Another quick note on our beautiful baby Dia. She is getting fatter and stronger every day. She and mom run, play, eat, and sleep all day long. Grace is as happy as a horse could be. Baby Dia has had two trips out into the large grassy field. The first was a little scary and she walked very close to her mom. Today on her second time there she felt free enough to run and play a little.
During the day, Grace and Dia are free to come and go from their stall to the paddock. If you are watching Grace Cam you can see them dart in and grab a quick nap and a drink of water and then head out to the sun again. It's quite fun to watch them come and go.
Here's a picture from Sunday showing Dia's balance as she scratches her nose.
Little baby Dia is doing great. Grace is the best mom in the world and won't let Dia out of nose reach. They have gone out into their paddock every day and Dia is running and playing and enjoying the sunshine. They have had lots of visitors and many wonderful photos have been taken. I will post updated photos as soon as my friends sent them to me!
If you are watching on Grace Cam, I finally feel that I can have the lights off at night. The camera has an infra-red lens and you can still see at night, it will just be less clear.
Baby filly Ringrazio Dio arrived at 11:30 pm on Thursday the 17th. It was a textbook delivery and Grace and baby are doing fine. This photo was taken around midnight.
Grace began early signs of delivery shortly after dinner last night and became increasingly more active as the evening progressed. She laid down and got up a few times and with a little contraction we saw the baby starting to come out. Holly, Dale and I made it to the barn in a flash and Grace greeted us with the delivery of a tiny hoof pointed in the right direction. Holly and I gave a silent cheer as we knew this meant the baby was positioned well. Each additional contraction gave us more good news as both front feet and then the baby's nose were delivered. Grace took a short pause and then delivered the shoulders and the rest of the baby came out easily.
By 1:45 the baby was walking around and nursing. We watched her until around 4am and then came back to the house to continue watching from there. And, we are still watching! This photo is from around 3:30 AM.
And here is a cute screen capture from Grace Cam this morning.
Very soon now...
Grace is 372 days pregnant. A ridiculous length of time for an equine to be pregnant. I think she is waiting to make sure that her public gets tuned in. Grace! We are all here now.
We have the long time watchers including my and Holly's parents, Emily at OSU and Beckee at OU, Jeff, Lindsay, Becky, Kris and Diane in the Columbus area, Bucky in Atlanta. With Paul's help, Grace Cam is now featured entertainment on the Isle of Man. Incidentally, I just read that the favorite food on the Isle of Man is potatoes and herring. Jana has joined in recently, as has my boss in Chicagoland and Kathy in Savanna. I just heard from Dale that his good friend Jim near Orlando is a long time watcher too.
In addition to the cam watchers, Grace is also being followed and jingled for by many of our friends who can't access the cam for one reason or another. With all of this positive energy, Grace should be able to pop out the baby with barely a contraction.
Jim - thanks for calling last night to check to make sure all was well.
Holly and I are watching diligently through the night now, no more 20 minute cat naps, as we look for signs of contractions. We will stay in the house until we are sure she is delivering. Once in the barn we will remain outside of her stall unless she needs assistance - you know, a glass of water or a towel to her forehead.
We are within a day or two - I think. Her udder is full, her va-ja-ja has changed shape, her muscles are all aligned for delivery. Yet with all of that, I'm watching her now eating like a tiger and showing no signs that Baby R is ready to scramble.
Another long boring night I fear.
Evening Update: How you have heard this before - Grace is getting very close. Her body has made the distinctive changes that we look for and I think that she is ready to get Baby R on the ground. Jingle for a safe delivery for Grace - whenever it might be!
Morning Update: We have milk! Hooray. Grace continued to udder-up through the day on Sunday and when I checked her this morning she was quite full, but not to the dripping point. I haven't tested the milk yet. One can get an idea of how ready the milk is for baby based on the consistency of it. Maybe when Holly arrives if we are feeling particularly brave we'll take a look at it. But at this point, it doesn't really matter as we couldn't be watching her any more thoroughly than we are.
