Tania Kettle

Still no Boo, so moving right along...

Suz is the funniest little girl. So first off, she refuses to be put on the lead rope then when she is on lead rope, she's the sweetest babe in the world.  She comes up to me in the morning, afternoon or evening, has a pat, has a snack and then just chills out.

It's hilarious.

However, I also understand that when I take off her lead rope, Missy will do a complete 360 and refuse to participate again - which is what has happened every other time.  

I need to think outside the square to get a better end result this time.

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And Caps is painful with his jackets at the moment.

Too hot, too cold, no jacket....wait....

It has been gorgeous weather here though and just tonight it has got cold.  With a chill in the air.

So first he was No...no jacket and then he was like, Hmmmmm....yeah, maybe.... No...wait...

Eventually got jacket on and he is, as I am writing this, gorgeously snuggly and warm.

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I am loving Mumma's and my time together.

Today she was backing up and allowing me right next to her tail, massaging her muscles, asking them to release and encouraging them to let go.  That is such a special thing. 

I feel unbelievably blessed to be on this journey with her.

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Boo's here!!!

I went out this morning and Mumma wasn't where she normally is.  I checked in with all the other horses, but Mumma was nowhere to be seen.  So there I am hunting around for her, and then I'm freaking out because, Where is she? 

Next paddock over, it works out, on the hill and there is this brown thing lying on the ground not moving.

OMFG.

I'm booting it over there thinking that I've already killed Boo but no, he was just lying there thinking about getting up.   

But breathing.

He was still wet, but Mumma had licked him clean.

I immediately called my friends, Aria and Geoff who live at the end of the road.  

I'm touching Boo (before Aria and Geoff get here), while calling the Vets to organise someone to come over, then video chatting the young one who is always my first port of call when amazing stuff happens.  Mumma's just standing there like a rockstar and Boo is being Touch/play-ed. 

I am one super-multi-talented little chicky babe, when I put my mind to it.

Geoff and Aria turn up and a) helped Boo get up and b) Encouraged him to take milk. 

Which they did successfully.

They leave, Vet turns up and Boo is then heart beat checked and temperature checked - he failed that.  Temperature is supposed to be 36.4 and his was 32.6 and he was shivering, so we decided to stable them both. Mumma walked brilliantly down the paddock and up the next one, and Boo did his best.  He had to stop for a breather because well, he's only tiny.  In the stables they went and Boo was sucking within minutes, Mumma was happy and Vet coming back tomorrow to check, because that's what Vet's do.

Mumma is an absolute rockstar of a Broodmare, she loves being a Mum.  And she was so good with everyone around her trying to help, she knew we were all on her side.

What have I learnt the most today?

1) Friends are awesome and

2) To find out where your Mumma is planning on giving birth, watch where she consistently lies in the sun.  

In hindsight, she only ever sat on the hill.  In one particular place.  Where she eventually gave birth.

Oh wait....and I learnt how to take a foals temperature.  Get close to them, lift up tail and gently insert thermometer into bum.

I'm absolutely stoked, pictures and video's up on Instagram.

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Wow!

It is such a hugely different experience foaling at home.  

First off, it's fucking amazing.  I get to be there all the time.  I can go out and check them out, I can go out again...and again...and again...that's awesome.  I love that.

I've also found out that my heart keeps stopping on a regular basis.  Jezus H Christ, he's lying down at an odd angle or OMG, he's too close to the fence... and so it goes.  To be fair, he was lying on an odd angle, he was on the hill and was all kind of squished up.  I went up, rolled him over and Boom! he was up on his feet.

And talking about hills, I've realized that hills are not ideal for baby foals.  You keep thinking they're going to roll down the hill and get their legs tangled up in the fence. Or fall over and hurt themselves.  

These are valid things to worry about.

But Mumma's an excellent Mumma.  She consistently walks so it would be very difficult (note: not impossible) for him to get into trouble and looks after him really well. 

So Vet came over this morning to take bloods, to make sure Boo had got all his colostrum, and check he was drinking properly.  He had been drinking but Mumma was very full in her bag, so we decided to let them out to play round in paddock (see above) and then stable tonight.  I checked 20 million times on them.

Everything seemed fine.

