A surprise!

Buffy was bred in April and August and both times had tested negative for pregnancy. Which was fine with me, she was taking a nice year off to relax and be the alpha mare. But something about her didn't jive for me. So I retested her and I was shocked to see one single dark line and no hint of line number 2. (one line is positive with the weefoal120 test). There's no doubt about it, she's preggers. So we will have a July baby as well as 4 March babies. Frankie did a great job in his short stays here.

8 months and coutnting

The girls are now entering month 8 of their pregnancies. They are all on Mare and Foal 16% protein feed and soaked beet pulp and lots of good clean hay. All are doing well. I ring tested them for fun and got fillies for Nellie and Marcella and colts for Ladybug and Fly. Never had much success with this test but it is fun to pass the time away waiting for the babies to arrive. Hopefully will have two cameras this foaling season so I can watch all the stalls at night.

7 months and growing

Fly at 7 months pregnant

Marcella at 7 months

Nellie at 7 months pregnant

Ladybug 7 months pregnant

There's no disputing the fact that they are pregnant now. All are healthy and happy and settling into their routines for winter. Eating, sleeping, lumbering around and pooping. :)

All four girls have foals kicking now

They are all at 6 months and I have felt all 4 foals kicking. This is my favorite time. Now my biggest problem is which mare's belly to talk to each meal. So much fun.

pictures of girls at 6 months

Here are the 4 girls at 6 months pregnant. They are definitely starting to LOOK pregnant.

Kicking in the mares

Nellies fly kicked the first time for me on Oct. 03 2011 and Fly (my first born foal) let me feel her precious one kick tonight Oct. 06 2011!!! It just never gets old. They are both at 6 months, 5 more months to go.

Now I'm watching and feeling for Marcella and LB's foals to kick. I just love this time of year.

Carmel will not be having a foal in 2012

Well I've been counting the days since Carmel was bred to Frankie. She would have been at day 42 today. The pregnancy test is accurate after 38 days pregnant, so the timing was good. Sadly, the results are clearly negative (2 lines = pregnant). Maybe Carmel is going to become my new show horse.

Frankie has left the building

I brought Frankie (the leased stallion) home last weekend. Now I wait until the two rebred girls are 38 days along. That will be the end of September, then I will test them with the weefoal38 tests I have in the fridge.

The April bred girls are almost at 5 months now, boy the time flies along. They all look pretty pudgy and content. It's odd seeing my first born filly carrying one of her own in there. Will post pics of everyone next week when they will be ~5 months along.

Frankie returns

Frankie's owners and I decided to give him another shot at my two open mares. So he has been busy wooing the girls and getting another month of cart training in as well. Seems like the other 4 girls must be pregnant as they will not give Frankie the time of day. One more week and he goes home again. I'll be an empty nest mom this year, so I'm hoping these little ones will keep me busy and happy.

The girls are at 4 months pregnant!

Their looking fuller and healthy. Buffy and Carmel are not pregnant but I re-leased the stallion for this month, so we'll see if we can change that.




Fly

Nellie

Ladybug

Marcella

Girls are at 3 months!

Some of them are looking a little bit fuller, but really just healthy and happy. I am going to retest Buffy as I doubt the negative result I got with her test. Without further ado here are the girls.

Marcella

Nellie

Ladybug

Fly

4 mares about 2 months pregnant

Well all the testing is completed. Nellie, Ladybug, Fly and Marcella are pregnant! Lots can happened between 2 months and 11 months, but hopefully they can hold on to those precious little ones and we will get to see them in March of next year.

Test results

Fly and Nellie tested positive. Carmel tested negative. Two out of three ain't bad. Will wait to test the remaining mares until they are farther along.

The Weefoal 38's should arrive tomorrow

I ordered 3 weefoal 38 urine tests for the first three mares, Nellie, Carmel and Fly. 2 are at day 44 and 47 today, so I have collected their samples and am impatiently waiting on the tests to arrive. Fly is just 37 days today, so I will wait and test her in a few more days. CAn't wait for the mail to arrive tomorrow. Hope the post office is doing it's job and hasn't lost my package. I love finding out if the mares are pregnant or not. Will post as soon as I have results.