Grace Cam has gone international. Paul in the UK has been watching for three days and declares us as exciting as local TV. Paul worked with Dale in Columbus for several years and is now back in the motherland. We miss you Paul.
Updated photo from this morning.
Grace is 31795200 seconds pregnant - give or take a few thousand seconds. On my morning milk check, Grace appeared to have the weest bit of milk in her left teat. I estimate it to have been more than a thimble full, but less than a shot glass. It had receded by mid morning which is what the milk typically does.
Holly and I visited Success Acres today. It's a large standard bred breeding farm not too far from here. We were able to see about 10 newborns, including one baby that was less than 12 hours old. There were dozens of mares ready to foal that were out enjoying the sunshine. Many of them had a foal alert on their halter. It is about the size of a cell phone and when the mare lays flat out (a position they get in to for contractions) the alert signals the "people" to come and check on the mare.
The very nice people at Success Acres gave us a pint or so of colostrum. Now that we have it, we hope to not need it.
Taa Daa! We have officially reached one year pregnant! She-who-will-not-foal is doing fine. She had moments of discomfort last night and is looking restless again tonight. She-who-will-not-foal is also she-who-still-doesn't-have-milk. Another call to Carl the vet today to discuss concerns and worries, and he suggested that we line up some frozen colostrum in case Grace doesn't get milk. Colostrum is essential to building baby's immune system and is usually pretty hard to come by - it's often referred to as "frozen gold".
Holly got right on it found a local breeding farm that banks colostrum and they are going to hook us up. How nice is that?
364 days pregnant. Or is she? Grace was bred twice, once on April 9th 2007 and once on April 10th. We have been counting conception from the 10th. But she could have caught on the 9th which would make her already one darn year pregnant.
She had a very restless night last night with some kicking and movement from the baby. She was quiet and sedate today and was showing all signs that she is ready to foal EXCEPT that she still doesn't have her milk. Nice big udder but the milk bar is empty. Mare's usually carry their milk for a couple of days prior to foaling, however, some don't get their milk until they begin to foal.
It's just after 9pm and she has had enough activity that Holly is heading over to foal watch from here. Grace is quiet at the moment and eating hay like she a starved horse. Atta girl Grace.
Today's note is all about numbers.
363 days pregnant. We have big news. I think you will agree with me that this all means something. It got in the 70s today. 1st this year. Grace rolled in the mud 3 times, Boden (Grace's number 1 son), fell asleep instead of eating his hay tonight. And Grace was once again unusually sweet. Coincidence? I think not.
Taking all of these together seems like a good prediction that Grace is going to foal.
Grace continues to look and feel fine. She is quiet pretty much through the night which makes for very boring foal watch. This morning from 3am until 5am she ate at the fine grains attached to her straw, stopping only to have a poo or a pee and drink some water. It was very hard to stay awake. My favorite game during foal watch is to wait for the digital time to reach some play on the digital date projected on the grace cam screen. I count the minutes it will take until I'll see something like 04:08:08 04-08-2008.
Grace's belly measured around the widest point is 103 inches.
A little humor to end the weekend.
How do you induce labor in a mare?
.....Take a nap.
A cowboy rode into town and stopped at a saloon for a drink. Unfortunately, the saloon's regulars had a habit of picking on strangers. When the cowboy finished his drink and left the saloon, he found that his horse had been stolen. He went back into the bar, handily flipped his gun into the air, caught it above his head without looking and fired a shot into the ceiling. "Which one of you sidewinders stole my horse?" he yelled forcefully. No one answered. "All right, I'm gonna have another beer, and if my horse ain't back outside by the time I finish, I'm gonna do what I done in Texas! And I don't want to have to do what I done in Texas!" Some of the locals shifted restlessly. The cowboy, true to his word, had another beer and walked outside, to find that his horse has been returned to its post. He saddled up and prepared to ride out of town. The bartender followed the cowboy out of the bar. "Say, partner, before you go," the bartender asked nervously, "what happened in Texas?" The cowboy turned back and said, " I had to walk home."
