Hi Kate
You wanted to see some larger "walking beach balls"??
Here is Stuffy. She is 37" at the withers and this is her 4th foal. She was originally washed up and turned out with our stallion on 25 February and was showing season "lightly" but not happy with his attentions. He did not cover her the first day, but the end of the 2nd day - her vulva showed that she'd been covered at least once. To keep him company and because I both wanted her bred and didn't want to switch her pasture, she remained with him. He continued to show interest in her, but I never saw him actually cover her until 2 months later. However, then saw her in season again in May and saw a "good" cover (I know that he not only mounted her but actually serviced her)... She stayed in the pasture with him for the rest of the year. But I now have a couple of different dates for her covers (LOL). So, when I came to the "nutty nursery" - I didn't put a day count on her pics because I simply wasn't sure when she was due and was just following her via pics. This one is taken in March 28th. Then the 2nd on April 9th. I had taken some more of her on April 15th - but can't find them. She foaled on April 17th (so probably conceived in May - when I saw a "good cover"). Her previous two foals were carried right about 342 days (have to go back and look at dates - they are on a hard drive that's not here right now...).
Stuffy's pics and
Rio.
A much larger Shetland mare - Koalah. She's 43" at the withers, but has a high wither and a dropped back. This year is her 7th foal and when she foaled the 3rd filly in a row for us by our stallion, Iggy, I was thrilled! She foaled on 13 March 2012 and was not bred on her foal heat. Iggy was turned out with a small group of mares for 2 weeks - figured if he settled mares, we'd have foals, if not, we wouldn't. They'd all either foaled or were open but in heat... I noted that Koalah was covered on the last day he was in the pasture with them - May 9th. These two pics were taken on March 28th and she delivered a filly on April 2nd.
Koalah's pics and
Bunny's pics.
And our other mare, Tory, that foaled in April. She was bred when I purchased her and produced a colt in 2011. I didn't rebreed her for 2012, but bred her in 2012 to our other stallion (which turned out to be his last foal). She had one cover. She is barely 40" at the withers. Here she is the day before she foaled -
She produced a colt on late night on April 10th that is a small copy of his sire. A nice way to remember our boy by... He was our first Shetland and our first (my personal first) stallion...
Tory's pics and
Echo's pics.
I have one other mare that will foal this fall. This one is an "oops" baby - kind of. She's a young maiden mare and went thru 3 fence lines, 2 of which were HOT, to get to Iggy. After 3 days in a row of returning her to the correct pasture, I gave up. I was getting ready to go out of town, so I just left her in the pasture with Iggy - making it easier for the person who was taking care of our ponies. I will start doing her pics in July, I suppose. I have a couple from April. Both she and our stallion are homozygous for both black and tobiano, so this foal will also be homozygous for tobiano and black based. Since Cherry carries on bay gene and Iggy carries one silver gene - could also be bay, silver black or silver bay. I would LOVE a filly, but will settle for healthy baby! She's had our granddaughters sitting on her bareback and has been ground driven in work harness. She's larger at 44" at the withers.
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Your little girl is cute! Do or will you in the future be driving her? I've enjoyed reading your thread.
When Is the vet coming to ultrasound or palpate your horse mare, Mousie? Did the stallion owner give you a list of her cover/breeding dates? Did you get some pictures of him? Do you ride her? Lots of questions to keep you occupied as your girl prepares to foal!
OK, I edited it to add some questions about the OPs mare and lost stuff, so I've redone it and will repost it. Hope it works??!!
