Foaling News 09
Final Score - 13 Filly's (1st one lost) and 16 colts (2nd and 25th one lost). 26 alive.
Please click the links below to go to your favorite bits or just follow the page down if you are a newcomer.
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25th April 2pm - We had our first foal of the season last night at 10pm, it was an easy foaling and we were very pleased at getting a beautifully marked bay and white filly. Mum is called Donabi Luana and dad is Fairytail Midas Touch. This is Midas's third offspring, we have been really pleased with all three.
Luana is the mare that has had a lot of bad luck in the past, lets hope that this foal stays fine. We have had a bit of trouble getting it to suckle but we think that we are their now.
Luana and Filly Foal 09
I have filmed it in HD so it should look really good quality when you watch it. If your computer is powerful enough click the HD button in the corner when the videos start, if the video is choppy then swap it back to standard.
Most people on broadband should be able to watch all my videos in HD.
When I upload HD videos to You Tube it takes a long time, sometimes hours, so please do not expect any instant videos this year. You will have to be patient and see stuff the next day or later. I will still keep the news coming through as it happens.
Luana's foal just after birth
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26th April 3am, We have just had our second foal, it is a nicely marked piebald with a snip on its nose, it is by World Champion Romany Paco out of Fairytail Little Gem, he is about 25 now but he still knows what to do.
Luana's foal last night did not latch onto its mum’s teat so Janette has spent a lot of time today on her knees. It has worked now and the foal is fine.
I missed a really lovely moment to film something special today. Janette put a bit of mum’s milk on her finger and then went up to Luana's foal to let it suck her finger. Then Janette quickly ran round the mare and put her hand underneath to show the foal, the foal ran to Janette’s finger and Janette guided it to the mare’s teat. If I could have filmed that moment it would off been priceless. I was gob smacked. Janette has always had a natural link with animals and their behavior, even something only hours old.
As I write this, I keep switching my eyes to the Fairytail Pony Channel. I will explain what I see.
We have eight cameras that switch over to the next one every 6 seconds, all of our 27 pregnant mares are under the cameras but 2 cameras are on larger areas of a barn so tonight I am watching our driving cob with the light out in stable 1, 2 mares sectioned of with sheep hurdles in stable 2, same again in stable 3, 3 mares in stable 4, Stable 5 is ready for a newly foaled mare, stable 6 has Luana and her new foal (We are still checking that the foal is suckling ok which it is now, suckling right now.) A sectioned off part of our barn is camera 7 which can actually see all the rest of the pregnant mares; we have a well lit area for mares that are starting to show early signs of foaling. Camera 8 is on the outside yard. We are not using that at night, just in the day time.
I am uploading my new video now to You Tube witch I have called My First Day, I will put a link on the web site shortly but if you wish to see any videos easily on You Tube just go to their site at www.youtube.com and search for “Sealyham”, you will get all the videos that I have on You Tube. You can subscribe to any of my videos so that you get informed by email when a new one gets posted online. I advise anyone interested to subscribe, then you will get the first news and best videos first.
I have been trying to get my bog working so that we can all communicate. It is not working with Blogger on You Tube, can anyone give me any advice how to get it working, I have had lots of messages that I click to allow on the blog but they just disappear. I tried to re setup the blog a few minutes ago but it has now deleted everything. It is so frustrating, I can run a web site and business and pony farm but I just cannot make a blog work, I wish I had a child, he or she would probably sort me out in minutes.
I had better get back to watching the ponies now properly without distractions. More tomorrow. The old way.
Janette & Jem's Foal
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27th April 1am - This is a bad moment for me, my first foal born just two days ago has died in my arms earlier this evening, she was probably one of the best marked bay and white foals that you could ever wish for. We are both devastated.
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27th April 10am - Janette has done some research through the night and she thinks that the foal had HAEMOLYTIC DISEASE This is another major thing that we have learned by experience last night.
Please click the link if you wish to also learn about this condition which is very rare and unconfirmed yet, in our case. If Janette is correct in her diagnosis we should find out that Luana's blood type is not compatible with the stallion and that the foal inherited the stallions blood type. If you check out my foaling news 2007 you will see that we also lost that foal in almost the same way with Luana in 2007. We now assume that in both cases the foals must of inherited the blood types of the stallions. Last years foal was ok so we assume now that it inherited the blood group of Luana which is ok for this condition.
We will get Luana's blood type tested now to see if Janette is right, if so we will probably retire Luana to a good loving pet home. If ever a beautiful and special golden bay and white pony needed a special non breeding home it is now, she was devastated today to be taken from her lovely deceased child again.
More about yesterday and the events before Luana's foal died yesterday
We put Luana and the foal out for the summer thinking that all was fine, then in the afternoon Janette noticed that the foal had not moved much and that Luana was squirting milk onto the ground.
We brought them into a stable again for the night, the foal was shivering a little so I set up a heated light, the foal loved that and slept under it fine. We kept waking it up for a feed and it stood and suckled for a few minutes each time.
Then about an hour ago I saw that it was stood up on the camera so I went to check it, its mouth had milk on it so I assumed that it had fed, but just to be sure I put it next to mum again, it had a little suckle but was not really interested.
I cuddled it a bit as you do with little special foals, it enjoyed that for a while.
Then it had a jolt like a hick up. It rolled to the ground. I picked it up again cuddling it and rubbing it gently. I knew what was coming as I had seen it before. The foal had died then but the body does not die for a while, there were some movements which gave me hope but to no avail. The glint in its eyes went cloudy, I tried everything to keep the foal alive, I gave it the kiss of life but it was a waste of time..
I am angry at losing such a perfect filly foal which was my friend from the start. I am still crying tonight writing this, I am trying as best that I can to portray the real feeling that good breeders have with their successes and losses. If I had known the potential problem I could have done something about it.
All us breeders try to ensure that our new born's suckle their mum's quickly, who would have ever thought that the foals first suckle was its quickest way to pony heaven.
