Writing this at nearly 6 o'clock I've already worked from 12 am to 5 am with getting 2! foals delivered. We had two mares highly pregnant and even over date, so I would check up the webcam just a few times per night. It didn't exactly go as planned...
So at 12 am my alarm went off. I was half asleep and I looked at the webcam, I saw that Peggy-Sue was giving birth. As adrenaline was rushing true me I quickly put a trainingspants and a sweater on, in the mean time I called the owner of the stable. I jumped out of the house and even forgot to wear socks in my shoes. The mares are just behind my house but when I arrived the foal was already out. I helped the foal get out of the white bag which is also called the amnion. After a few minutes Mme Vaisse(owner Haras du Coussoul) had also arrived and we went disinfecting the umbilical cord before the mother would stand up. His mother would softly call him but the wouldn't clean him or help him stand up.
It was a beautiful Rheinlander colt with long legs, a little Mistral, a perfect neck and a beautiful chestnut colour. He would try a bit to stand up which obviously tired him, this foal was already so heavy that I couldn't help him on my own and
Querencia had also started labour! So we called the vet for some assistence, in the meantime I got the foal to stand up but the mare was irritated if we or the foal would touch the udder. And so the vet sedated her so we could look if she had milk and help the foal find it. She definitely didn't have the biggest udder but she did help milk, anyhow the foal couldn't find it and after a lot of trying we came up with the solution to tap her milk and give him a bottle so we could go and help Querencia.
Querencia was needing some help with getting her foal, we put a halter on her head and tied an longe around her neck so we could grab her if needed. The vet was already pulling but she needed some help. Throughout the years I have watched a lot Dr. Pol series and I have had many respect for him, doing such a job at that age, after this night it only grew bigger and bigger. So I got to pull out this little foal with the vet, both a leg, "Un Deux Trois et Tirer" - "Un Deux Trois et Tirer". Querencia- who by the way is a full sister of Mistral du Coussoul- delivered a beautiful Portugese foal from Impala des Frettes. She directly took care of the foal, cleaned him and softly neighed to him.
In the meantime the other mare was very distant to her foal, and when he would get up she would show very aggressive behaviour at her foal. Even seduced she would kick and hit in his direction. Which made us anxious that she would kill the foal. After a lot of trying we seperated them for the night so she wouldn't kill her foal, he was alone in his stable and she was in the stable next to it so she could still see her foal. I gave him the bottle every two hours.
In a new blog I will go on about how it continued! Stay tuned!
Xoxo Lisa
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