On April 5th, Cierra will begin her 11th month of pregnancy. Her baby will be comparable to the size of a..............wait for it..............
Cierra 3.27.23
A foal! No surprise there.
The equine pregnancy wheel said her baby this past month (10th) has been comparable to the size of a newborn jersey calf. Weighing 55-99 lbs.
Cierra's foaling window is predicted to be +/- 10 days of April 11th. Yes, we are in that window. Her pregnancy count will be 341* days on the 11th. I think her foal will be born later. Hopefully not too much later. For everyone's sake.
*number corrections
12* x 24" double stall was cleaned out last week
(with Purr supervising)
wide angle view
The double stall needed more work to level up to the stall divider. Bedding will be added and water & feed buckets hung. We decided to use buckets vs mounted feeders and auto water for these two stalls. Hopefully we don't regret this decision. They are meant for special situations. They could require different feeding heights or tracking water consumption (although I since learned you can add that function to auto waterers). These are interior stalls, with no windows. All our stall lower bars are closer together than the uppers bars, to keep smaller equine from potentially getting stuck.
I am worried about the divider against the wall, but Brad is not. He is latching it securely to the back wall. Have I ever told you how much I love my husband? He always takes my worries into consideration and finds great solutions.
We've been busy finishing stall prep this weekend. Mostly Brad. Although I do help where I can. Saturday was THE day. No, not birthing day. It was moving day! We played musical stalls. All our barn animals have been moved into new living areas, including the cats. After four years, cats are now fed supper in the front stall. Cats are creatures of habit. They will get used to it, eventually.
two feeders were hung in unused stalls, across from the double stall
(feeder perspective is off, it's not that low)
Leo on top of empty feeder boxes, supervising the changerama
We walked into the arena and found Tinkerbell flipping & going crazy!!
She was entertaining herself on the lawn mower seat. What a weirdo!
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tick-tack-toe all four horses in a row
(Koda, Nemo, Harmony & Cierra)
Our horses are still being turned out in pairs, next to each other. There are some shenanigans and fence running, but it's mostly peaceful. When it happens, it's more like Koda and Nemo playing.
We had yet another week of wet-n-wild weather. Today we begin drying out. One good thing about living on sandy loam is it dries out faster. Brad started fence work by adding a separate gate to the upper pasture.
For now, we decided not to section off our existing pastures. We really don't want a bunch of smaller pastures and a lot of fence lines. A completely separate pasture behind the arena for Cierra and baby is still planned.
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Cierra in her birthing stall
Koda, Nemo and Harmony moved across the aisle
Cierra closest to feeder. Koda, Nemo & Harmony
3.30.23
It won't be long now and we will have a new addition to our herd.
11 comments:
Exciting times! I'm sure you meant 341 days and not 241?
Are you using a surveillance camera? It would beat camping out in the barn, but I didn't mind doing that because it got the mare used to seeing me at odd hours of the night, and when I watched the foaling it didn't seem to bother them.
You sure have a nice set up for her!
Oh my goodness! I corrected the wrong number on my post. Thank you for letting me know.
Another gestational calendar puts Cierras due date between April 1 - 16th, with a range of 331-346 days from breeding (adding a day for ovulation to a 330-345 range). Who knows?! Not me.
We do want to use a surveillance camera. There are lots of options. I didn't find any without bad reviews. Most are entire systems. We prefer a stand alone camera for the double stall. Think we might just get a baby monitor. I better figure this camera thingee out asap!
Wow! Add 6 ft to each side and you will have the size of my house! That is one heck of a nice set up.
This coming from a person with no set up at all. :)
I can only imagine how excited you guys are. The birth of a foal from your own mare is something truly special and wonderful.
I imagine that you are going to be able to spend a lot of time with Cierra and the foal after it is born. Sweet!
You could get a trail cam that connects up with your cell phone too? I don't have that kind, but I know others who have them. They can see I think in live time? Not sure.
Get a cool camera that records! That way you can record the birth?
Just ideas tossed out.
Things are looking great.
Great ideas Val. Not sure if trail cam's offer live viewing either. I briefly looked at them when replacing one of our trail cam's, not too long ago. They were really pricy.
I think I found a stand alone camera that meets our needs & can buy locally at a store. If we wait any longer to get one, we won't need it lol.
We are excited & nervous! Our hope is for a healthy foal and that Cierra's sweet demeanor gets passed down. Both her parents had exceptional demeanor.
Woohoo! My birthday is April 11th, so I'm rooting for that day. Beautiful setup. We had a 24x12, and I was worried about it being too narrow. Luckily, it was later in the year, and the weather was nice, so we left it open to the grass turnout, and that is exactly where she went--the darkest, grassiest location, just after it turned dark. We had straw down in several places, which they recommended, but she didn't have Epona on the straw.
I bought simple cameras from Amazon. They could view in the dark and could rotate 360 degrees. They came with an app for our phones, which were able to record if you pressed record while viewing. Very helpful. Sounds like you might have found one though. Looking forward to updates as you get close!
How exciting!! We have a blink camera set up one outside and one just inside a window looking across the yard and we can refresh the camera on our phone or I pads...my husband got it to watch it snow:)
Linda, April 11th must be a popular b-day. You are the second person to mention similar to me.
Well, I hope 12 x 24" isn't too narrow for a birthing stall. I am a dork and didn't realize I doubled dimensions in both directions, until Brad said something to me. I fixed the stall dimensions on this post. Geez with all these number mistakes, one would never know I was in advance math in high school lol.
We also have a couple large square straw bales for bedding. I'm sure Brad will be putting some in soon. I think if horses had their choice, they would birth outside away from humans etc.
We are excited Farside! I noticed a big Blink camera display when I went to the store yesterday. Must be a popular brand. They also had Wyze, which I had been considering. Too many bad reviews on those.
We wanted a camera we could easily remove/relocate. I ended up getting a stand alone Ring camera for the double stall. We have used Ring since they first came out. I got it all set up and ready to go. Brad just needs to mount the camera :)
I'm sure it's fine! If the weather wasn't so nice, we would have kept her in the 24 x 12. I got worried only after watching lots of birth videos where the foal was partially out and the mare kept moving around the stall. Cowgirl started giving birth in the stall, but (like the videos I watched) moved around a lot, and right before the big plop, went outside to the grass.
We might have caused that to happen. Shiloh thought she saw something on the video, went out to the barn, and found Cowgirl in her stall with Epona partially out. Shiloh was shocked and nervous, so she called back to me by phone, and requested that I come out. By the time I arrived, Cowgirl had left the stall to go outside. So, that might have been because she wanted more privacy. Makes me wonder if we should have left her alone.
Well that area looks fantastic for your first foaling experience!
Everything looks perfect! I'm sure Cierra will love her new space and new baby. Hope you find the camera you like. Good luck, this is very exciting.Can' wait until she has the little one.
Thank you Arline! How is Rosie doing? are the rest of your four legged crew?? I miss seeing/reading about your handsome Blue :))
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