I am sorry to be so down, lets hope the next foals pick me up a bit.
I am very sad tonight.
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28th April 1pm , Moving on still in tears, tonight is quite at the moment, that comment should waken things up soon though. We have mares bursting with foals but they are choosing their times carefully. sorry if I am still upset from last night.
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28th April 09 11pm – We had a very interesting day today. At 6am Janette got me up with “Nuisette is foaling”. We had another filly; it was a piebald by Romany Paco out of Morjoy Nuisette. All went well and the foal seems fine – touch wood. See HD video above.
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I had only just settled down at work this morning and Janette phoned at about 9.25am “Quick come home again, Panache is foaling”. I dashed back home which takes about 8 minutes at a steady pace !!!
Janette had just foaled the mare and it had presented with a red bag so she had a panic with her “do it yourself foaling”, she did it and the foal was alive. It is our first colt by Primo Domini this year out of Fairytail Panache. All seemed well until Janette checked its gums, they were yellow with jaundice. Janette quickly remembered that we had lost a foal two or three years ago with jaundice with this mare.
We spoke to our vet immediately; he told me that it is highly probable that it is the same problem as the first foal that we lost. HAEMOLYTIC DISEASE It is like a woman having a blue baby because of the mares rare blood type being incompatible with the stallions. The foals have a 50/50 chance of being normal by inheriting mums blood type or they are in trouble if they inherit dads blood type. Please see the article. Click the link above.
The vet treated the foal with steroids and baytril; because of the article that I put a link to the other day we took the decision to not let the foal suckle its mum for 36 hours. Luckily we had Nuisette handy with her new foal which also at that time had not yet suckled, we expressed Nuisette's colostrum and shared it with both foals by syringe, and then we have been milking Nuisette to share with the colt. I dashed off and brought a dog muzzle to stop the foal suckling its mum; it fitted a treat and works well. We are also milking Panache to get rid of the maybe harmful colostrum which is a really dirty brown colour.
The colt seems to be bright enough but it now looks like it is getting tight tendons on its front legs, it also may have a little brain damage from the red bag foaling, it keeps going around clockwise only and putting its head to one side strangely. But those things may come right if we can keep it alive. Its gums look better and more normal tonight just 12 hours after treatment. I have also put an infra red lamp in the stable for the foal as that is what they do for a jaundice baby in hospital (I think, or maybe they used to years ago).
I need to go and feed the foal again now so bye for now. I will post some video later
Panache & Dougal all better at four weeks old
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30th April 1.30 am. I did a big update tonight with loads of video and then had to go out to feed the foal. When I came back my laptop computer had shut down because I forgot to plug it in and the battery had ran out, I had forgot to save my work. Sorry for that, I will try to catch up again without losing another foal. I wasted a night. I did manage to take some really nice video tonight of my foals playing, you will love that when it arrives.
Our problem colt foal is ok now but the mare is poorly, the vet has changed his mind now as too the diagnosis so this problem is not the same as the last, he now thinks that this mare has septicemia which has transferred to the foal. He now agrees that we did right in feeding it with another mare. If we had let the foal suckle the mare, the foal would have probably died. The foal is fine now (Touch Wood) it is with its mum in the field on good grass but we are feeding it now with powder milk in a bowl which we have never done before but it is working.
Dougal 2 months later after a very lot of hard work.
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30th April 09 10.30pm - As if we needed it we have had a dreadful morning today, Janette noticed this morning at about 9am that our first timer Fairytail Tequila was getting ready to foal, we waited and waited and the mare was behaving not as normal, but we all live in hope and so we let time go on for a while. Eventually Tequila went down and started pushing. Nothing was coming so I tried to help, I have sorted many problem foaling's out over the years but I could not sort this one out.
Inside the Tequila the foal was just a tangle of legs, I got two legs forward and verified that they were front legs which they were, but there was also a back leg facing forward and the head down and back. I could not push the foal back and I could not get my hand around the foals nose to get the head forward.
I remembered that my vet Ian Taylor once told me not to worry about using the eye sockets for a grip so I tried that but it did not work. Tequila was in tremendous pain and thrashing about, I had to give up and call the vet. The vet was out at a calving but we would be next. That wait seemed like hours, it was actually about one and a half hours.
We did not expect the foal to be alive now. Tequila was very weary and had now given up pushing ages ago, she was very stressed and at deaths door.
Our Worst Foaling Ever
Our normal vet Ian Taylor did not come but one of his other vets Bruce, an Australian vet came with one of the nurses. Bruce did a wonderful operation to repair one of my Collie dogs last week after I ran over his nose with Janette's car and broke hit big canine tooth out of his jaw, but that is another story.
Bruce set about stripping off and getting ready for action. What followed next was a very long and very painfully and awkward foaling of a first time mare where the foal was well built and tangled up. All though the foaling Me, Janette and the Vet Nurse had to hold Tequila down pinned to the floor while Bruce did his stuff.
Bruce did eventually get the foal out but it was long dead, it was a very well marked skewbald colt, it was by our smallest stallion Midas and it was small but it was so well filled out, it looked like a two week old foal.
I did get my sister to film some of the action which she did as best she could, however I will first need to edit the film and then get permission from Bruce and Ian to use it. If they say yes then it may be available by a private link by email to interested equine breeders only. Please email me if you wish to see this awfully foaling.
I have updated the page tonight to be back to top to bottom, Janette told me to change it because she actually read it for the first time. If she had read it last year she may hay put me right then.
Janette has worried about sharing very truthful news with the world but I think that I have pulled her around now to understanding that breeders and farmers need to share their information so that all will benefit in the end.
It is working although my blog is not, I have had so many emails from friends and followers that it still makes this all worth while.
I lost a perfect foal the other day but a couple of days later I put my video recorder on the fence and filmed my most precious moments with my new born foals, that is what makes all this grief worthwhile for me.
Back to feeding the most expensive colt in the uk with his bowl.
