We are absolutely delighted with the arrival on Tuesday night of Alfama's baby, a beautiful colt! It was a textbook delivery and she was amazing - from waters breaking to delivery in about 20 minutes, normal and unbelievable all at the same time :)
It all began about 9:50pm; I was in bed on account of the pressing urge for an early night when Sid came barrelling up the stairs to inform me that something was definitely occurring - he and Knickers had seen her waters breaking on the CCTV. It's funny how time slows down at these times and it seems to take an age to get dressed and down to the yard but is actually only a few moments. When we arrived we could see the bag and a foot poking out, and within moments she lay down - with her bum right in the corner by the water bucket on the wall. Argh. Luckily we had taken heed from Lotty's experience and built very big banks, which gave the possibility to move a mound of straw out of the way to prepare for the little one's arrival.
That done, down to business. The bag was the right colour so thankfully no signs of dystocia, and a normal presentation with two forelegs quickly followed by a nose. What a gargantuan effort on her part; it felt as though it was taking forever and the urge to break the bag was quite pressing, but I knew she had to pass the shoulders and rib cage before that could be safely done. Passing the shoulders was a huge effort as might be expected, but once the rib cage was out the bag burst on its own, baby took his first breath and they rested for a while before the rest of him was delivered. What a joy to be the first person to touch him, and towel him off. Alfama stayed lying down for a while ensuring the safe transfer of precious nutrient-rich blood before she eventually got up and broke the cord.
It took about 45 minutes (not that we were counting) for him to get to his feet and stagger around the stable, and two hours after he was born he hadn't mastered the art of latching on, so I rang the vet to see how long we should wait before becoming concerned. It was clearly exhausting stuff for him, and Alfama kept lying down, knackered. The vet said to give it another hour and, natch, not 10 minutes had I got off the phone with her than he did finally latch on and get the all-important colostrum. Splendid. We left them to it and soon afterwards she passed the placenta, so back out to wrestle it into a bucket and examine it for any missing bits. I was surprised at how big, heavy and, well, meaty it was, and also relieved that it was quite easy to see that it was whole.
He is a beautiful and surprisingly big strong boy, and fragile all at the same time. He is currently a dun colour with a black mane and tail, though expected to be gret what with mom and dad both being grey, and the most exquisitely soft and new little soul. The whole thing was just awesome.
In the end, after all that emotional upheaval before the event, I found myself cool and almost a bit detached with the need to on hand to attend Alfama; Sid was beside himself and Knickers was weeping freely. For me the emotion of it all really hit home the next morning and perhaps luckily I had the prospect of a presentation with our top boss man in the afternoon to keep me in check. Really Did Not Want to leave the homestead that day, I can tell you.
Meanwhile, every day there is evidence of him getting stronger and h spends his time drinking, sleeping and attempting to frisk. We will take some proper photos and turn them out for the first time this weekend. Can't wait!
Update on the boys
I may have already mentioned that Q took to the dummy as though he'd been doing it all his life, and provided a sample on his very first day. Since then he has repeated this every day and today, day 4, Madeleine rang to tell me that they were able to dispense with the mare and he mounted the dummy straight away. What a boy! We now need to decide how much semen to freeze down; apparently it lasts for 40,000 years, so no danger of it going off.
Meanwhile T was giving me hives early this week as he has destroyed a large part of his stable with repeated caprioles. Argh. We've made a pen for him a little bigger than his stable so he can come and go at will and stand outside to watch Dan's horses on the walker (or T TV as we call it) much more calmly than when confined to barracks, so this is a relief. This combined with leading out to hand graze is keeping him at a pleasant simmer, so hopefully he can start to recover a bit now that the stress is ramped right down.
There has been a lovely sense of serenity on the yard since the boy's birth. Now all we have to do is decide what to call him. In keeping with Portuguese tradition it should begin with G this year and be a Portuguese name, and trust us to have our first foal on the ground when the name selection is quite limited. I like Gaspar or Gregorio whereas Sid is pretty set on Gualter (pronounced gal-tare). I expect Sid's choice to win out but there's always hope that persistence will win out :)
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