Branson Day 1

We got a big surprise this morning. Our guests discovered a brand new foal standing next to Wicktoria around 6:00 am.  She called Karin who spent the night in Farmington. Karin left for the farm immediately and called me on the way. I sent a text to Jennifer, our guest, who told me Wicktoria is being a good mom.

Unfortunately we had a problem. Wicktoria had retained her placenta and the colt was not nursing well. Jennifer worked with him and sent back the text that he was latching on and sucking about 20% of each time he tried.
Meanwhile here in Branson the grandchildren found a tortoise in the yard and really really wanted to keep him or her.

They played with him then grudgingly let him go where they found him. At 9:00 am we watched Lee and Rhoda's church on the television. The speaker spoke of the promises and at 10:00 am we listened on line to Peoria church where the message was to serve. Today was the wedding day of Crystal Klopfenstein and Jay Wettstein.

After the service we left for the resort that the house we are renting has access to. That was amazing having an indoor and outdoor pools, indoor and outdoor hot tubs, tennis courts, wee tee golf, playgrounds, koi ponds, club house, free activities for children, game room and so so much more.

We came home for a late lunch. David and Stephanie arrived with their two and after spending 9 hours in a car they decided everyone should go for a hike.

 Above Jack was in the process of jumping into the water and just then someone saw a snake in the water, Jack landed on the snake. Below is his reaction. He couldn't get out of the water fast enough.

They hiked a bit farther and found a steeper cliff with a bigger waterfall.

To see the rest of the pictures of the resort and hike click HERE. Taunya made our dinner tonight serving us a fantastic roast with all the fixins. Kensley, Anna's 3 year old, took a big bite and exclaimed, "I LOVE COW!"
Meanwhile back at the farm the decision was made to call the vet. Wicktoria still had not delivered the placenta and the foal wasn't doing as well as expected. Dr. Pallen arrived and went right to work. I was able to watch everything on the monitor. Below Jennifer and her daughter Alex are helping Karin and Dr. Pallen with the placenta removal.

When the placenta was finally delivered, it was obvious why Wicktoria delivered early and why the foal was needing fluids. She had developed placentitis  which usually causes the mare to have a late term abortion. Below is the diseased placenta. We are lucky that the foal was born alive. If she had not gone into labor when she did, the foal would have been died in-utero and aborted.

Wicktoria will need to be treated with antibiotics before she is due to deliver her next foal as a precaution. Both Wicktoria and her brand new colt by Valiant are doing fine this evening. Dr. Pallen gave the colt some IV fluids just to make sure he was not dehydrated and then left. The stall was cleaned and Wicktoria fed and watered. Mike had to go to Middle Grove as he got a message the horses were out and in the bean field. It turned out the swimmers had left a gate open. He took that opportunity to move them over to another pasture with plenty of waist high grass.

We had a very full exciting and drama filled day with the birth of the colt and the fun here at Branson.