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White Rabbits. It is the 1st of May 09 2am- We have just had another foal that looks like it's the twin to the last poorly foal, it was born at about 12.30am, I was just carrying the bowl of milk to feed the poorly foal and thought that I had better check the other ponies and the first one that I looked at was pushing.
Panic set it, the bowl went down, it fell over and spilt the milk, I got Janette up in a flash, poorly foal may be slimmer for an hour or so, what can you do. We foaled Redburn Inga ok or Treasure as we call her and I told Janette to go back to bed until 3am. The foal was a bay and white colt by Romany Paco again, it is very small, all skin and bone but it seems fine.
Redburn Ingas Treasure with Colt Foal
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1st May 11pm - All has been quiet today but I am expecting Hermits Elegance to foal next, she is doing all the things that a mare does when she is getting ready to pop the foal out. It is a nice warm night so I would expect that we may have more foaling's tonight.
Update on Dougal
Video taken at dusk tonight of Dougal and Panache
Dougal had got better from his jaundice apart from a little brain damage, Panache is getting better from her septicemia out on grass and being treated with penicillin and baytril (by mouth).
We have been feeding Dougal with powdered milk, he likes it and takes about 200mm each feed, he loves his mum and me and Janette, he loves his milk in a bowl, he seems happy and plays some times.
Problem 1
But he does have a few problems, we noticed this morning that he had what we thought were very large testicles. We had a giggle at first thinking nothing about it for a few minutes. Janette told a friend and she went and felt the lump. She thought that it was a Hernia, upon better inspection she is probably right.
Problem 2
Dougal obviously has some brain problem, please see video above, he loves going around and around most of the time unless he sleeps or runs up to us for his milk. That is the thing that is making us hesitate to have him put to sleep.
Problem 3
Panache is still recovering from Septicemia and Hyperlipeamia, if the foal disappears she will go mental and it will pull her down again. So we need to prolong her foal sitting duty until she is much better.
Problem 4
Dougal had a period of about three hours today when we thought that he must of had a stroke because he suddenly could not suckle, its mouth was open and its jaws twisted. We called the vet to come to put it to sleep. It would not drink any more. We had treated the foal earlier with penicillin and baytril.
Continuing the update
About 4 pm this afternoon Dougal jumped up and started running about and playing again, he was not going around and around so much and was following Panache around the field.
In between writing this I need to take a break now to feed Dougal and check the ponies, I will upload it unfinished for now.
Right its 11.40pm, Dougal would not let me feed him at all, he just thrashed about in the milk and then struggled to get away. In the end I let him. It was very dark in the field so I could not see if he had a mouth problem again. He then carried on going around and around then around me then around his mum.
Dougal is alive and his mum loves him and needs him for as long as it takes her to get better. This is very difficult and upsetting for us. I hope that if you have watched the dark video above from earlier tonight that most of you will understand our dilemma.
What do we do, we do not want to put a happy foal to sleep with a hernia and a circling problem. Maybe this is Happy Feet, Horse Style.
Please trust me in that I will not let this foal suffer any pain for long, I will let it have as much of a happy life as it takes. I am crying again now with tears on the table.
Blown my nose now, this life and death job is difficult. Lets see what happens tomorrow, I am going to leave the foal to fend for itself tonight, maybe it has finally latched on to its mum Pananache or maybe it has got a bit better so that it is ready to be called upwards.
Janette and I are both very stressed now and really worry that we may miss a good new foal because we are tending to a patient with little hope.
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2nd May 1.30am - One of our smallest mares called Hermits Elegance foaled a really pretty skewbald colt, if that lives ok and goes on to be a Stallion it will be special. It is by our tiny stallion Midas Touch again. I have taken some video tonight which I will put line as soon as possible but it is late now at 1.45 am, I am doing until 2.30am now.
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2nd May 12pm - Update on little Dougal, Janette noticed that he was much more settled this morning. Panache seams a lot better, brighter and much more alert, she is grazing again properly. Dougal is following nicely and sometimes has a little play. Because of that, Janette went and fed him again. He fed fine.
We both checked him again about an hour ago and he fed again. He definitely seems to be more stable and normal and he is putting on weight fast and getting much stronger.
Dougal is not a star quality foal like the one born last night but he is improving all the time. If Dougal keeps improving, we have decided that we will pay for a Hernia operation for him if it can be done here whilst Panache is by his side or at the vets with Panache by his side.
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3rd May 2.00am - I think that I have something special for you tonight, I have uploaded a lovely video of me and two of my mares Gem and Nuisette with foals close up, I hope you like it.
Gem & Nuisette with foals (Selwyn is the extra, ignore him)
Other news, I have just been out to feed Dougal and to check on the mares, the mares were ok but I could not find Dougal or Panache, when i eventually found them, Dougal was on the wrong side of our electric fence which was three deep and had cost me £45 just 2 days ago because Janette thought that he might not see the normal stuff. That was a total waste of money, Dougal was fine and drank all his feed, he is much better now.
I lifted Dougal over the electric fence to put him back with his very patient mum, I felt that he still has a massive Hernia above his testicles as big as a tennis ball now. It really worries us as to the future with lovely Dougal.
Just checking the pony channel just, all seems quiet at the moment.
I hope that you like my videos uploaded tonight, I have two computers doing that now to speed the job up, I have also increases my broadband upload speed tonight to help with uploading my videos to the web site.
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Nuisette and foal with friends
My Sister Playing With Nuisette's Foal
4th May 09 - All seems quiet tonight at the moment but I am expecting a multiple foaling night soon as many of the mares are bagging up well now.
I have just been out to feed Dougal again, he is very well now "Touch Wood" apart from his Hernia. He is suckling about 600mm of milk every hour or so. He now runs up to me every time I pass by even when it is not feeding time. His mum Panache really loves him even though she is not suckling him. She really loves me as well, she climbs all over me while I feed Dougal. She seems to get the pleasure of a mum who knows that her son is being looked after, I will try to get Janette to film me tomorrow.
