Saturday, May 23, 2009

It's a Filly!

Last night our Haflinger mare, Grace (affectionately known as "Kleine") finally had her little foal! We have been so excited this past 11 months waiting for the grand event. Last summer we bred her to the most adorable POA stallion, Tough Rocket. He is a ghost leopard appaloosa and has thrown spotted babies every time. What would we get???


After watching Grace all day, we finally looked out at about 11:30 p.m. and saw that the baby was on her way out. Jill ran out immediately while I grabbed the camera and everyone I could wake up! The foal was born around 11:45. Everything perfectly normal and healthy.



She was trying to stand within just a few minutes, but it took a while to build up the strength. Jill went in to the stall and dried her with a towel as the poor baby was shivering a bit. The vigorous rubbing really motivated her to try to get up. Here she is almost an hour old reaching out with her neck, up on her front knees....
...and she faceplants! So wobbley and funny/sweet!


Finally, at almost exactly an hour old, she's up on her feet. Grace is laying down again though, and the baby began to look everywhere for something to suckle!


Ahhh, at last! Found that nice warm milk! She nursed long and strong, even went around and tried the other side.


Here she is, five hours old and just adorable. She was trotting around her stall and curious to see us when we went out to check. So what is that color anyway? We had really expected a chestnut appaloosa. Well, after much searching we discovered that black is dominant over chestnut, and since Rocket (dad) is genetically black (I know he looks white in the pictures, but that is the appaloosa gene) the baby would not be chestnut. So why that silvery color? That is from the pangare gene (also known as mealy) that is dominant in Haflingers. It acts as a dilutant and gives her belly, legs, and muzzle that lighter color, and softens the black throughout. Anyway, we think she is gorgeous!

And we love her!

11 comments:

  1. Awww...she is sweet. What will you name her?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oooo! she's adorable! can't wait to come over to see her!
    :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hello Beth

    How beautiful! I would love her too. What a lovely experience for your children Beth. We are going to be breeding our Angora Rabbits in Spring. We can't wait to see a birth....
    I hope you are well dear friend

    Warm regards
    Suzanne

    ReplyDelete
  4. Isn't it amazing how genetics work? I just love her coloring.what a great new blessing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh wow, how beautiful!! What a wonderful experience for your family. My little one has just seen your blog post and he is in absolute awe...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Allie was so excited to see the photos! She tells me that she wants to go see you and your farm!

    ReplyDelete
  7. There is something just so exciting about births! What fun! She looks so sweet!!

    ReplyDelete
  8. This must have been quite an amazing experience to witness first hand! Such beautiful creatures!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wow! She is beautiful. What a happy day =)

    ReplyDelete
  10. How wonderful, what a darling little one. So very sweet!
    I also wanted to let you know that I nominated you for a watermelon award :)

    You can cut and paste from my blog and then just list 6 things that make you happy and pass the award on to 6 more bloggers. Don't forget to put the melon on your blog, as well! You can list it as an award on the side now, too.

    If you don't have time to do this, please let me know so I can nominate someone else :)

    ReplyDelete
  11. My word... isn't she gorgeous! Look at that tiny blaze down her face! I love her too!! And what a sweet mamma to let you love her new baby.

    ReplyDelete