A Baby Boomer Dreams of Arabian Horses - The Legacy Continues - The Second Foal Crop

Part 1 of the Baby Boomer Series

The first mare due to foal that year was KG Phadra Rose. She is the Phantom Echo daughter out of a Safire daughter. Her tail line is line bred Gamaar. I really loved the Safire daughter and had bought this filly based on how much I like her dam. I could hardly wait to see what this foal was going to be.

But Faye had other plans. She definitely made me wait going over her due date by over a week. I can't even tell you how many February nights I spent sleeping out in that cold barn only to have her foal early one morning when I'd made a quick potty run to the house.

I came back out to the barn and saw no signs of the mare. Looking over the stall wall, the horse was down with a huge dark wet foal at her side. I hadn't been gone ten minutes and that mare had managed to sneak that foal out without me!! On Dave's birthday no less. Wouldn't you know that the mare considered to be his would present her first foal on his special day.

I remember going carefully into the stall not sure how this maiden mare was going to react to me with her foal. Faye didn't seem to even notice my presence. She was so wrapped up in being a mother. She nickered that soft low welcome characteristic of mares with their new foals.

I did my usual quick lift of the tail before I even did anything else. And typical for me, I lifted it two or three times before I would accept the fact that this was a colt. But it was.........one huge beautiful colt.

The foal had great bone. Since I have gotten into Arabian horses, that is one of the things I had noticed that had changed over the years. While the horses had gotten to be more refined, in the process they had lost some of their great bone. The result was these fine delicate almost fragile looking creatures. Beautiful but just not the picture of strength I had stuck in my mind. That was one of the things I had really liked about Scandalous. The mare had great bone and substance to her. Even looking at this new foal, it was obvious he had great bone. I was pleased.

In addition to that great bone, he had the mile long legs that over the years I've come to expect from my Scandalous Legacy babies. The colt was compact with a great hip, short back, smooth coupling, beautiful laid back shoulder, neck set on high and a pretty, pretty face with great dark eyes. Oops, I forgot the nice straight legs with big broad flat knees. This foal was built like a tank!

Getting him to his feet was a comedy of errors. The horse had no idea how to use those legs. He kept plopping them straight out in front of himself with one of them crossed over the other. Uncrossing them only made the little critter mad. He shook his head and snorted at us.

He was way too big for me to try getting to his feet alone. It was time to break out the foal blanket so I could have an easy handle. Poor Faye wasn't sure what to think of that blanket at first so I pulled it back so she could smell the baby underneath. It didn't take long and she had it figured out and we were back in business.....the business of getting this guy to his feet.



I think it ended up taking Dave, me AND the vet to finally get this colt onto his feet. But once he was there, you couldn't knock him down. He was a smart little thing.........well, maybe smart for a colt. lol

There's just something about new babies. They just suck us in! Even with the cold February weather (What was I thinking breeding for February foals??), baby horses seem to warm all of us here. As we worked on helping this little guy find his groceries, the barn filled with laughter at his stupidity. Just like figuring his legs out, finding groceries was quite a chore. He was sucking on the walls, Faye's stifle, her knees, the water buckets, you name it.........anything but the right thing. What is it about colts?

Faye did great with the whole process. The mare didn't ever even twitch an ear that might have said she didn't like something. She took everything in stride like she'd been doing it for years. Even when the vet grabbed one nipple and squirted some milk at the goofy foal, the mare just stood there.

The darn colt must have bumped her over a dozen times before he even got close to bumping the right place. That mare just stood there and took it! Thankfully, when he got older, she put him in his place for such behavior, but for now she was patience incarnate.

One foal down and one to go in our second foaling season!

To be continued............



The Second Foal Crop Part 2



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