I have had loads of emails from friends and followers, it has been wonderful, thank you all for your support, I have tried to respond to most but it has been difficult because I have very limited time. If I have missed anyone I apologies. I have uploaded a couple of nice videos tonight (See Above) I hope that you like them.
Nuisette's foal is proving to be the most popular with me and visitors at the moment, she is very special, I cannot see us selling her, she's my favorite. At just four and a half days old this morning when I took the film I think that she is Amazing. Gems foal is also very special but Nuisette's foal is taking the stage at the moment. Once the foals start mingling, they will all soon be super friendly.
Its late now so I had better top Dougal up and check the ponies then get some shut eye for a while.
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4th May 10.30pm - Our 8th foal has just been born, it is a lovely marked piebald colt by Romany Paco again out of Morjoy Nanette, good old World Champion Paco has done it again.
I have taken some video but I will not get time to put that on tonight because all the eggs are hatching at the moment. Watch this space.
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5th May 2009 1am - It is Janette and I's 25th Wedding anniversary today so I am praying for a good day with a very special present for Janette, our smallest mare ever is about to foal, I hope this works or I will be in big trouble.
Update on Dougal, Dougal is doing ok, he is getting stronger and playing with his mum some times, he was very cold in the field this morning but we had needed to leave his mum on the grass to get her better from her Hyperlipeamia. He was ok later today but we have bought then both in tonight and I have switched the in fared lamp on to warm him. He loves it and is now warm and drinking more than ever. Dougal is such a character, he is a bit dim but thick but he makes up for it with his love, he gives 300% love in a very special way.
We had some friends visit over the weekend and they have given us £130 towards Dougal's hernia operation, we did not need that but it just shows how a little fella can give so much pleasure to some people in so little time. We tried to give it back but it is their way of doing something special for a little friend. They know that we will do everything we can for Dougal. When we brought him in tonight he was like a six hour old foal in his mind. We guided him but it was a two man job. He has a lot of catching up to do.
Onto other things, the colt that we had earlier is fine, it has suckled well and should be alright now. We have moved it and mum to another stable because we are short of prime surveillance stables at present and we are getting worried about missing a foaling that we cannot see on cameras. This next week will be the most risky time for us.
Janette has to take a judgment each day on which to watch first priority stabled in front of our house, then second priority in half of the barn in good light. The ones that come third are ponies showing no signs and no milk bags, they are not under cameras at night, we just watch them by touch as much as we can.
I need to feed Dougal again now so I will update short messages as it happens. If it does.
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5th May - 11.50pm We had a nice day for our 25th Wedding anniversary, I did not get Janette the present that I ordered from him above, but I got second best, this morning sometime early, we had a nice black colt by Bulkgwyn Humbug out of Fairytail Dances with Dreams..
All seems quiet tonight, just a few tail flicks. Sorry but I have had no time to upload videos tonight.
Dougal is so much better today, we were very surprised that his lump has got much less today, he is very happy and keeps dancing around mum.
Fairytail Dances with Dreams with new born black colt foal
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8th May 09 - 12.30am. Sorry that this update is late but I have installed the new Windows 7 last night and it took all night to sort it out. It seems to be working well now so I hope that you notice the difference to updates from the most modern operating system in the World.
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We have had two more foals, the first one was last night at about 11pm, it is by our stallion Fairytail Primo Domini out of Fairytail May Day Miracle, It is a very pretty piebald filly.
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Janette got me up early this morning and at about 6am, we had a colt foal by Romany Paco out of Bulkgwyn Taloula, it looks like it will be a bay.
We have moved ponies about today and repositioned our sheep hurdle fences in the barn so that the last 18 ponies are all under surveillance as best we can do. We have got to the stage now where any of the last eighteen ponies could foal anytime. In the main maternity wing we have six of the most bagged up ponies but that means nothing, Taloula this morning foaled in the barn, which we were not expecting, luckily it was daylight and Janette saw her.
We expect a multiple foaling night tonight, lots of mares are showing fowling signs tonight
I need to feed Dougal now and check the ponies by eye.
Done that now, Dougal is brilliant, his lump is nearly gone. We are amazed. Dougal is the best of life's fighters, we love him to bits but we worry about the time that he is consuming with us. Every time we feed him we are disturbing the mares and postponing their foaling's. Taloula's foal this morning was born as a two week old foal, it was fat and on its feet in a couple of minutes.
What can we do, we love Dougal but we also need to do the best for all our ponies, at the moment Dougal comes first and the rest come second, I pray that we may not regret that policy soon.
I have taken some lovely video over the last couple of days but it will take me a few days to upload it. (Update: Done most of that now)
I hope that you will check back soon.
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No sooner than I was ready for bed at 2am Fairytail Jumping for Joy started foaling, I did that myself and she had a black colt by Bulkgwyn Humbug. That was a disappointment but it is a very nice foal.
Fairytail Jumping For Joy with Selwyn & Foals 09
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It was Janette's time to wake so I went and told Janette what we had and then got ready for bed, it was not to be, Janette shouted "Don't get undressed Lexie is lay down" I was already undressed and ready for Selwyn time but it was not to be, we then foaled Dilston Lexie who had a bay filly by Fairytail Shamrock.
It is now 3.20 am and Janette thinks that I have gone mad in doing my updates.
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Morjoy Nia & Foal out for its first day
9th May 09 12.15am - At 11pm a short while ago we had foal number 14 born. Morjoy Nia foaled a nice skewbald filly. The mare seams to be suffering from after pains so I have treated her with Merbentyl by mouth. That should help. She has just cleansed and because the night is still early I will go and milk soon colostrum and give it to the foal. I can then concentrate on the others.
Just got to go and feed Dougal again, he is a star, his lump is nearly better all by it's self.
Just fed Dougal , when I went in he was in deep sleep, I thought that he was dead, I moved him a few times and he did not respond, gosh I was so upset again, then he really slowly lifted his head up and then shook it, then got up. Boy he sleeps deep for a horse. Within about two minutes 500mm of milk was down the sump.
