Tristan

I've been so busy with foaling I've neglected news about Mr. Tristan. He is doing very well and seems to be flourishing with a "job" to do. Jess is thoroughly enjoying working with him. This video is about a month old now. Tristan is of course doing so much more now.

My deepest sympathies

My heart goes out to everyone at Dandelion Farm at their loss of their great mare Opium Poppy. She was a fabulous example of theIrish Draught type that is in the process of disappearing. I had her ranked as one of the top ten living Irish Draught mares. It's another sad day for the Irish Draught breed.

Aoife and Brian today

Newest boy

Here's a photo of the newest boy. He's cute of course

It's a boy!

Portia produced a fine chestnut colt earlier this morning. It's foal number 6 for Portia -- her second colt.

Tonight

Portia did not eat her grain this evening. It's very unlike her, so she's probably telling me somthing. Tonight's weather is much worse than last night's so with my luck it will be tonight. There are strong thunderstorms and tornados in the area (at least earlier) with one touching down one county away. I really would like to be able to go back to my regular busy life.

Spring showers

After the storms last night, things are quite wet. We received about 1 inch of rain with lots of thunder. I have released Alanna and Banner from their stall to stretch their legs between storms. Banner found out that wet ground is slippery. She is skidding all over the place but stilll have a blast. Aoife and Brian are out all the time now with their mommas so are old pros with the mud at this point.

Portia's upset that she doesn't get to go out. Too bad, so sad.

Enjoying the great outdoors

Here's a couple of photos from earlier today. Brian and Aoife are happy. Maggie, however, seems a little annoyed.

Stuff

Okay -- Names so far....
Pat and Al own Alanna and have named the tall black filly Banner. :-D Silver Granite is the sire and his dam's name is Celtic Banner, hence Banner

Bruce has named Maggie's apricot dun boy Brian and Grania's brown Tristan filly Aoife (pronounced ee-fa and meaning beautiful, radiant). She is both with great personality and presence. The big challenge now is remembering how to spell her name.

A miracle has occurred. I have caught Portia waxing! I'm thrilled to know that she isn't as odd as I think she actually is. ;-) I can't wait to see Tristan's third

She's really sweet

This girl is very, very sweet. Miss Alanna produced another good'un.

Success!

Miss Alanna delivered a very tall black filly foal a little earlier. She has a white blaze -- don't remember if there are any other markings. She will gray. She already has the gray raccoon eyes.

Now, to sleep for a few hours and then head off to work.

Foal watch

Definition of foal watch: A whole lot of watching and very little foaling

And

we still have wax -- and only wax

We have wax

Good news. Alanna is waxing! Definite progress now -- with Alanna anyway

I've never caught Portia waxing -- sly little imp she is. She looks pretty much the same except she's suffering from the effects of gravity more each day.

Nothing really new

Portia seems about the same. The baby seems to just continue to drop more and more.

Alanna's udder has made some changes and her baby has started to drop.

Are we any closer?

I would like to say that I'm confident that the births will be very soon. I'm not going to stick my neck out that far though.

Alanna is on day 329. Her pregnancies have been between 328 days and 349 days. She is starting to have some ventral edema but nothing serious. Portia is on day 328 and in previous years her pregnancies lasted from the shortest of 338 days and the longest one was 346 days.

So who knows? It was a delightful spring day -- sunny, slight breeze and 68-70 degrees F (about 20 degrees C). I'm hoping that it might inspire the mares. I'm very tired and would like to have more time for my hobby of sleeping. :-)

Peaceful night

All was quiet here last night

Rachel is still at the clinic. Her fever has finally broken so we have some progress in her condition and all the news isn't bad.

All's quiet

It was a quiet night at Fox Hollow

We're still waiting....

I think that they're going to string me along for awhile. We are having glorious weather so lets hope they don't wait for the next storm. Maybe Portia will give birth today in the pasture while I'm at work. I'm fine with that as long as there are no problems. Since I think it's a large foal, I'm a little anxious about it. Alanna's foal isn't too large -- it's probably to make up for the humongous one that she had last year. Brody was a giant.

Portia's baby dropped and is pounding away at her flanks. Poor Portia...

More waiting....

The two babies are doing very well. So far we haven't even talked about names! Too many other things going on I guess

.

Portia was very crabby this evening -- crabbier than usual even! She's notoriously difficult to predict when she'll foal even when you are watching carefully. She takes after her mother. Alanna seems the same. Everyone is inside tonight because it is cold and wet.

No news

no new babies yet.....

Rachel has been suffering from a bad uterine infection since the stillbirth and I really didn't want to talk about it. I was afraid that I was going to lose her. When I visited her today, she perked up and had her ears forward when she saw me. When I looked in her eyes I knew she was back. Time will tell whether she'll ever be able to carry a foal again, it's a scary prospect.

Quick update

I think I've recovered from the weekend (kinda, sorta). I felt like I had jet lag! Alanna and Portia are just starting to bag up a little so I'll be busy again soon.

Maggie's colt is a pretty apricot color with a bright red mane. It will be interesting to see what his real color is once the foal coat is shed. No ideas for names yet.

Grania's filly is very well protected. Grania is being very, very attentive. She's a lovely color right now and I don't know if she'll gray or not. Too soon to tell. She has no hint of a name yet either. Bruce is usually the one to come up with the barn names and he's drawn blanks soo far. The filly reminds me a lot of Alanna's Mountain Pearl babies.

Turn out

Turned Maggie and Grania and the little ones out for the first time. The mares in particular were thrilled. (I took photos but haven't had time to look at them yet. I let them out again this morning -- it's supposed to be sunny and in the mid to high 50s so they should be able to enjoy their day.

Maggie's the first again

Maggie beat Grania for the honor of producing the first Tristan foal but only by about 25 minutes. Maggie gave birth to - what else?- a colt. He's a break in the tradition though because he's a chestnut. So Maggie's record is 9 colts and 1 filly. This guy is very strong and lively and pretty stocky. Grania had a brown filly with a nice blaze and some white on legs. Can't tell you more than that after 3 sleepless nights though.

Rachel update

I received sad news about Rachel. Rachel produced a large stillborn filly this morning. She had been bred to Silver Granite. And as it seems after all these years, the most valuable mare has the worst problems conceiving and producing. :*(

The Big question

We seem to be nearing the answer to the big question. Will Maggie or Grania have the honor of producing the first Tristan foal? Maggie had the first Mountain Pearl foal after he arrived in the country.

Stay tuned.....

Still waiting.....

And still predicting snow storm :-/

Grania

Miss Grania started waxing last night. I watched her quite a bit but did get a little sleep. Her wax is developing -- getting more syrupy and yellow. It's a bright sunny day and she's outside soaking it all in. It's good that she's progressing today before the predicted snow storm hits on Sunday.

Birthdays

Pat reminded me that her Jasper turned seven yesterday!

Her mention of that reminded me that it was Portia's 15th birthday as well.

Maggie

Maggie says April Fool's Day! No foal.

Maggie

Maggie's udder and shape look basically the same but her demeanor is definitely different today. I have brought her in tonight so that I can watch her on the camera. She may just be fooling with me but then again she may not.



Diane