About all I can say is "come on already". This is a big, happy, healthy mare. What on Earth does she need to have this baby? Grace was a real sweet heart today and I enjoyed many quiet moment with her. As she is rarely sweet, it was a real treat.
Holly got a package from her parents with a baby halter and lead rope for Baby R. If you have lost track of it in the MONTHS WE HAVE BEEN WAITING for this baby, Baby R is going to be Holly's baby once he (or she) gets here. So we have Holly's parents watching in northern Ohio, my parents, particularly my mom watching in Virginia, and countless friends watching in Ohio and Georgia.
Grace loves being a star.
Here's a photo I took just after 4 am off of Grace Cam. She looks as sleepy as I feel.
It's mid afternoon and Grace hasput her self to bed. Strange behavior for her. The sun is out and it is about 60 degrees, and she is inside standing in her "spot" where those of us on Grace Cam are used to seeing her stand. She was more restless last night than she has been in awhile and is spending more time looking at her belly as if to say "hmmm".
I took another picture of her a couple of hours ago. Compare this to the one taken on the 29th (below). Look any different to you? I'll post more later today should the "situation" warrant.
Prior to 2005, the record gestation period for a horse was 417 days. In 05 the record was broken twice, first with a mare that foaled after 421 days and then later with a mare that went 445 days! Corona Star, the australian mare who delivered after 445 days still holds the record. And may she always.
358 days - that is just crazy talk.
I'd be a fool to tell you that Grace looks like tonight is the night. She looks the same to us today as she has for nearly a week. And she is fine and happy with her situation.
I had our vet Carl out today to do a well-mommy check on Grace. He has been Grace's vet since 1991 and did the artificial insemination for both her pregnancies. Carl is a great guy and keeps me calm when the voices in my head are leading me to panic. Anyway, Carl palpated Grace and said everything "in there" felt fine. The baby is alive and active. Again, the baby will come when the baby is ready to come. Grace's udder is of good size but she still hasn't dropped her milk so we don't have the concern of her colostrum (see March 26) leaking out prematurely.
Grace loves her Carl and was a very good and quiet patient as he was doing the internal exam. It amazes me that this is the same mare that wants to kick my head off when I use a tiny thermometer to take her temperature.
The support horses in the barn deserve a mention. The weather has gone from 60 to a projected below 30 tonight and I have the barn closed up for the evening. Elliot, Grace's one true love, remains in the stall directly across from Grace so that they can stare at each other all night. His stall has a back door where he can leave at will, but I don't think he has left the stall in a week unless it was to run outside to see if he can get a better look at Grace. Elliot is almost 30 years old and is happy to have this job. Grace's other support horse is Giny, who is actually a smallish pinto pony is required to be in the barn at night. When I begin to feed of an evening, if Giny isn't in the barn Grace goes "crazy" until I find her and bring her in. Giny lives loose on the property. She is very, very old and slow. Her wanderings are usually limited to outside the barn into the sawdust shed where she sleeps in the deepest softest bed any horse could ever have and then back into the barn where she watches over Grace.
I'm not even going to mention "she-who-will-not-give-birth". Instead, let me introduce you to my cat Clark. He is one of several orange cats and is the largest cat I have. He has fallen in love with Molly and he comes running to her when ever she is here. The other day when I was taking barn photos, he posed for me.
355 days. We thought Grace was going to deliver last night. She looked a couple of times like she was starting phase 1 delivery but she changed her mind and didn't progress. It was a long night for both Holly and I and we are tired. Mom watched Grace for us some this afternoon and said that she was showing her ready signs again. I think tonight is a good bet.
If we have a baby before midnight I'll still meet my original prediction.
354 days. But who is counting. Grace had a lot of action in her stall last night. Her mouth was moving constantly either eating, yawning, or talking to her baby. She has been quiet today, standing in the sun and enjoying herself. I've included some small photos of her so you can see how healthy (and pregnant) she looks. I just took them. She never moved as I snapped about a dozen photos of her. I may add more information tonight after Grace has been put to bed.