Nia would not let me milk her, she was getting very agitated so I backed off for the time being. The foal seems bright so all should be well but I will monitor her before I go to bed.
I have uploaded some videos tonight but have put them with the relevant foals above, their will be many more but it is going to be a while before I have enough time to catch up. (Update: Did catch up today, many videos uploaded) Taking the video clips and foaling is my priority at the moment so that I can get you the best clips whilst the foals are very young and sweet. I hope that we get some warm sunny evenings soon, that is when the foals play.
Last year was so cold and wet that I hardly ever saw the foals playing and did not get much video.
I have a pony in the barn called Hermits Jigsaw and she has just been showing signs of a soon foaling, she has settled at the moment, apart from that all the other ponies seem quite at the moment.
Some of you may have noticed a change in foaling heading numbers tonight, that is because I had forgotten to put a heading above Fairytail Dreamtime foaling earlier. It was only earlier tonight that we noticed. It is very easy to get brain haggled in the middle of the night when I have just had an adrenaline rush whilst being over tired.
I was only commenting to Janette's parents tonight that as foaling time goes on Janette and I sometime get so ratty with each other that I end up laughing and cuddling Janette, she resists at first but she soon comes round to realizing that we are just both so tired.
Janette's dad said to me tonight, when are you going to stop all this. He knows what a commitment we make to this cause and also knows that we do not need to do it. I told him that we are cutting back slowly. But he can not see that when we are having so many foals this year.
We really did not intend to have all these foals, we restricted the stallions to just four weeks last year but it must have been a fertile year. Never mind we are coping better now that some are in the field. Just 15 to go now, all are under surveillance.
I now have a very special present for you all. I have made a short movie in HD showing the young foals playing on a nice evening a few days ago, I think that it is good, what do you think. Please rate the video if you like it.
Below are some videos that I managed to upload today, they are true to life and un-edited, some bits may bore you but pony people will like it and appreciate it.
New Born Miniature Foals Playing 09
It is 1.20am and it looks like I may have another foaling very soon. I will upload this now just in case I am right.
All gone quite again, I have just checked on the filly born earlier and she was sucking ok, Nia is a good mum.
Janette and Gems Foal
Nosey Pony Checking Out The Camera
Janette with foals
Nuisette's Foal Playing With Selwyn
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9th May 3pm - All is quiet at the moment, we are expecting Fairytail Hazel to foal very soon, she is at bursting point and showing all the signs, the trouble is that we keep disturbing her occasionally whilst doing the daily chores.
She with probably wait until it is quiet tonight. If she does foal this afternoon I will try to film it if Janette lets me. Janette puts far more emphasis on the welfare of the ponies than my silly videos. I could do with someone to following us around all day filming what we do which are mostly chores with a bit of pleasure playing with the new foals and then "Feeding Dougal" bless him. A lot more news later.
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10th May 1 am - The photo below I took tonight before bringing Dougal in, he surprised me by going around occasionally as I brought him in, he obviously is not better yet.
Fairytail Dougal, much better now, he still goes around when walking in a straight line, very strange.
I hope that you all enjoy the new photos and video that I have uploaded to You Tube today, some is with the original foaling news above and some is closer to this message, I think that the "New" Foals playing video is going to be the most popular video this year unless I can get a better one soon.
It was actually very difficult to get that video as when I am with the ponies they all want to come to me, even the foals. I had to just stay their and be bored stiff for ages before they ignored me enough, I luckily had picked the right night and they started playing around me. They only play on a warm spring bright evening which is actually quite rare. Last year I never captured the ponies playing.
Back to more important news, we are expecting Fairytail Hazel to foal very soon among others, the pony that really worries me is our tiniest mare Fairytail Angels Kiss or Kizzie. She is imminent and Janette did not want her to be put in foal, if Kizzie has a problem I may be divorced soon.
I really hope that Kizzie foals ok because the foal will be very special if it lives.
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10th May 5pm - Quick Update. Fairytail Hazel had a lovely well marked piebald colt this morning at about 5am.
We are now expecting Minuette, Puffin and Seventh Heaven to foal soon. Kizzy is keeping her surprise for later.
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10th May 11pm - We are still waiting for many foals to come, Janette was very tired tonight, I think that she has got to the end of her capacity for doing what we do. I think that I can make up for Janette a bit but I have to go back to work in the morning at nine. I need to earn some money to pay for these ponies because they do not pay for themselves. However they do pay back ten fold in happiness and that is what matters in life, we are only here once. A playing foal that we have saved its life like Dougal is worth a thousand holidays abroad. Please see the new video of Dougal below, I took it tonight at dusk, behind a wall after waiting for along time. I hope that you enjoy.
While that is uploading, its Dougal feeding time now.
Dougal Playing
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11th May 09 - At about 1.30am this morning I foaled Morjoy Puffin, she was waxed up earlier so we knew that she would foal tonight. She has had the most beautiful colored bay and white filly foal. Janette is asleep and will have a lovely surprise tonight.
This is where our system work's best, this foal had a leg back and probably the mare and foal would have died had I not been there, I quickly pushed the foal back in with a tremendous pressure against the mares pushes, it was hard but I have learnt what to do, once my arm was right in to the mares belly the leg flipped forward by its self this time, normally I pull it around with my little finger.
Photos & Video tomorrow, time for bed after Dougal Feeding.
Morjoy Puffin with new born bay & white filly foal
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11th May 09 6 pm - Early Update, this afternoon at about 1.15pm Janette called me at work and told me that Kizzy may foal soon but that it might be a false alarm. Then she yelled down the phone "She's Pushing". That was all I needed and I then gently toddled of to my car and had a steady drive home!!! Believe that if you dare.
I had just arrived when Janette was lubricating her hands and arms to try to sort out if everything was coming OK. Janette saw me and said "Thank God Your Here" or something like that.
Kizzy was very laid back about foaling, it was a white sack so we knew that we could afford to be a bit patient, I had a feel inside to make sure that there were two feet and a nose. All seemed fine although Kizzy was very tight. She is very small, luckily I have small hands.
