Madeira Has a FILLY

At 2:30 am this morning I saw on the monitor that Madeira was laying down. Believing she was in labor I took the golf cart up to the barn. She was not in labor, just laying down napping. Both her and Marika's stalls were cleaned, each mare given fresh water and hay then instead of heading back to the house I just settled down in the apartment. At 4:40 am Madeira went into active labor. I was encouraged to see both hooves presenting.

 and even happier to see the nose but by this time the one bent leg was slowing down her progress. 

 Right about here I realized I was going to have to open the sack grab the leg that was bent and pull it out. This is what is called an elbow lock. She got this far without help but no farther. 

 The sack was opened, the leg pulled straight and then she was able to deliver the shoulders. 

 Poor Madeira was pretty exhausted and did not move for quite a while. The sack was left on the foal while she was resting. At this point the cord is still attached. We like to leave that attached as long as the foal or mare isn't struggling. 

 Once the filly started to struggle, she was dragged up to introduce her to her mama. 

 Madeira took one sniff and was hooked. She easily spent the next 15 minutes thoroughly cleaning up her baby. 

 I was pretty sure at that point she was going to be a good mother so left the barn to come up to the house for some good strong coffee.  Watching on the monitor as the filly was able to stand and start rooting in the right place. Madeira stood very still. This is very good for a brand new mother that has never delivered before. Some new mothers whirl to keep the foal in eye sight and won't stand while the baby tries to nurse.  I ran back to the barn around 6:00 am just to make sure the filly had latched on and snapped the two pictures below. 

This filly is a Warlander (half Friesian half Andalusian)  she is going to be tall, have amazing movement and for sure will have the mega hair. Does it seem like I write mega hair a lot about our foals?  That is because we BREED for that. One of the things we think is so appealing with Friesians is the amount of hair they are known for. The Friesian breed has been changing to more of a sport instead of baroque which makes them more versatile but in doing this they have been losing the long thick mane and tail that Friesians' are known for. When purchasing a mare to breed to one of our Friesians, we look first for conformation, extreme movement, height and then HAIR, long thick manes and tails. The Andalusian breed fits our criteria and that is why we bought Madeira. Madeira is a nice tall Andalusian mare with amazing movement and a double sided mane and such a long thick tail it took forever last night to get it wrapped. This filly is going to be one of the special ones and is priced at only $5000.00.