter my sleeping position. Can't crutch around for long periods because some body part or another whines and squalls. You get the picture. In fact, you probably get that picture in 3-D if you're over 50.

I decided to do yet another search for an electric powered off road vehicle of some type to help me exercise and train the minis. Having had no luck a few years ago, I began searching for heavy duty off road capable mobility scooters. I found some of those that might work. I even found several that definitely would work if I wanted to spend 10K for them. On a whim, however, I decided to try once more to find an electric powered Quad. Neither my horses nor I appreciate noise toys. I found a couple of really heavy duty, state of the art, as complicated as a guy can possibly make them quads. One was still in the design stages and one I'd need to wait about 10 years for it to come down enough in price to afford.

The next and last chance link was for THIS little gem.

I thought about it for a whole 5 days before I ordered it. Nevermind that the local store that advertised the item was in stock, didn't mention that it was in stock in MINNESOTA (cough) until I called them asking if I could just come pick it up. I won't go there... yet. I'll save that for another blog post.

The day after I ordered the new Jeanie Mobile, my power wheelchair coughed, sputtered, tried to run me into several walls and then quit. Well, it quit when you consider that when I tried to go forward it would lurch violently to the right and then shut down. I guess technically it wasn't completely dead, only mostly dead. I cowgirled up for 5 days, but was worn down to only basic feeding and watering needs for the horses and was beginning to wonder if I just piled their stalls full of hay could they wait a week before I had to struggle through the barn again.

Wonder Hubby to the rescue! After more disappointment filled searching for a local company that provided power chairs without having to wait 3 to 4 weeks for delivery, were affordable, and were not outposts for insurance rip-offs (see upcoming blog post), I found ONE company in the metro Phoenix area that actually had this little savior in stock.

We now have my spiffy little Go Chair charging in the kitchen. It smells like a new car. Poor little thing will be hay and dust covered by the end of the week but I have my new Shop Vac to help there. The horses are not sure they care for it's next to noiseless operation and it's candy apple red body, but they'll get used to it. I'll wait a bit before I spring it's horn on them.

So far the Go Chair works great! There are only two minor modifications that I'll make. I'll need to remove the foot rest for barn use as it is a trip hazard when I'm hopping up and down to feed. I'll also need to adjust the length of the controller. Right now it's either too close or I am too buxom because when I lean forward to put hay in the feeders my bosom bumps the joystick (oooh baby!) and I run into the stall fence.