This is a first time foaling for Kizzy, it was not going to be easy. I eventually managed to get hold of the foals legs and after pulling for a while nothing was happening, so I checked again that a nose was following and it was but Kizzy was two tight.
I had to go for getting the foal out now, Janette held onto Kizzy's tail and I pulled Janette and Kizzy around the stable, I had to sit down and put a foot against Kizzy's rear end to get enough pulling power, I was still dressed in clean work clothes and shoes, they were not clean now though. I worried about breaking the foals legs because they were so small but I trusted what I had seen my vet do last week when we lost a foal. He pulled much harder then with ropes.
After a very worrying minute or two (it seemed like hours) Kizzy did a big push herself and with my help the foals head popped out, the rest followed quickly. There he was, a tiny, tiny bay and white colt by Midas.
Mum was a bit stresses for a while so we left the new foal where it was for a couple of minutes, then I moved it up to mum so that she could see it. That was all it took. Kizzy saw her new born foal and someone switched the light on. I am sure that you mothers out there will understand. Kizzy was up in a flash, the cord broke and bled but I grabbed its tummy button with my fingers and held it for a few moments, then Janette sprayed it with purple spray as we do.
Their you have it Kizzy, our smallest mare has just had our smallest foal ever and it is alive. I will post some special video later.
Fairytail Angels Kiss with her new colt foal
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At about 10.40pm tonight 11th May our mare called Morjoy Pip foaled a piebald colt by Fairytail Maverick, I foaled this one my self. Janette was in bed because she is doing the early morning shift. I hope that she can foal ponies by herself later, Ha Ha. Pip went down a few minutes earlier and I evicted her stable partner Tia quickly. Tia is now installed in a three pony stable, all separated by sheep hurdles.
I got the stable sorted quickly for the foaling, Pip was up and down a few times then the white sack was pushed out, boy was I relieved at that moment as always. It meant that I had time to check things out and sort out any problems.
I tried to check Pip to make sure the foal was coming correctly but she was really pushing it out by then. Out came one long leg and then came the nose, where was the other leg. Straight away I held the foal from coming out until the contractions had stopped, then I lubricated my arm again and pushed the foal back in and found the second leg. It was so easy to do that, I then held on to both feet until Pip pushed again. It was not long before she pushed and the foal was coming fast, then I saw the red bag, I knew at this stage that I had to get the foal out fast and within 3 minutes, the foal was well made and I really struggled to pull it out again. I sat on a towel and put both feet against Pips rear, that worked and Pip's piebald colt was born. It just shuck its head and said hello to the World.
After sorting Pip and the foal I then had to dash off to check the other mares as they could all be due to pop now and I was late feeding Dougal.
Fed Dougal now and checked the mares, all are very restless tonight. It is very cold tonight at our place, I had not realized how cold that I was until now, I checked the outdoor thermometer and it read just 2 degrees. This is May, my poor foals are out in the field. Even Dougal has got to stay out tonight because all the maternity wing is full.
The earlier foal today out of Kizzy is doing fine, it took Janette and I a while to get it suckling, mostly Janette but it seems to have worked now. We milked off some colostrum earlier and gave it to the foal by a syringe. I have just checked Kizzy and milked her again and it is just milk now. The colostrum which is like an opaque syrup is gone so I now assume that tiny foal is suckling ok and that he has sucked the rest of that. Kizzy's teats were shiny so I think that he has found the milk bar.
Janette will need to check that the later new foal is suckling in the early morning, I hope that it is or Selwyn Late Sleep Time may come to an abrupt end.
Its 12.50am now and time to feed Dougal again, I went to buy him a new bucket of milk powder today, it cost me over £50 and the last bucket has only lasted just over a week, thank god that I am not feeding a shire horses foal.
We will be feeding Dougal for three months altogether, Dougal is going to be the most expensive and high maintenance mini colt foal in the UK. What can we do though, we love him to bits and he loves us back, his mum Panache loves us all and loves to finish off Dougal's milk if he leaves any. I will try to film that soon.
Sorry for no photos or video but I will try to catch up later if the weather gets better.
Morjoy Pip and New Piebald Colt Foal 09
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12th May 3.30am - Janette got me up for a foaling, the time since then and for the next four foaling's has been just a blur for both Janette and I until tonight on the 13th May.
Fairytail Tia Rumba had a nice piebald filly by Fairytail Primo Domini, Tia was a first time foal er and it was a bit tight but we got her foal ok. I went back to bed and Janette tended to the new foal and fed Dougal then went back to bed at 4.15am, see below.
Morjoy Pip and New Piebald Colt Foal 09
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12th May 4.15am - Janette had only just got back into bed to continue foaling watch, she took a good dose of Red Bull to keep her awake and then looked up at the TV, Janette saw that Fairytail Seventh Heaven was getting ready to foal. Up again and in to me, I cannot remember much but somehow I managed to foal her OK. Again she was a first timer so it was tight. The foal was a lovely piebald filly by Fairytail Maverick.
I went back to bed and did not go to work that day, I don't think that I would have been much use if I had.
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Fairytail Frazer out of Morjoy Seline
Still the 12th May 10pm - Janette was asleep in bed, I saw Morjoy Seline go down to foal, it was very straightforward and in no time we had a really well marked Bay and White colt, this was one of those colts that was born two weeks old, he was up in no time and Janette says that he spent the whole night running around his mum bucking and kicking. He obviously enjoys his new freedom.
I still expected more foaling's and so decided to take this mare and its foal around and into a stable in the barn, I picked the foal up carefully and led Seline to the new stable, Seline was brilliant and so well behaved.
Out of the large area in our barn I moved a pony into the main foaling wing where seline had been, this left just two ponies in the barn main area where it is harder to see if they are foaling on the cameras.
I mucked out all the ponies ready for the next foaling.
