What a scary night. At 11:30 Eliza's water broke. Emily was awakened so she could bed the stall with straw while I got the video camera out. Mike was sent a text and then another when he didn't respond. I walked out of the stall to grab the towels when Emily exclaims, "oh no there is only a head!" Mares must present their foals with the legs first in order to get the foal out of the womb. My only other experience with a wrong presentation was Sangria years ago and that was a disaster, we couldn't get a vet to come out until 2:00 am. Emily bends down to try to push the foal back in but by this time Eliza is determined to get the foal out and is straining with all her might. I ran to the phone called Mike and told him, "we've got problems there is only a head, get here quick." Next phone call was Fede. He answers the phone and I say with a panic stricken voice, "Fede I need you there are no legs!" Now Fede instead of asking questions says, "I'll be right there." At that point we decided to try to get Eliza to stand which would force the foal down and help Emily who was desperately trying to get the head back inside in order to reach in and find the legs. Once we had Eliza standing Emily was able to slip her thin hand and arm all the way in. The foal was kicking against her, Eliza was straining against her and yet Emily got the first leg up. Just as Mike, Diane and Fede came bursting in the barn door Emily got the second leg, Eliza gave a tremendous push and the foal went flying across the stall to land half way on it's nose. That didn't bother it at all. After a couple of minutes of rest it was struggling to get up.
This was a very bloody birth as the umbilical cord ruptured while the foal was flying through the air.
The foal was very strong and it didn't take long for it to struggle trying to get up. Eliza was exhausted.
After the foal was out Emily held out her hand to show us how it was shaking from exhaustion and we all decided she needed to wash well before heading to bed.
There is no video of this I was at the front holding Eliza up with all my strength while Emily was at the back with her arm buried shoulder deep in the back end. The foal is a filly, all black not even a single white hair. She is by Valiant. It didn't take long for the filly to be up and rooting around. If we hadn't of been there Eliza and the filly would both have lost their lives. Fede and Diane stayed until we watched her latch on then cleaned up the area and headed to bed collapsing into that at 1:00 am. Thank you Lord for a good ending!
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