As new life arrives, an old one ends

Don't get me wrong, I put implicit trust in each and every member of my staff, but I do not sleep at night until I have done the rounds of the pregnant mares when foaling season arrives.  They all do their checks too, and I encourage that, the more watching, the better.  But I have to personally lay eyes, and hands, on them and have our private talk about how they are going to wait for me before they foal and they are not going to have any problems and they all get their favorite treats.


Tonight I went out a bit later than normal, got caught up in a silly Hallmark romance movie, and stopped at the pasture fence to check April and Seiki.  I noticed April is getting a teeny tiny bag on her, but left her out for the night.  If she foals before the week is out I will be very surprised.  She got a huge milk cow bag on her last time and I expect she will do it this time too.  Seiki is showing no signs of foaling at all other than being fat.

I headed into the barn to check on Mabel and stopped first at Natalie's stall.  Natalie is a sweet old mare, one of Hook's last foals.  She has had a really hard time keeping weight on for the last few months and the chill in the air at night is too much for her now that winter is upon us.  So we have been stalling her at night and blanketing her during the day when she is in the pasture.  She was standing with her head hanging down, breathing kind of hard and just looked miserable.  I pulled out my cell and called Gammy.  She came out and we spent some time with her and we talked about her wonderful foals and what a sweet girl she is, and how much happiness she has brought over the years.  Then I went to check Mabel and as I was closing the stall door, I heard Natalie go down.  I ran to the stall door and Gammy just looked at me with tears rolling down her face.  She was gone, just like that.  We will bury her near the creek tomorrow morning.  She loved to eat the sweet green grass on the bank in the springtime with the warm sun on her back.

Gammy and I came in and had chamomile tea and talked about how hard it is to lose these huge beasts that are our dear friends.  Gammy is in bed now, but I needed to write it all down before I could sleep.  Mabel is making some progress, getting a mushy rump and losing resistance in her tail, so in the sad aftermath of death, we will soon have new life.