Tuesday Night Update

Evenstar foaled a beautiful filly around 4:45 AM yesterday morning.  It took Evenstar a while to pass the plancenta  but she finally did and is doing great now.  Her filly is just beautiful and is so sweet and friendly.  I took a few pictures while they were outside today.  She loved being out and would run and play, nurse , take a nap and then start all over. 

 
I hope to get new pictures of all the foals in the next week.

Karma will be our last mare to foal this year.  Her due date is April 13th so we should start to see her making changes soon.  I'll keep you updated on her progress.

Sunday Night Update

Evenstar is showing signs that she is getting close. Her calcium milk test is at the max and her pH has dropped to 6.3.  Her bag is very tight and her milk is turning white.

We will be watching her very closely.  I hope you can join us as we welcome her foal.

It has been a beautiful Easter day here. I hope you all had a great day.  Happy Easter.

Update On Midnite's Colt

Midnite's colt is doing great.  He is drinking from a bowl and getting plenty of milk.  He does not have a strong enough sucking reflex to nurse from Midnite but can drink easily from a bowl.  We have been milking Midnite and feeding him with her milk and we are now starting to mix her milk with milk replacer.  We will gradually add more milk replacer as he gets used to the different taste and then switch him to all formula.  He is a beautiful, healthy colt and is such a sweetie. Once he is completely on the formula we will teach him to drink from an automatic feeder and he can have milk free choice.  Minite is a wonderful mother and will take great care of him just as she would a foal that was nursing.

We have raised several bucket babies and they have all thrived on the formula.  Yes, it is more work for us but absolutely worth all the effort.  I'll get some new pictures of him soon.  He and Midnite are on the cams 24/7 right now and will be until they start going outside.

Friday Afternoon Update

Midnite has made some fast changes.  Her pH is down to 6.2 this afternoon.  We will be watching her very closely.  I'll probably check her again tonight.  It is now a matter of when she decides the time is right.

I captured this picture last night from the cams.

Thursday Update

Midnite is making more changes. I tested her this morning and she is now at the max on her calcim test and her pH has started dropping.  Her Ph level had been above 8 and it is now at 6.9.  I will test her again this evening to see if it has dropped further. 

It seems like is was such a short time ago that Midnite was born. 


Midnite as a baby

Her dam was our beautiful mare Joanie and we were so excited when Midnite was born. 



Over the years she has given us such beautiful foals and we are looking forward to seeing what this year brings.

I'll update you again tonight if there are any changes in her tests.

We are having more thunderstorms today and have even had hail twice today.  Surely we will dry out one day!

Monday Night Update

We finally had a rain-free day with lots of sunshine.  The babies were really feeling good and it was so much fun to watch them run and play. 

Midnite's bag is slightly larger tonight.  No changes in her tests but I am able to see some subtle changes in her body.  Evenstar and Karma are just enjoying the extra attention and have not started making changes yet.

I'll keep you updated.  Have a good week.

Saturday Evening Update

We have had a mix of sunshine and rain here today.  Hopefully all the rain has moved out of our area and we will start to see things dry up a little. We have some dirty horses right now.

Midnite is starting to make some changes.  Her bag has really increased in size over the last couple of days and she is testing four squares on her calcium test.  Her pH has not dropped but I will be testing her nightly for any changes. 

I'll keep you updated. 

Evenstar

Meet Evenstar

Evenstar is our official greeter. She loves everyone and is always happy to meet visitors.  It doesn’t matter if she has never met you, if you give her a little attention and a few rubs, she will follow right along with you for more. 

She is a beautiful mare that always gives us outstanding foals with lots of color and personality.   She is once again in foal by Prince Charming which is a combination that we love.  We’re anxious to see their foal this year. 

 

 

Evenstar is on the cams each night and is showing signs that she is getting close to foaling.  See our Sunday night update for details.

Evenstar's Previous Foals

Thursday Morning

Wow, what a wet mess everything is here on the farm.  We are much more fortunate than so many people who have their homes and businesses flooded. Our house and the areas where we have the horses are in no danger and all have shelters with dry hay when they want to go there.  Some of the pastures are completely flooded but we have moved all the horses from those areas.  I took a few pictures around here yesterday. 
This is BlackJack's summer pasture.

 

The beautiful stream that runs through our property now looks like a raging river and the wooded area behind our house is completely flooded.

It's still raining this morning and the forecast is for rain through Sunday.  I suppose we will dry out one day.

I hope you are all having a good week. I'll post updates on the mares as we see changes.

The mares were brought inside early today due to rain and thunderstorms in our area.  We have very heavy rains forecast for the next few days with flash flooding forecast. They are saying our area could get as much as tweleve inches of rain over the next three days.  The horses are all on higher ground so no problems with flooding, just lots of mud.  I will probably keep Midnite, Karma and Evenstar inside until this ugly weather passes.
 
Sorry I have not posted in the last few days. My husband had a really bad fall and is pretty banged up.  He was checked out thoroughly at the hospital and thankfully has no broken bones. 
 
There are no big changes in any of the mares. We still have some time to go on all of them.

You may here some peeping on the barn audio.  Alexa has a baby goose and a baby duck in an empty stall in the barn.  They are as cute as can be but can sometimes we very noisy.

Hope you all have a good week. I'll keep you updated on any changes.

Midnite

Meet Midnite

 

Midnite is a stunning mare that was born here on our farm and we are so proud to have her here.  I often tell people that Midnite is my “go to” mare if I want to take pictures and don’t have time for lots of grooming.  Being solid black, with a little brushing, she is camera ready. 

 

Midnite’s dam was Joanie, one of the first three mares we imported from England. Her sire is Prince Charming. We lost Joanie to colic two years ago and being able to carry on her bloodlines through Midnite is a blessing.  We  kept Midnite's  2013 filly, Legacy, and she will be joining our broodmares when she is older. 

 

She has given us six outstanding foals and we are excited to see what this year will bring.  She is in foal by Casanova and is due  4/02/16. We will have her on the cams each night.

 

Midnite's Previous Foals

 

We are now bringing the last three mares to foal this year in the stalls each night.  Midnite, Evenstar and Karma will be on the foaling cams beginning tonight. I'll be posting updates on each of them nightly.