Morjoy Seline with new foal 09 Fairytail Frazer
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Fairytail Over The Moon With New Foal
13th May 1.30 - Seline's colt is doing fine, Dougal is ready for his feed, I have eaten my burnt Pizza that I had put in the oven just before the last foaling and then forgotten about but Fairytail Over The Moon has just gone down to foal. Again all went well and I foaled a nice black filly again by Fairytail Maverick.
I then also moved that mare and foal around to the barn and have brought the last two ponies out of the barn and around to the foaling wing. In the foaling wing we now have the last seven mares installed in three stables, two in one, two in the second and tree in the third. They are now on the main bright cameras where is is easier to keep an eye on them.
When Janette wakes up later at 2.30am I hope that she will be pleased with our new arrivals and the reorganization. At the start this year we were very worried about coping with so many foaling's but although we had a bad start through no fault of our own, our system has worked really well so far. When 2.30am came I went and told Janette the news, she was pleased.
That was it, I was ready for bed, we had had seven foals in just over two days and I had to go to work today. I got into work at 9.10am.
I brought some of my friends and colleagues up to my house today to see the new foals. I think that they enjoyed that. The actual foaling's and the worry and losses take it out of us big time, but when we can walk through a field full of mares with beautiful foals at their feet, playing sometimes, that is special. Janette and I are very lucky to be able to do this and I hope that Janette can get over the loss of our first foal this year and move on.
Here is a flavour for all that's happened over the last two days.
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14th May 2am - Late update. Everything quiet tonight so far, still seven mares to go. Some have been restless but not foaling restless. The weather is awful tonight, it is very cold, raining and misty. We have Dougal and Kizzy & foal in but all the others are out in this horrible weather. They will all need to toughen up tonight. We will check them in the morning but again we worry because it has given an even worse day tomorrow.
Usually the foals can cope well with cold but sometimes they get diarrhea if their mums come into season, that is when we can sometimes lose a foal if we do not notice. This will be difficult when we have so many foals. Janette will not let any pony down without a fight so at the end of the day the Fairytail foals 09 have been born in one of the safest places where they will get the best care if needed.
We are high up in Derbyshire so when it's cold it's usually 2 or 3 degrees colder here.
That's it tonight, it's 2.20am and its Dougal time again, then bed for a while "I Hope". More video and photos soon.
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14th May 1.30am - All quiet at the moment, I am doing the first watch until 2.30am then Janette will wake at 3am and do the rest.
A friend has sent us a story recently about a horse that has a prosthesis leg with some photos Please Click Here
I fed Dougal at 12 and will feed him at 2am, we have brought Dougal some "Foal Creep Pellets", never done that before but apparently they are what we need to get Dougal eating next. That will be interesting because we have to fight of his mum Panache now so that Dougal gets all of his milk and pellets.
I think that we will need to put Dougal behind a fence from his mum to feed him with pellets or she will pinch them first.
Janette noticed that Dougal was suckling his mum tonight, she has no milk but it just shows that he must be better now. It would be lovely if Panache would start to produce milk again. I don't think that it can happen now but lets see. It would be nice if a vet could give a drug which could induce milk production again.
Dougal Feed Time Again, bye for now.
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16th May 4.30pm - Saturday afternoon update. All is still quiet, still seven mares to foal. Janette's just suggested giving then all some Cod Liver Oil and a hot bath to speed them up, I laughed.
We have two that are quite well bagged up now so maybe a foaling soon.
We have had terrible cold and wet weather all Thursday and through the night and yesterday until mid afternoon. It has been a very testing time for all the foals out in it. We just had one which seemed to be chilled and suffering which is Morjoy Seline's colt. We brought them in last night and let the foal sleep under a heat lamp. He loved that, he is very friendly, some video soon.
Last night at about 7.30pm I went out wondering through the ponies with my video camera, two of the foals kept crashing into me which was not helpful for a steady shot. Eventually the ponies accepted that I was there but started to ignore me. I then took about 50 short video clips of the ponies playing. I then spent many hours last night editing each clip and then joined them all up to make a short 6 minute movie. I have uploaded it to You Tube today which took two hours. I think that this is my best video yet so I hope that you all enjoy it. Further update later after the Euro vision song contest, that should bring some foaling on if I play it loud enough.
Special Foals Playing 09
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17th May 12.15pm - At about 8.30am this morning Janette woke me up to say that she thought that Fairytail Enchantress was getting ready to foal. She had had a very restless night. She is a first time foal er and so it was a tight and slightly longer ordeal than normal but all went well and a lovely piebald filly was born. The foal must have breathed in a little fluid because it,s breathing is rough but hopefully it should get over that.
I took some video which I will put on later, when I took that I could here church bells in the distance. I told Janette that we shall have to call this one "Fairytail Morning Belle". Belle's dad is Fairytail Shamrock.
Fairytail Rosita is very restless as I write this so we may have another foaling soon.
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18th May 09 12.45am - I suspected that Rosita was going to foal on my shift at about 10.30pm, I had told a good friend earlier today that Rosita would foal later today as her teats had waxed up, that is a sure sign.
I phoned him and he came round about 15 minutes later, by that time I thought that it was a false alarm, I then remembered that Janette was asleep in bed and that I had just invited a visitor who would trigger all my dogs to bark loudly, that was a very interesting few minutes. My friend found me waving my arms at him to stop, he must have thought that I was mental. I hope that Janette did not here the car engine. Some of the dog,s barked but I think that I shut them up in time. We will see tomorrow.
Anyway back to the foaling, my friend Mark sat very patiently with me in the kitchen watching the pony channel and the old film Gregory's Girl. We had both just got into that again when Rosita started, she did very half hearted pushes for a while which is unusual. I warned Mark that this may be a bad foaling because Rosita has gone through too much action today and now the foaling is a bit unusual.
When we thought that she was pushing we sneaked up on her and I took a peek, after a short moment I heard her waters burst. That was it, we were in there giving our help. All went well, it was a white bag coming, I checked that the two legs were coming and they were.
