WOW, what a day! I got up, checked the forum like I always do and saw that there was a new baby at Bit-o-Blue! I got on my messenger to see if Tracy was on, and sure enough, she was! Tracy was kind enough to invite us out to see the baby, and I just had to go, I am a sucker for a little baby. What a nice visit at the barn we had! We got to meet her ladies in waiting, the new Mama and baby, and their riding horse, LC. It was so cool visiting with Tracy and Sarah and the horses, and we got to meet Tracy's daughter Kelsie too. My son was pretty taken with her
: (BOYS!! argh) We got the first unexpected surprise while we were there when we looked in the "ladies in waiting" paddock and there was some loose poo, we all thought, "hmm, wonder who that belongs to?" So, Sarah went to check Hope, who is the next one due for her baby, and when she checked the milk, she got blood, gave us all a start! The vet said it was okay, though, so we all loaded up and took the jaunt up the road to Tracy's house to see Venus! I had to see her, I have been watching her since February, I HAD to see her! Venus is at their house so they can keep their eye on her, they're such loving horsie Mamas. We no more than walked through the door to see Venus, and she quickly let us know that we were going to see more than one baby! Within 15 minutes of arriving at the house, Venus was clearly contracting. Sarah said that she was going to make us go visit every time that they have a mare due
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Because of the response that she got when she called about the other mare's udder, Tracy immediately thought out loud and said, "If we run into trouble, we're screwed" because the clinic was apparently quite busy yesterday, per the response she got from the secretary when she called about Hope. I told her, "No, we're not, my hands are small, we'll get it". I felt confident that I would be able to help. I shouldn't have been so darn sure of myself! When the bubble presented, sure enough, there was only one hoof, and it was upside down! I ripped my rings off, gave them to Mum, lubed up and tried to get in to try to turn the baby. That was NOT happening though, she was JUST too tight, and for as much as I wanted to help, I just had to accept that it wasn't going to happen. Tracy had already called the vet, and I think I remember asking her just how far away they were from her. She said 10-15 minutes and my first thought was, "Oh God, we have to get this girl up and walking!" So, as many of you saw, that's just what Sarah and I did, we got her up, and gave it our all to keep her up. There were a few times during those minutes spent waiting for the vet that she just couldn't stay up, she had to lay down and we then had to fight to get her back up, but I just kept telling myself that as much as I felt for Venus' position, I knew it was what was best for her and the baby. It felt almost surreal, and the time dragged like cold, uphill molasses. Finally, someone said that the vet was there, and Venus wanted so badly to lay down, so we let her, only to find that we had to get her back up because the vet missed the driveway! Tracy's husband and my son headed for the road, to guide the vet in, and I think we did manage to get Miss Venus back to her feet for the final time.
Finally, the vet got there! I say finally because as many of you know, a few minutes can feel like an eternity in a situation like this. We let her go down and as the vet went in, I went out of the stall, and to my car. My emotions got the best of me once I knew that Venus was safe in the vet's hands. I felt sooo guilty that I wasn't able to get in there to help her get that baby turned and righted... Turns out, the vet ended up sedating Venus so that she could get in, and she has even smaller hands than I do. I returned to the stall, I had to help any way I could, so for the remainder of the delivery, there were several of us: Sarah, the vet, the vet tech, Tracy's husband, and mostly VENUS that just gave our all to getting that little baby here, and by the grace of God, we did it!!
Yesterday was a day that I will NEVER forget! I learned SO much, and it would be futile of me to try to tell all of the lessons learned. I can tell you that Sarah and Tracy have SO much love for their horses, and that they are just WONDERFUL and CARING people. Sarah is such an amazing young woman, and their horses are truly a family venture, the whole family was there. I will never be the same, that's for sure.
Sorry this is so long, but it was quite a day.
Tracy, you are very welcome, but I'm afraid I don't think I did much, I couldn't do much. Remember what I said, each has their own definition of perfect...
HUGS
Jodi