353 days and holding. She had a really boring night last night and her day today has been quiet. She yawned a little last night and yawned a good bit this evening when I put her to bed. Yawning can mean a little discomfort and another step in the preparation. Or, it could just mean she is sleepy.
Since we don't have Baby R pictures of our own, thought I'd share pictures of Baby R's half siblings. See
Rousseau's 2008 foals that have already been born by clicking on his name. If you look at the foal born March 10th, it's great grandsire is also Baby R's great grandsire. I don't know what that might mean, but isn't it interesting?
352 days. Grace looked more ready to go yesterday than she does today. I think she is just fooling with us. Holly stayed over last night and we have started the all-night foal watch with each of us getting 3 or so hours of sleep.
Grace on the other hand is sleeping a lot. She is either eating or staring at the wall sound asleep. She had a good bit of activity through the night last night and it seemed that her baby was making itself known with lots of kicking.
Grace is at 351 days today. Her first foal came at 353 days. We know that one foal doesn't make a pattern, but mares tend to follow the same course from birth to birth.
She is showing signs that she is close to foaling. There isn't any science here that I can apply, but looking at her body and her attitude tells us where she is. Her va-ja-ja has grown in size over the past 24 hours which tells us her body is preparing for the delivery. The muscles around her tail have loosened as well. There is still more relaxation that needs to happen "back there" but it could come fast.
She does not have milk. Her udder is large and ready for the filling. The milk can come anytime. Some mares carry milk for days prior to foaling. Some drop their milk at the last moment. As the mom passes all of the good stuff the baby needs to fight infection in the colostrum (or first milk) we hope that she has adequate milk at the right time - but not so early that the antibodies leak out. The mare only produces this colostrum once so it is very important that baby gets it within the first hours after birth.
The other change that Grace is making is one of attitude. She has become extremely docile and friendly and quiet and wanting to be touched. She is frequently lifting her tail. The baby is active.
We'll be watching now for signs of agitation. Prior to foaling she will likely lay down and get up several times, walk in circles, look at her belly, etc.
So stay tuned. I feel like we are waiting for Christmas but we don't know what day it is going to be.
Big congratulations to my next door neighbor Janelle. Her lovely Arabian mare Ireland, foaled at 1:20 am today. She named the baby Irish Blessing and if you click on her name, it will bring up the sweetest photo of the baby. Ireland was bred three days after Grace and Janelle and I have been entertaining each other with stories about our mares.
Grace is 349 days pregnant today. She enjoyed a wonderful day sleeping in the sun and wallowing in the mud. The bets are rolling in now on when she will deliver. Molly is saying Thursday at noon-thirty. Diane is predicting in the wee hours between Thursday and Friday. The day that we knew Grace was pregnant I picked the wee hours of March 29-30. I have to hold to that date, but looking at her right now, I'm not convinced that we will have a March baby.
While visiting Irish Blessing, Holly had a chance to speak with our vet as he was there doing the well-baby check. He said the baby will come when the baby is ready to come and for us to relax. So hard to do! Holly and I are watching Grace through the night as she theoretically could foal at anytime. I'm getting tired and cranky.
Happy birthday to my mom. I don't think she'll be getting a baby horse for a present.
Grace is doing fine and holding her own. If you are a Grace Cam watcher, our DSL provider EMBARQ is having an outage that is keeping us from broadcasting our Cam Feed. Grace is doing fine and we will have the camera up and running as soon as we can.
345 days. Tick Tock Grace.
I might have mentioned (OK, I mention it nearly every update) that Grace is not the kindest mare God put on the Earth. My friend Diane sent me an email this morning and reminded me of a story about Grace. After I weaned Grace and Boden, Diane took Grace to her place to finish off the weaning and to put a little training time on Grace, who not being the kindest mare, was a little to much for me at the time. Diane had studied natural horsemanship and we decided that it would be good for Grace. I'll let the story come to you in Diane's words from her email and I will add that I was there when this happened and it is true.
