Big Sisters!

Spring comes, and with it two new baby girls.

On the SAME night!

TEN MINUTES APART!!

Zoe had been keeping me up for a week with signs of seemingly imminent foaling, but it was Misty who went into labor first. I recognized the sounds over the baby monitor from my not-so-deep sleep, and rolled over to check the video. Sure enough, Mama Misty was down and obviously going to pop momentarily. So out of bed, and into coveralls. Al mumbled something like "Do you need me?" And I said probably not, but I'd call over the monitor if I did.

By the time I got to the barn, Misty had "two toes and a nose" showing and the old pro was doing fine without me. Zoey was standing just behind me in the next paddock, when I heard her water break! "Go to your stall!" I commanded, and she did. By the time SHE had "two toes and a nose" Misty had delivered. By the time Zoe delivered, Misty's little filly was trying to get up. By the time "Breezy" was up and trying to nurse, "Windy" was worked on finding HER legs. And so it went, on through the early morning hours!

I did end up calling for back-up from Al. He would monitor one stall, while I was in the other. It was a busy night, but now I could go back to normal sleep patterns! I don't have a lot of pictures of the actual births, 'cause I just happened to have the school video camera home that night, and got the whole process on tape--unfortunately not digitally :-(

Imprinting and first halters within an hour. Then, once both have nursed successfully, leave the mamas and babies alone to rest.

It turns out that the fillies, initially named "Breezy" and "Windy" (can you guess what the weather was like that night?) were born on a good horsie friend's birthday; so Misty's became "Breezy Beth" and the other, on pleading from my niece, became "Windy Lindy." Between the two of them, not enough white for ONE legal spot!

Big sister Maddie and Uncle Corky check out the new arrival.

Lindy does her first reining stop!

Kate is impressed.

Beth can move it, too!

Maddie and Kate are no longer the "Babies"--they become the "Yearlings," though, with the adolescent attitudes that they develop by the end of the summer, they earn the title they still share today: "The Teenagers!"