[acottongim]

My mare Encore (aka Cory) is on marestare: http://www.marestare.com/emeraldtwo.php

She is "due" on June 11, and is at 329 days today - so we have a bit of a ways to go. Her belly is huge, she is grouchy, today is the first real "bag" that she has had - and she does express clear fluid today (for the first time) and it is easily expressed. Buttocks are mushy, but other than that there are no real "I'm close signs."

She went 342 with her first foal, Emerald Impressions (aka Preston), who is a colt. And she went 353 days with her second foal, a filly - Emerald Fire (aka Emma). I anticipate close to the due date (of 342 days) or a little longer. She was fetal sexed at 62 days with a colt. This foal is a full sibling to Emma and is by Oskar.

Cory, and her two babies are all on my website with more info about them all.

I'm posting now 'cause I'm bored with starting marestare back up by myself! and it feels slightly surreal to have 4 babies bouncing around and just now starting to gear up for another one.

ETA: BTW - through the slats you can see Allie and her mommy walking around as they are in the stall next to Cory (grandma is keeping an eagle eye on her granddaughter LOL). Can't see too much but the black shapes are Allie and Angel.

[Bugs-n-Frodo]

June 11th is the day after my boyfriend's birthday so I am going to put my vote in for June 10th.

[spacely]

I'm going to vote June 8 because that's my filly's birthday. Glad to have another mare to stare at Anissa!

[JoZ]

I'll watch yours if you'll watch mine!

"Nique" (APHA buckskin tobiano mare, registered name Unique Blonde) was due on May 17. I think she might go tonight. Of course I've said that on a couple of different nights already.

She has wax. Her milk tastes sweet/rich. Her pH is below 7.0. Her calcium is over 400.

And holy crap she's down and rolling... guess I'll head back out to the barn! On wait, she's up, and has gone back to standing in "her spot" (think Suerte). I'm going to be a blithering idiot before all is said and done.

Link in my sig line. Reception isn't great...

[acottongim]

JoZ I love your mare's name... how cute! (saying this as a blonde myself lol) I see that she did not have a baby last night.... don't you love mares? )

[JoZ]

Yes, she has tried my patience with the on-again, off-again labor symptoms. Actually not PATIENCE, more like STAMINA. I am soooo tired, BUT I have a new colt! And thanks to the Mare Stare observer who alerted me to it, since I had already given up for the night. My alarm was set, but I would have missed the birth if I hadn't gotten the call.

The baby is a bay colt, tobiano, most likely homozygous since he has small "paw prints" as well as big splotches. He is very down on his pasterns right now. He has nursed and pooped, and Nique has passed the placenta, so Foal Watch 2008 is, for me, officially over (yes, I just had the one this year). Good luck to you and your mare... I'll be watching!

[Altamont Sport Horses]

Yeah Anissa!! I know she's not close but there is progress and now I've got someone else's mare to watch since mine is not doing much new. She's had udder development for close to 2 months already and "milk" has been yellow and salty for a week. Definitely pulling down over the croup and tail head with legs like tree trunks, poor girl. She is due June 16th but went at 340 days in the past with a colt so maybe June 14th. Really, I'd be surprised if she makes it that long. I did not have her fetal sexed but am hoping for a filly. Wait, I guess I should be hoping for a colt. We may have a race to the finish. :-)

[acottongim]

Congrats JoZ!!!! I was so beat last night that I barely got the horses fed and watered. (for anyone that tried to pull up marestare last night I didn't even plug it in last night) Mare Stare is actually great for JUST that reason! I would much rather have 15 calls and tell them "yep, I'm in the barn" than "crap I missed the birth 'cause no one called and something bad happened!"

Karri - you are on. She was outside ALL day (14 hours) yesterday and her bag did go down a bit, but it was still there (yeah!!!) so we are progressing. My cousin Whitney was all kiinds of excited because she got to feel the baby move twice the other night.

[acottongim]

332 days today and nothing happening except a bigger belly everyday.... The bag is there in the am but gone in the pm (she is in at night and out during the day, so her bag deflats when she is out all day). Her butt is mushy, but the tail is not lax at all.... I'm thinking AT LEAST 10 days more if not longer - I think she will go at around 350 + days judging by the way she is right now. She hasn't "bagged up" for real and stayed bagged up until around 20 - 30 days prior to foaling for her other two foals. I'm not really watching her at night yet - I will when she has a bag when I bring her in at night, so IF something happens PLEASE call me, my home number is the 579 number that is listed on the webcam page - the cell doesn't work so great in the house.

Oh and don't ask me why on some days when she is out all day she has a half bag, and other days it looks like she isn't preg at all... I don't get it. I have noticed that if it is hotter out she has less of a bag (it is avg around 91 - 95 right now with heat indexes even higher) I wonder if that has anything to do with it??.