Frankie has left the building

Frankie went home last weekend. The girls have all been bred and none were showing any interest at all in poor Frankie the week before he left. So the waiting and counting of days begins. I will test each mare in the first week of June to see if she took.

April 2nd - attack of the mares

Nellie and Fly decided they needed some of the action. So I am now trying to juggling the three mares and let poor Frankie gain his reserves between breedings. Nothing but good hay, high energy food and lots of sex for this guy. Tough life.

Frankie is here!!

And Marcella must have been in heat before he arrived cause she was soooo happy to see him. Here is a pic of Marcella.

One week until our new Stud Frankie arrives

Frankie is a chestnut, roan mini stallion that I am leasing to breed my girls this year. Fly (my very first foal, who is three), Nellie, Marcella, Lady bug and Carmel will all have dates with this little man. Here's hoping they love him.

Huybers Utopia Mister Sullivan

Was born on March 17th and has been bucking, kicking and running since then. He's a handful for poor old Buffy.

Day 336

Her udder is huge, but her milk has almost dried to nothing. My guess is that it is preparing to come back as colostrum and we will be in business. This could happen overnight. We are getting closer everyday.

Day 331

Well here we are at day 331. Her udder is exactly the size it was last year when she was 24 hours from foaling. Dare I to hope she will follow that routine? Only problem is her milk is still not where we want it to be for foaling and until that happens I'm afraid we just sit and wait.

Day 328

Well there is not much time left. Buff is big and pregnant, and her udder is nice and full. We are just waiting on her milk to change. Maybe she will foal by the weekend.

313 days

Buffy's milk has changed from 10% ready to foal to 40% ready overnight. We are heading in the right direction. The new camera arrives and hopefully gets installed tonight. Then we will get a nice clear, crisp pic of what our girl is up to all night long.

311 days

Buffy is now on Marestare. You can actually watch her in her stall as she sleeps, eats and poos!!! How exciting is that. At the moment the picture is very fuzzy as I have a wireless cam and it picks up alot of interference. I hope to be able to borrow a wired cam this week and fix that. But none the less, it is pretty cool to be able to watch her no matter where I am, like during the day at work.

Of course she is not far enough along to leave her in during the day. She needs her exercise to keep fit for the upcoming event. But she will be in her stall and one Marestare from about 6pm at night to 9 am in the morning. Check it out, and I'll get working on getting the pic clearer.

http://www.marestare.com/fcam.php?alias=huybersutopia

300 days pregnant

We're starting to get close. Buff has foaled for me on days 326 and 337. So not so far from now we'll be seeing her precious little one.

Shaved Buff's belly in ensure baby does not get fur in his mouth when he/she roots for her udder. It is often an issue with minis as they shed insanely in the spring. Buffy has already started shedding bigtime.

Her udder is showing a small amount of filling, but nothing serious which is normal for her. I expect serious uddering to begin around day 310-315.

All is going as expected, will update when something significant occurs.

287 days pregnant

Buffy is coming along nicely, here are some pics of her baby belly. 40 days to go!

45 days to go!

Buffy is at day 285 today. I'm predicting that she'll foal on Mar. 11th this year. Her udder is not filling at all yet (totally normal for her), but she has started taking forever to finish her meals (also normal for her around 290 days). So we are on track for a very normal Buffy foaling, here's hoping she's hiding a gorgeous little leopard foal in there. It will most likely be a colt as she is carrying on her right side and she gives me colts when she does that and her pattern is CCFCCFCCF so next up should be a colt. I'll be happy as long as it is healthy.

2 more months and my leased stallion arrives!!! The girls are going to love him, I hope. Exciting times are coming!!

9 months pregnant

Flicka my new gelding.

Buffy is now at day 271! Boy where did that time go? Baby is bouncing around in there at supper time to let me know he/she is alive and well. This is Orions very last foal as he was gelded in Aug. 2010. I am hoping for a spotted baby this time, but then it would have to be a filly so I could keep it. :)

Flicka (my new gelding) is doing very well in his driving training. He takes cars, dogs and all other distractions without batting an eyelid. He's a calm fellow and is going to make someone a very nice little driving horse someday. In the mean time I am enjoying playing with him.

3 more months and the stallion I'm going to lease, Frankie, will be here and will be wooing my girls. I will breed 5 mares to him that are open right now. 2012 should be very exciting.