It's a colt!

Hi folks,

I had really hoped to get this post up sooner, but I had technical difficulties - technically, technology was being difficult!  Anyway, better late than never.  I had been checking Fiona's udders twice, sometimes three times, per day for the last couple of weeks, looking to see if her milk had changed from a clear, yellowish liquid, to a milky white liquid.  This sign indicates that she would foal sometime in the next 12-48 hours.  Saturday morning, still no change, but by 6:15pm that night, it had finally changed and she was actively dripping!  Now, when her milk had changed last year, it took a good 24 hours before we got to meet the new filly, but Fiona was not going to take her time this year.  She was extremely agitated, and by 10:32pm she laid down and her water broke.  It only took 8 minutes before the new baby was fully delivered - at 10:40 PM on Saturday April 15, 2017.  And it was a colt!  I had been hoping for a filly, but it's all good, I'm still super excited!  He is a solid bay, with no white markings, which is exactly the color I had been hoping for!  It took him about an hour to stand up (with quite a bit of assistance from the crowd), and another hour to figure out how to nurse - a little longer than the norm, but otherwise perfectly fine and uneventful.  I typically would have done some imprinting right away, but I'll be honest, I was so completely exhausted (partly from the excitement and partly because my seasonal allergies had started acting up), that I decided it could wait a day or two.  We settled Fiona and her baby in their stall and went to sleep.

With the next day being Easter, I had so many commitments, that I was only able to get out to check on them in the morning, and then meet the vet back at the barn in the afternoon.  He checked them over, said they both looked great, and gave me the OK to turn them out.  Once out, the baby had a good romp around the field, testing out his very long legs.  Again, I was still so exhausted, that I decided to just call it a day and get some rest.  I did however, manage to come up with a name for him - I had been thinking long and hard about the perfect name for this new steed of mine. Since this little guy is to be my next big competition horse, I wanted him to have a strong and fitting name. I wanted the name to include a little bit from his fathers side as well as his mothers side, as well as something that would represent the royal theme that goes with Castle Farm. I received a lot of suggestions and ideas from a lot of people, and it was really hard to pick just one. However, the name I decided to christen my new fellow with is CF Baltic Warlord. One of my students, Katie, actually came up with the name.   As for a nickname, the credit goes to my husband, Chris.  Since we already have a "Butcher" on the farm, he thought it would be a nice addition to have a "Baker". Now all we need is a "Candlestick Maker"!  

So, that brings us to yesterday and today.  I had planned to do a little something with Baker and Fiona both these days, but Fiona has been super protective of Baker, so I decided to give her a little more time to bond with him on her own before interfering with all the stuff I want to do with him.  I have been out three times a day to dip his navel (to prevent infection the navel must be dipped with an antibacterial solution, usually Nolvasan.).  And I have also put a weanling halter on him to make him easier to catch.  He is very curious, but also very stubborn.  He seems to enjoy being scratched, but then the next minute he kicks out and tries to run away.  It looks like I might be in for a bumpy ride for the next few years!  I'll be back with more on Baker as soon as Fiona is ready to let me work with him :)