Here's the story from Diane's email:
Do you remember my saved by Grace story? When she was here at the farm, I was leading her in the outdoor arena, she spooked and knocked me down. As I lay flat out, face down, I looked around me. Her back feet were straddling my legs, her left front foot was beside my head and her right foot was folded under, gently resting on the middle of my back. She stood that way as I eased myself out from under her. I was literally Saved By Grace!
As an addition to the Grace story above, Diane wanted to add that as a Christian she is thankful for being saved by God's grace through Jesus Christ as well. She is still in awe of how God had a hand in protecting her from any harm that day.
Grace's belly saw lots of action today. I told Holly to tell her baby to stop kicking my mare. She replied that he isn't kicking, he is knocking and wants to come out. In a rare moment of affection with me, Grace requested a little comfort from me and I took her for a walk in the rain.
Bucky has a new prediction. March 20th, at 4:27 AM. And, he predicts a filly.
I saw the baby kick twice tonight. Grace had no reaction to it, but I got very excited. Today was a warmish sunny day and Grace was able to sun bathe quite a bit. I think the feeling of spring in the air must be good for that "birthing feeling".
Her udder is continuing to get a bit thicker.
If you are watching on Grace Cam you may notice that she has a big bandage on one of her legs. She is fine, but has some swelling in that leg and the bandage is to give her some extra support. Ideally we would bandage both hind legs to give balanced support, but as mentioned previously, Grace is not the kindest horse and doesn't like her legs bandaged. We try to minimize our time near those hind legs. Holly drew the short straw and is the one who got to put her life on the line for "the team" and wrap that leg.
And on a non-baby note, Holly, Dale, and I watched Niece Becky at the IHSA regional's today. She did great and we were proud to be part of her cheering section!
Day 340 - and we are at the end of the "average of the average " time that mares carry. Grace doesn't seem ready to bring forth baby. If you are watching on Grace Cam, you will notice that her tail is wrapped up during the night now. This is to keep it from getting in the mix of things when the baby comes. I talked to our vet yesterday and he said that she can go any day now, even though her body doesn't yet look quite ready. Things can happen fast at this point.
My mom asked me a couple of questions today that I'll comment on. The first is do mares normally foal at night. And yes, they are typically night foalers. They prefer a very private, safe and quiet time to foal. Then can actually postpone labor and delivery quite awhile if their instincts tell them the time isn't right.
Mom also wanted to know where we will be when Grace is foaling. It's my expectation that everything will go safely and that Grace will take care of delivering the baby without our assistance. We will be outside of the stall watching quietly until she has delivered. There will be no need for the vet to be present if all goes well. He lives very near us. I have his pager, cell phone and home phone if we do need him. But we won't :-)
339 days and counting. Grace is doing great, no real changes that indicate that Baby R will join us this weekend. We are sleeping poorly as we keep Grace Cam up around the clock and watch her through out the night. Mares are tricky and just when you think you have it figured out when they will foal, they surprise you.
Grace is 335 days pregnant today! This is the average time for a mare to be pregnant. She carried Boden 353 days and it isn't unheard of for a horse to carry a full year.
Her body continues to prepare for the birth. Her udder is growing though not yet full of milk. We call this "bagging up". It would surprise me if she foals this week but we are preparing in case.
Yesterday Holly and I got Grace's stall ready for the birth. If you missed it on Grace Cam, we stripped the stall, swept the walls, and shop-vaced it top to bottom. It then got a good soaking with bleach and bedded with straw. Going forward, we will only use straw until after the birth as it is safer for the little one to arrive on.
The other horses have been banned from the birthing stall and Grace is now there full time. There is a small paddock out the back door that she will have access to in the day time. We will be paying extra attention to keeping the stall, walls, buckets, etc as clean as we can.
