Here she Is

I got a call from Linda the barn owner at 1:00 AM telling me that Jazzy was going into labor. I rushed to the barn and sure enough Jazzy was going to have that foul that night. Some people might have thought that it was disgusting, but I found it to be quite amazing. Rev was born around four AM. It was a quiet labor and everything happened exactly as it should. Rev seemed to be a healthy foul. The first that that happened was we got her airways cleaned out so she could breathe properly. The complications started occurring when Jazzy would not let Rev nurse. It is curial for a foul to get milk with in the first hour of birth. It can be the cause of life and death between foals. Lucky were already prepared and had had a baby bottle ready incase this happened. I held Jazzy and Russell helped show Rev where to nurse. If I was holding Jazzy and he was holding Rev then everything was fine, but who can be out to do that several times a day. The vet was called and he told us to keep doing what we were doing for the next few hours and Jazzy would soon catch on. By the time the sun had come up and the dew on the grass was dry Rev was nursing on her own. When Rev was born she was a dark bay with a little dot of white between her eyes. Her legs were black all the way up to her knees. She was the cutest foul I had ever seen.

The experience

It is believed that most horses should have there first foul at least by the time they are 12. Jazzy had never been bread so breeding her at 15 brought about some concerns. The vet came and checked her out many times and said that she can probably get pregnant. Trying to breed her would do no harm to her so we went ahead a tried. She went to stay at Cornel Bradley’s and was around stallions to stimulate her go into heat faster. A horse can not breed unless she is in heat. A teaser pony is typical used for this. In the wiled it was very dangerous for a stallion to try and mate before a mare was in heat. The mares were also always the leader of the heard calling all of the shots.
We got a call from the breeders at Cornel Bradley’s telling us she was in foul. We were so excited the first stage was complete. It was really nice to bring her home as well. A horse is pregnant for eleven months. She started showing about five months into her pregnancy. I continued to ride her like normal until this point. When she started showing I started riding her with out a saddle. A lot of people believe that when a horse is pregnant they should not continue being in work, but this is not true. It is pretty much the same way with humans. Exercise is needed to keep the mom and the baby healthy. The type of exercise however is what has to change as the pregnant comes along. The feed that a horse has also has to change. The grain intake is not raised a lot, but a little. We also changed the type of feed to a feed that was specifically formulated for pregnant horses. The amount of hay that a horse gets goes up quite a bit. It is also important that a pregnant horse has plenty of clean water. Horses just like humans can get picky when they are pregnant. I noticed a big attitude change in Jazzy when she was about four months away from having her baby. She was grouchy and preferred to be left alone, but hey who can blame her. I can not imagine being pregnant for eleven months. It was funny to observe how the other horses reacted to her being with foul. I know a lot of people separate the mares that are in foal so that there is no chance of them getting kicked and causing damage to the foul. We kept Jazzy out with the same three other mares that she has always been with. I really think that the other horses knew she was pregnant. The leader of the herd KC really watched out for her. Jazzy is the lowest horse on the totem poll and it was obvious that she was keeping a close eye on Jazzy. During Jazz’s pregnancy she never had a scratch on her.

Jazzy and Rev

In the middle of July two years ago Jazzy a 15 year old Thoroughbred mare gave birth to a little Filly. Shortly after the filly was born she was given the name Rev. I was there when Rev was born and have had the privilege of working with her ever since. Training a horse from birth can be a scary thing. What a horse learns when they are first born carries over for there entire life. What if I did something wrong and missed her up? I read a lot of books about training and have had a very successful experience training Rev and I would like to share with the rest of you how I went about training her.
Jazzy is a very straight build horse and has pretty decent blood lines. She was bread to Cornel Bradley in July. Breeding Thoroughbreds are different then a lot of other breeding. There can be no artificial insemination it has to be done naturally. This is because the blood lines of a racing thoroughbred are worth so much. Breeding naturally proves that a horse has been breed with that certain horse. Artificial insemination can be taken to the lab and switched. It cost 1,000 dollars to breed Jazzy and that included a live foul guarantee. That is quite cheap for a race horse. Stud fees for top horses in Kentucky can go for millions of dollars. I can not imagine paying that much money for a baby horse that I haven’t even seen.