Mumma put herself and Boo back in stable later, apparently he really is exhausting and she needed a break.  I fed her again, and then put some music on (Tanya Tucker) and started doing a Miri Miri, which is where I realized that Mumma somewhere during the day, had somehow sucked back up her bag and wasn't giving any milk.  I played with her teats a bit to see whether it was just a figment of my imagination and no, there was lots of milk flowing.  But no.   

Called Vet.

10 minutees later Vet turned up.

Boo had been getting little bits, but Mumma was full and a little retracted and needed some help.  On a positive note bloods were already back from this morning and Boo had lots of colostrum - which is excellent.  As I'm writing this, I'm on two hourly feed checks to go out and make sure Boo is getting lots of milk (read into that hold Mumma and stand, wait and watch) and Vet back tomorrow morning.  

We don't want Mumma getting Mastitis (an inflammation of the breast leading to infection) and we choose to be pro-active working directly with the Energy.

And yes, we are already deep in Touch/play, music and grooming and already I can see, I have a live one on my hands.  

Boo is one fiesty ass little foal.

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Boo loves me standing there, holding Mumma so he can feed.

Mumma not so much.

Me even less, when it''s pitch fucking black, and Mumma's mouthy.  Trust me, flashlights are not perfect lighting.

On a positive note: we made the right choice.

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I'm so proud of myself!!

I did my first Intravenous Muscular Injection.

Actually, technically it was my second, because I couldn't get the needle out of the container and lost the first lot.  Moving right along... it was kind of scary though, making sure that I had the right place.  Instructions this morning were: Not here, not here, there's a triangle there, put it here.  

I ended up Google-ing a picture of it later that afternoon, but I could only see it from the left side, which wasn't particularly helpful because Mumma had her right side to me.  This meant that I was ducking under and squishing next to the stable wall.  Not ideal, but the only way I could see properly.  I was lucky that I Miri Miri her body every day so I know her by touch, which ended up being super helpful. 

I still felt a little sick before I gave her the jab though. 

We're not on top of the milk situation yet and Mumma's super sore, so we're still on 2 hourly feeds for the next 48 hours.  

And on other things which I learnt today...I should have used an iron gate on our stables, rather than the wooden one that was already there.  It was fine when we tried it out, but it is not suitable when we're actually using it every day, or multiple times a day.  It drags on the ground and that Mumma hasn't squashed me while I muck around trying to open it enough for us to both get through it, says a lot about her and the kind of horse she is.  

Got V and C coming over first thing tomorrow morning to fix this.

And we Miri Miri every day, listening to music (Tania Tucker is our favourite at the moment) and it's some kind of magick.  We're all working as a team here and Mumma knows this, so it doesn't seem to matter whether it is my friends, Geoff and Aria, or our lovely Vet or me, Mumma's there communicating and working with us.  

It's got to be seen to be believed, baby.

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It was the bloody post NOT the gate.

It works out that the post was rotten (obviously not when you first looked at it) but when Mumma backed up against it to have a scratch, it bent over somewhat.  Which made everything lean forward, and the gate scrape across the concrete, making it super difficult to open.

Carlos and Victoria came over first thing this morning and we all fixed it.  Ok, fine, mostly them, but I did go and buy the post.

Things taken apart, post put in, concrete put on, everything put back together and all while Mumma and Boo looked on.

Super happy with the stables now, and it is extremely well done, read into that, won't budge for love nor money.  

I am unbelievably happy and so is Mumma.  Once stables were finished, she wandered back in with Boo following.  That was so good for me to see.  Not just that we did the stables right, when we realized something was wrong, but that Mumma wanted to be there, too.

That's some kind of magick.

And almost forgot...Little Boo is feeding well by himself -  so don't have to do the last night of 2 hourly feeds.

Halle-fucking-lu-jah.

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OMFG...Boo is like a terrible two-fer on steriods.  He hurtles round the place at top speed with no regard for fences, mud or hills.

It is both exhilarating to watch and terrifying, in equal measures.

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So that's been our week:  It's awesome.  There's not another word to use.  I love this time, when I'm working hard to keep that horse/human door open.  When I'm working smarter and harder, more fine tuned and consistently running with Energy to make this time such a positive and pro-active experience for us all.  But if I'm being honest, Boo is nothing like Belle. 

Belle was, Hey Tarns, whatcha doing?

Boo is: Move out of the way, coming through! 

Ppppppcchooong...  

But all jokes aside, so far, fingers crossed though, we're doing ok.

I think.