Grace is also getting her girl parts washed at night. We will call these her "ta-tas" and her "va-ja-ja". These are washed with ivory liquid to remove surface bacteria. As I have mentioned, Grace is not the sweetest horse God put on the planet, and washing the ta-tas and the va-ja-ja can be scary business.
We have about a foot of snow on the ground and it is still coming (we ended up with 20 inches)! I made sure Grace knew how bad it was so that she wouldn't get any ideas about it being time for the baby to come out. My dear friend Bucky is predicting a baby March 9th at 3:42. We are hoping he is WRONG.
Since Grace couldn't get out in the bad weather, she spent some time in the "spa" getting cleaned up. I want her looking nice for the baby photos that are to come. I love Grace but she is really a grumpy horse and her grump comes out even more when she is brushed. After about 30 minutes of spa time, she finally decided it wasn't so bad.
Grace is in no hurry to move to the last stages of her pregnancy. We are looking for some significant body changes before we announce that it is time to for the foal watch vigil. She is 331 days pregnant and the average birth point is 335-340 days. I feel confident that Grace will go longer than that. Her first foal went 353 days.
So what is happening with Grace? She is continuing her life as normal. She is eating very well, rests through out the night, and is able to get out and enjoy some exercise of her own choosing during the day. Her udder hasn't changed in the last week and is still at the stage of just beginning to "bag up".
I have put my cell phone number up on the Grace Cam page so that if anyone watching sees distress, they'll have a number handy to call.
Grace looks wonderful today. She looks less "pregnant" than she did 6 months ago. The baby must be stretched out long and relaxed and giving her belly a break. The babies lay in the womb on their back and facing forward. Their bums are in the lowest part of the mare's abdomen. Prior to delivery the baby turns over so that its front feet and head are positioned to "dive out" of the mare.
Since Grace isn't stressing me out enough right now, I have been watching marestare.com in the evenings. Two nights ago I saw two babies born. It was incredible. In one case, the baby had not turned in the womb correctly and the human helpers had to turn the baby for the mare. It was a little unpleasant to watch but quite educational. The second birth that I saw took less than 5 minutes from the first moment of active labor to a beautiful baby. That's the birth we are hoping for!
Grace has just started to "bag up". This is when the udder begins to fill up in preparation for foaling. Not all mares bag up prior to foaling and some mares begin to develop a bag as much as a month before their actual foaling day. It's still not time for us to stay awake all night waiting for baby, but do check in on Grace Cam from time to time.
Grazie is 320 days pregnant today. This is one of the milestones one waits for when breeding a mare. Some of the big milestones are at 16 days, 45 days, about 280 days. But 320! This is the day I take a deep breath and sigh because the baby should be strong enough to survive and be healthy were it to be born now. The lungs should be fully developed and able to function on their own. The baby's hair should now be more coarse than the downy hair it has been. Its legs are now strong enough to hold its weight.
Horse's don't have due dates like people do. The baby can come any time now, however, Grace is not showing any signs of impending foaling and we are not at the point of doing foal watch - this is where someone will be monitoring Grace throughout the night - but I have already started loosing sleep worrying about it.
If you are checking in on Grace-Cam, Grace should continue being her normal self through out the evenings. Eating, walking around, laying down and resting.
Grazie is 313 days pregnant today. The baby she is carrying is over 100 pounds and larger than a german shepard. It has all of its hair, and the molars are growing in. Once we hit the 320 day date, we can consider the baby to be "done" as it should be able to breathe on its own when born. The average foaling time is 335 days - Grace's first pregnancy went 353 days. So - we have awhile to go yet.
Question: Where does Grace go when she isn't on Grace Cam?
Answer: Grace is a thoroughly modern mare, and she is still keeping up with her day job as she awaits the birth of "Baby R". Her day job takes her to the big pasture where she must eat and wander and watch the other horses all day. She has a stall not on Grace Cam that she can get to during the day if the weather turns.
Question: Who is that gorgeous dark horse with the two white feet that is sometimes on Grace Cam during the day?
Answer: The dark cutie is Paladino or "Pino". You can learn more about him on the "us" page.
