Waiting Days

These waiting days, in anticipation of the last foal to arrive are filled with beauty and also a bit of trepidation. It seems my heart is in my throat too much, and I have begun worrying that Ciente's foal will be born too late and not be as robust as Fada and Animado are coming into the winter. I haven't seen the foal move in weeks...and I worry that something is wrong inside...and I worry there will be too many flies, or it will be too hot, etc...and Hardy chides me for faltering on my usual positivism. Both he and Kevin have much calmer minds right now than I--and I wonder just why it is that anticipating these beautiful births has me so agitated? Will it be like this for me every time there are foals expected???

I read up on Blogger troubleshooting, and after clearing my browser cache and "cookies" (whatever they are?) I find I am able to upload photos again. Here is the image of Ciente from last week that I'd been wanting to share:A very pregnant Ciente, grazing with Altamiro

This next image I like because it shows the many nuances of the grulla coloring:

Left to right: Fada, Animado, Bella and Ciente

On Tuesday, the herd had come up while I was working on dinner. I ran out with the camera and took a little movie of Bella, Altamiro, Ciente and Belina coming up to the fence to say hello. Altamiro is the chap in the middle, Bella is on the right of the frame and Ciente is on the left...Belina cannot quite get up as close as they are. One would be hard pressed to tell which is the purebred Sorraia, which is the Kiger mustang and which is the registered Spanish Mustang...they are all like peas in a pod, aren't they?

Yesterday, when the herd came up for morning oats (yes, whole oats now Jean!), Ciente's udder appeared much fuller. Later in the early evening, Kevin checked her for me while I was preparing dinner and he thought she looker fuller there as well. Then a peculiar thing began to happen...the other herd members became very curious about Ciente, each coming over to sniff her rear end. Bella didn't like whatever aroma was being exuded and began to ardently chase Ciente. Bella chased Ciente on and off for the rest of the evening until night fell. I didn't like this one bit, and neither did Altamiro, who often would intervene, but only for the chasing to start up again in a few minutes. It appeared that Bella didn't want Ciente to be with the herd. I feared for Ciente, thinking it wasn't good for her to be forced to run so much while in such a late stage of pregnancy. Kevin was typically more accepting, thinking they knew best and maybe this was something necessary. So we watched this until they quieted down after sunset. I thought by morning there would be a foal at Ciente's side--nope! Not yet...and when she came up for breakfast oats, her udder didn't look as full as it had yesterday...

These waiting days are weird and wonderful and worrisome...