I can share with you how a mare who is about to foal behaves in the few hours before foaling as she and I had one of the most sleepest nights of my life. Because of last year's tragedy with the colt being found dead, I watched the camera in the stable obsessively for two weeks before the due date (4 April) and almost two weeks afterwards. Shelley's udder filled up and the muscles slackened round her tail but still her behaviour did not change. Then, one night, I bent to look at her udder which although large was by no means excessively so, and there were the tell tale signs of 'wax' hanging from her teats. I've seen these appear as real candles but to be honest, with her, blink and you would miss it but they were there at last! I put her in the stable and resolved tiredly to be extra vigilent. Normally they foal within 24 hours of this appearing. Shelley went in the stable quietly as usual and starting eating her hay with gusto. But by the time I went to bed, the camera was revealing quite a different picture. She was roaring round her stable, kicking the door and stamping. She kept this up all night until about 4am when suddenly all went quiet and just for a few minutes I drifted off to sleep with a thought lurking at the back of my mind. Eventually the thought broke through and I jerked awake and looked at the screen. Shelley was on the floor, and from under her tail, there was a bag appearing. My first thought was to put a coat over my night clothes and run out but I made myself dress quickly and in the few minutes it took to do this and run outside, the bag had turned into a slippery grey sack and was wriggling. I swiftly opened the door and bent down to investigate, making out the shape of a head. I tore the bag (foals are born in a bag which they should break in the act of birth - sometimes a bag is especially tough and if the foal cannot break it and mother does not do it quickly, it can prevent them breathing or lead them to breath in fluids, thus causing death. I wondered if that was what happened last year to the colt?) The mare stood up and as she did so, the naval cord naturally broke and Shelley turned round to see her foal. I gently edged out and Shelley got to work cleaning her foal. I made myself go into the kitchen and make a cup of tea. It is very important that the mare and foal bond and I think they are best doing this without a human around - it was obvious that Shelley knew her stuff and the foal was breathing properly so safe to leave them for five minutes or so. (Our kitchen is only yards from the stables). When I came back I didn't go in but quietly watched them from the stable door. Everything was progressing absolutely normally. The foal began to try and stand and it had several attempts with its long, spidery type legs. There is a school of thought that says you should leave them to get on with it, but after it had hit the floor (albeit well covered with straw) several times, I couldn't stand back. I went in, spoke to Shelley and helped the foal to its feet, noting as I did so that it was a filly. She wobbled about while I supported her and I held her up for what seemed like several minutes but probably wasn't that long. Her back legs, that looked so splayed and delicate, gradually adapted to hold her weight and she managed to stand without my help. She tottered towards Shelley's udder and again it was my turn to leave as Shelley guided her with whickers and nudges to the right place. I thought about the colt that had died and although blissfully happy with the new filly, I did shed some tears for him. I stood there long enough to make sure she was 'plugged in' and then made another cup of tea and went back to bed with my cats for an hour or so. I could watch them on the camera without intefering. I had a meeting for Smallholder at 12 noon and I couldn't imagine being clean and awake but amazingly I did manage to be both!
We decided to call the foal 'Katie'after a lovely girl who used to keep her pony with us and was so full of life and vitality. Sadly, on one windy March day, a few years after she had grown up and moved on, we learnt that she had been kicked by a young horse she was schooling and had died at the scene. We thought she would be pleased if she knew about the foal and I hope, wherever she is, that she does.
The weather was bitter (Katie was foaled 16 April at 5.12 in the morning) so we didn't put her out for a few days and when we put her out on the Saturday we were astounded that she didn't follow her mother like all our other foals had. This was partly because she had been in the safe environment of a stable and had not learn to stick with her mother and partly because I had made a great effort to handle her (Exmoor foals, even those in domestication, can be alarmingly wild!) and of course, I had actually been the first thing she ever saw. A breeder friend said she would get the hang of following Mum when she'd been out in the pasture for a few days and he was right. At the time of writing she goes in and out quite well but it will soon be time to introduce a headcollar and leading lessons, though I don't want to leave it on her.
The day before Katie was born we found another hen with chicks. Luckily friend Julie heard the chicks cheaping as the hen had managed to hatch them in a place they could not leave so the whole family were grateful for food and water.
The following day I had a Parish Council meeting with our new Allotement Association. If more than 12 (I think it is, it could be slightly less) people in a village want to have an allotement, it becomes the responsibility of the Parish or Town Council to provide them. Under my gentle prompting, we had received a letter from residents which meant that we were obliged to look into establishing allotments in Wimblington. A year had rolled past and it was more complicated than we had all thought but on this evening a woman from the Allotment Regeneration Initiative had come to tell us the steps we now needed to take to make it finally happen. Although tired from the night before, it was an interesting discussion and put us much nearer the actual planting of the first vegetable by the end of it! She suggested too, having a communal garden and providing raised beds for disabled gardeners. There is funding for local food projects and if you are interested in getting involved then get some friends and approach your local council. In Smallholder we regularly feature news from allotment keepers and associations and it's interesting that this traditional method of increasing your home grown food, has surged back into popularity.
Finally, two swallows have now taken up residence so can I say that summer is finally on its way?