Holy Moly Sweet Melissa, Bayside Rainman x Holy Moly Meadow Mist, black-bay filly with a blaze, was born at 12:35 this morning. Her mother, Mist, did AWESOME for a first baby; I was the midwife which is why there are no actual birth pictures. There is no occasion quite so thrilling as your very first experience in getting covered in equine amniotic fluid in the wee hours of the morning (the horse people on the list know what I’m talking about!). We’re also thrilled to have Bayside Rainman’s very first daughter in our barn!

Nate woke up just after the foal was born so we brought him out to the barn. Evidently his comprehension was a little impaired by sleepiness because when I brought him back to his bed, he turned to me and said, “Mommy, did Rusty have a baby horsie?” Rusty is a gelding—he’s not having a baby ANYthing—so I corrected his understanding: yes indeed, there is a baby horsie in our barn, but it ain’t Rusty’s.

Sadly, I’m sleep impaired well beyond what’s tolerable, having traded horse goo for infant goo at about 2:00—Eric has a nasty cough and informed me of this by coating me in phlegm as I was heading back to bed. Eeeeeew. So I’m at home at least for the morning, possibly for the day if Eric proves too sick for daycare, and it’s back to bed with me for the time being.

OK, so maybe 12 hours was optimistic. Here it is, 11:39 the following night, and still no foal. But she's restless and uncomfortable, so the whole crew (but me, and the two little boys who are asleep) is in the living room watching the foal cam. I bagged up her tail and took her temp earlier so now it's just wait...

I spoke too soon in the last post. As of this morning, Mist had waxed up and was charging everything on four legs with teeth bared and ears flattened. (Heather warned me that a personality change might be in the offing!) So we're on foal watch. Sometime within the next 12 hours or so...

And, at 5:50 this morning, I got a text message from Lyn stating that Cameo had dropped a pretty black filly, the spitting image of her mother. We'd hoped for a colt, of course... but we're happy that all is well and looking forward to seeing pictures of Cammy's little girl. No name yet, but we'll post it when we get it.

I heard just the other day from Heather Pinet that Ryegate Major had been euthanized. I don't know the details but considering his age, it's not all that surprising. Still, it seems as though we were doubly fortunate to get Ray when we did. Our not-so-little boy may turn out to be the last son of this impressive sire. Lucky us! Thanks to Dan Kvigne for convincing me to take foal as well as mare!

Speaking of mares and foals... we were lucky enough to be able to observe Mist's foal moving into place. Mark thought at first she was preparing to foal then and there, but an all nighter spent watching our new foal-cam proved pointless. Our vet said that the foal usually "drops" about 2-3 weeks before foaling, and in recalculating the due date, we figured we have till ~May 25th to wait.