Nicker was born +/- 8:25 a.m on March 8, 2009. Ooo laaa was that a day! This is a picture of Nicker the first time she stood up, she is less than an hour old.
All Mama knew was that she did not see a reason for her to go into the barn and she did her best not to. We bribed, pushed and pulled and finally got her into the stall and settled. Thank goodness she is a gentle soul and as such her resistance was limited to digging her heels in to make it as difficult as possible for us to move her. And yes Dad, I rigged up a butt rope, however Mama's got a pretty good size butt and it didn't seem to faze her. Andrew pulled, I used the butt rope ... she moved a step. I got behind her dug my heels in and put my back into trying to get her to move...she moved three steps. We bribed her with carrots, she dug in her toes and stood like she was rooted to the ground and she reached ... I had no idea a horse could strectch their neck so far. And then I lined up bent my knees, Andrew pulled while I put my back into her butt and as she was savoring her carrot .... she lost focus on staying put and she moved! Next thing she knew she was settled in the barn in the temporary stall. We prayed she wouldn't mind. And as it turns out, once she was there -- she didn't mind at all.
So we get Mama in and settled. That is all good. Now it is Rose and the babies who have our attention - Miss, Hank and Shadow - that aren't very happy about Mama being where they can't get to her. There was a lot of talking going on and it wasn't me making the noise. Rose stood like a statue watching the front of the barn and she bugled and whinnied and she snorted, Miss was right there making noise with her. And then the babies started to run. They ran circles around the fence around the barn, I think trying to find a way in -- they didn't succeed and eventually everyone quieted down. We layered up with winter clothes and sleeping bags and blankets and settled in to wait .... everything I"d read lead me to believe that midnight'ish was going to be delivery time.
Midnight comes and goes and all Mama looks is bored. Andrew is in a sleeping bag and buried under blankets and sound out asleep. I'm kind of backed in and sorta perched between to hay bales, I've got a scarf wrapped around my face and my hat pulled down so I can just barely see .... I was trying not get freeze to death and at the same time unobtrusively keep and eye on things and be ready if Mama needed me.
Midnight comes and goes .... nothing. Wee hours of the morning come and go .... nothing. Early morning comes and goes .... and we got nothing. 7:30 a.m. arrives and Andrew heads to the house to feed the dogs and make coffee. Bless his heart! And then all of a sudden we have, well actually Mama had, what looked to be contractions. She got a little restless laid down, stood up, water broke, laid down and we were off and running. Well, not exactly running -- the running is more of a metaphor.... Mama was full steam ahead working on delivering a baby and I was struck still by amazement. I called Andrew to tell him to hurry back to the barn AND to be quiet ... project Mama having her baby was underway.
About that time we see the feet and it is good news -- the tippy toes of the hooves are pointed the right direction. Whew. One less thing to worry about. And then the bag doesn't break. Crap. We're watching and watching and still no baby breaking through. I think I know what we need to do, just to make sure I call the vet. First and last call to that particular vet, thinking I probably shouldn't ever call them again .... suffice it to say we didn't part exactly friends -- they told me to put Mama in a trailer and bring her to the clinic .... that we didn't have a trailer not withstanding, you want me to do what?! Yeah-I don't think so. I am not putting a my mare in the middle of giving birth in a trailer and then oh yeah .... driving her down washboard ridged dirt roads. Again, I don't think so. I hung up the phone -- I think I actually whipped it across the barnyard and then it kind of disconnected. Whatever. I was off the phone and we were concentrating on Mama and her "project". It was about this time that I found the page I was looking for in the equine birth instruction manual, we were good to go -- with Andrew reading the directions out lout, I climbed into the stall with Mama.
That Mama is such a good girl. Obviously it wasn't her first foal, since her foal (that would be Miss) came with her when she came to live with us at the ranch; however, she and I hadn't really built a deep bond. Mama, Miss and the boys moved to the rand July 5th of 2008 and here we were March 8 of 2009 ... so we hadn't really logged serious "together" time. Yet she didn't flinch not a bit when I got in the stall and went round to help tear the afterbirth open. Got that done and helped ease Nicker into the world...wiped her eyes and nose and mouth and gave her a good rub down .... it was still cold and having just been born, that baby girl was soaking wet.
And Mama is such a good Mama -- she turned around and had her nose down checking her baby out and cleaning her up -- I'm sure she was double checking our work!
Like any new parents, as soon as we knew baby was fine and Mum was fine we got on the phone .... called my folks and Melissa and Andrew's parents and sent e-mails to everyone we knew .... you would have thought we hit the lotto and in a way, I kind of think we did. Melissa came over straight away that day to meet Nicker and Mama was so good, she didn't mind at all that Melissa climbed in and petted and fussed over her and her baby.
It was absolutely incredible! One of the more amazing things I have been lucky enough to be a part of -- make no mistake, we were lucky all the way around; so much could have gone wrong and it didn't. Nicker's arrival brought the size of our herd to six of the best horses you'll ever want to meet.....of course that is just my opinion...
Our herd spring of 2009, from left to right - Hank, Shadow, Mama, Nicker, Miss and Rosie
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