[acottongim]

Cory is at 334 days today. Even though her bag is not worth talking about, she does express milk easily. Did the "strip test" on her today for grins and she is at just over 100 ph and 7.8 ca, but it looks like it is on the move up and down respectively. I tested her last night with the same results, but they were more "solid" on those readings. Tonight the purple on the ph was slightly lighter and the orange was slightly less red (so ph going up and the ca going down). Still not getting up more than once though in the night as she isn't THAT close yet.... Belly has shifted down/back and her tail is getting slightly looser. Bless her heart she is starting to waddle and looks like a beached whale LOL.

[Equine Obsession]

Exciting! My birthday is on June 11. I'd love to share it with a horse!

Good luck and here's to hoping for a healthy foal! I can't watch marestare so I live vicariously through these posts.

[trakmom]

Hi Anissa, I can't believe I just found your thread. My birthday is in June, but it is later in the month. Hope Corey doesn't go til the 21st. I'm telling you, it's so much easier to buy one already on the ground . Only downside, I have to wait to get her to me .

[acottongim]

The good news on your part though trakmom is you got a KILLER filly and you already know the sex, what she looks like, etc!!! Hey, by the time you make it down here to see your girl Cory should have the baby on the ground!!!!!

[acottongim]

OK, checked her milk tonight... the ph was between 7.8 and 7.6 and the ca was between 100 and 250!!! I did it twice to make sure I wasn't seeing things... colors aren't quite all the way at 7.6 or 250, so I say between them....

It is funny, someone on marestare asked me what all of her shenanigans are for in the evening - apparently they caught her bucking and jigging etc. LOL. That would be the PRINCESS bucking bugs off her backend LOL. That and I think Allie is bothering grandma and she doesn't like that either (Allie and Angel are in the stall next to her). OH, update on Allie real quick... Her leg is getting MUCH better. The wound is still deep, esp on the inside part of the leg, and it is still pretty gross looking, but she is fully weight bearing and tonight she was trying to jump up on mom and trying to get her to play (poor thing she wants out sooooo bad).

[trakmom]

I'm wondering what Emma's reaction is going to be when she sees HER Mom with some darn baby. I'd sure like to be there for that first sighting. Corey is just eating away like there's no important business to take care of.

[acottongim]

Oh you mean the Princess in waiting????? LOL!!! She will prob be throughly confused as to why HER mom should want that "pipsqueak" around her. LOL

[acottongim]

OK, not sure what to believe, but did put down hay tonight (which of course the Princess is EATING and helped me spread around LOL).
Bag says "no baby tonight", belly says "maybe a baby", tail/vulva says "maybe", milk test is inconclusive.... so we wait and watch.
Bag is mediocre at best, but milk comes easily and when I express it, it is thick, cream colored and wants to "sit" on the teat (the droplet) and is thick (I did not taste it tonight).
Belly is dropped and the baby is WAY back, if you look between her back legs she is dropped LOW, from the side it is not as apparent, but the baby being so far back IS. Tail is only marginally loose, vulva margainlly loose/long.
Milk test is 250 on the ca, ph is hovering around 7.2. Did it several times and got slightly different readings each time (I think I might have had some contamination from where I cleaned the testers) but I was consistently close to those numbers. For grins/giggles I did the test without diluting with the distilled water and got a SOLID 6.8 on the ph and 1000 on ca - for whatever that is worth.
I will be watching, but PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE to call if she is doing ANYTHING. The 579 number on the cam is the home number and the best one to call. I would much rather be woken up to find out it was a false alarm than miss the birth and something happen! If I don't answer the phone it is prob because I am IN the barn (phone does not reach that far).
OH, if you notice that she is a little "wet" looking right now it is because she got a bath after she ate dinner. We had heat index of over 100 today and she was covered in dried sweat.

[Altamont Sport Horses]

Bag says "no baby tonight", belly says "maybe a baby", tail/vulva says "maybe", milk test is inconclusive.... so we wait and watch.
Bag is mediocre at best, but milk comes easily and when I express it, it is thick, cream colored and wants to "sit" on the teat (the droplet) and is thick (I did not taste it tonight).
Belly is dropped and the baby is WAY back, if you look between her back legs she is dropped LOW, from the side it is not as apparent, but the baby being so far back IS. Tail is only marginally loose, vulva margainlly loose/long.

Don't fall for it!!! That's what my girl was doing and I thought I had at least a 4-5 days if not an entire week. Bag deflated couple days prior, milk was even yellow and salty so I didn't bother to test it. Actually, tail was not loose and she could still clamp it down when I tried to look at her vulva which didn't look loose so much as just a bit relaxed. I'd rather miss 2 weeks of sleep than potentially miss it and I didn't stay up one single night. I've never been so caught off guard with a foaling.

The cam is not coming up for me. Is my computer acting stupid again or is it a cam problem?

Can't wait to see this baby! Good luck Anissa!

[acottongim]

I've got her up on my computer so I'm not sure if there is a prob or not (you have the #2 cam up right?)

And I know Karri - that is why I put the hay down and will actually have her up on my tv in my bedroom tonight and will wake up etc. She was walking the stall a bit ago and has been letting that tail fly tonight (but there might be a horse fly in there with her. And she keeps pinning her ears at her sides tonight... Don't really think she will go tonight, but better safe than sorry!

[Jaegermonster]

here we go again