4-26-05 Good Morning! Be prepared to be inundated with Shetland information from all of us! To answer your first question. Yes, there is an active chat list, probably a couple of them, but the one I am most familiar with is the ClassicList.
[email protected]. Hope that's the right information. If it's not, someone else is bound to correct me, so don't worry.
I've never raised minis, so my information on birthing difficulties is based just on Shetlands, although I know of several mini breeders who have had problems, lost foals and, even more tragic to my mind, lost mares. Foaling is a dangerous task and while I would say, as a rule, that Shetland have fewer problems, you do hear the rare story of a lost mare and more frequently, but not often, of lost foals. This year on the ClassicList there are already a couple of breeders who have lost foals. The mares foaled, but the foal either did not get out of the sack or was found dead with no apparent reason for death. It happens. Breeding any equine is a risky business and though 90% of the time everything goes as planned...sometimes it doesn't. We had a lovely palomino pinto filly born last year that appeared, for the 1st 24 hours to be in perfect health; for reasons we could never discover, she died in our arms before she was even 48 hrs old.
Leaving that depressing subject behind, our website is www.stepnstone.com. Please visit -- and thank you for your interest in Shetlands -- my favortie topic of conversation
! Ta, Shirlee