I told Mark to take hold of Rosita's tail and hold on while I pulled out a lovely piebald colt foal, she was tight and the foal was "BIG", I was a bit disappointed at it being a colt then but now I have read Janette's notes I am sure that it will be a HT colt and so special, if I am right it will always breed colored foals. This is another foal that has been born two weeks old. I think that Dougal is to blame for that.
Mark was very pleased at being involved with this special moment, I had to leave him in charge while I went to feed Dougal late, we had chosen to leave Dougal's feeding earlier because we would of disturbed Rosita otherwise.
After feeding Dougal and because it was still early in the night I decided to milk Rosita of some colostrum and give it to the foal, Rosita was very obliging and in no time little foal was "colostrumised" just made that word up but it fits the bill. All is well now and we are ready for the next foal. I have some nice video of the foal before and will post it as soon as possible but not tonight, ready for bed now and work in the morning. I will feed Dougal again before bed time.
I have done a new link tonight from the top of the page to the bottom, I hope that it works.
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19th May 12.20 - My links work from top to bottom now, I have checked them, I hope that it helps you to read this page easier. Otherwise all quiet now.
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19th May 9pm - There was not much action this morning and all is quiet tonight so far, I have finalized the links up and down the page to help you navigate better, any problems please let me know.While all is quiet I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has sent us messages of sympathy and triumph and all the many people who leave messages on our You Tube videos, I loved a message saying that I was a super hero for Janette, that was the best.
I have now realized that the most important thing that you followers want is the video clips. On You -Tube my video clips have been getting many thousands of viewers, one has nearly four hundred thousand viewing's, I can do really good videos now for the web so maybe next year I will just concentrate on the film and not the diary.
Maybe I will change my mind but if no one who reads my diary ever tells me, how do I know. Please if you do read my Foaling Diary, and enjoy it, email me at selwyn@shetland-ponies.com just to say yes or no, or with a message if you wish.
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22st May 2.45am - Blimey, that last comment from me about stopping the foaling news has totally overwhelmed me with emails, I have tried to respond personally to as many as I can as I think that is very important. The trouble is I got to 3am this morning replying and feeding Dougal and watching the last five mares that I ran out of time to do an update. For All " YES I WILL CONTINUE WITH THE FOALING NEWS NEXT YEAR". Thank you all for your emails, many have made me cry and Janette who didn't really understand what I did while she was asleep is amazed at all your emails, that has scored me a good brownie point.
Nothing has happened up to now thank god, but tonight I have some very restless ponies, I expect a foaling or two soon.
I worry that one may be a problem foaling as the mare is not happy at all, she has spent all night lifting her back legs up in pain. I cannot do anything about that until she tries to push the foal out.
We have had our first enquiries this week about what we may sell this year, one person wants a colt and another wants a mare with foal at foot.
Janette and I have not even had time to think about foal names yet alone selling any ponies, however we do need to consider this now.
Janette was so upset this year at loosing the first foal that she has said that she wants to stop breeding. You may notice that in my videos Janette is rarely there now. Janette is now not trying to connect with the foals so that she can make a break. I also would like to cut down on breeding but I admit that I have really enjoyed this foaling season.
Our sales list is virtually empty at the moment but actually for the next few bunch of nice people with good homes their may be a very special Fairytail Pony that Janette may let move to a new home. The early bird will catch the worm.
Back to tonight's news, it is now 2am, no foals yet but one of our ponies is still acting strange and keeps lifting her back legs up in pain, I am very worried. Two other ponies are wishing their tails and being restless.
I need to go and feed Dougal in a few minutes, he is doing fine now and although I think that I said that he was a poor foal and my vet said that he was a crap foal, we have both had to eat our words now.
Dougal is an alright foal, he has straightened up and one of our best friends who came ten days ago and called Dougal "Wonky" then, asked us where Dougal was yesterday, Jane looked at Dougal in our small paddock and said, that is not Wonky, where have you put him. Janette was very pleased to say that the pony foal that Jane was looking at was indeed Dougal. Dougal is now three weeks old and he is a very well fed (by hand) colt foal that is of good breeding and he is probably HT and will always breed coloured ponies. I will be more than pleased when he makes stallion status, if ever a pony had to fight for his life, Dougal was the best fighter that we have ever had born at the Fairytail Stud.
Dougal feed time, late now 2.10am. Done that, I had to wake Dougal up for his feed but he drunk about 400 mm which was less than normal. After reading the foal milk instructions I have learnt that three week old foals can now take a six hour break in the feeding plan. Dougal started doing that himself, we offer the milk but he declines sometimes. He still loves the attention and the scratches and tickles, so does Panache, she climbs all over us. She loves the last bit of Dougal's milk but don't tell Janette that. She waits very patiently to the end of Dougal feeds and then starts to paw the ground for the last bit. Janette is angry with me for doing that but I find it amusing and what can I do in the middle of the night when I love all the ponies including Panache.
When I interact with the ponies on a personal front, I find that they are much more intelligent than most people think. When you live with them in a barn for a short while and watch them and learn what they do, it is then very easy to copy little things and communicate with these tiny horses.
The Swallows that nest above in the barn all chatter away in the early hours before dawn, I am sure that they all understand what they are saying as well.
Gosh, talk like this shows that it is late, it is 2.40am and I am ready for bed now, Janette will be up at 3am.
The weather forecast is good for the bank holiday weekend so I promise that I will try to get some really special video. Bye for now.
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22nd May 10.25am - At about 5.45am Janette got me up for another foaling, I had been in bed just two and a half hours. It was Fairytail Star, I struggled to get the foal out, it was coming correctly but star's pelvis was just two small.
We had to call out the vet, the main man Ian Taylor turned up about an hour later, Star was about on her last legs, I had tried along with Janette's dad to pull the foal out pulling a leg each but the head just would not come.
When Ian came he used a mechanical device to wrench the foal out but it was very difficult and we have got the foal alive, I have filmed it and I will try to put it on later. It is only the second time ever that Ian has got a live foal out at a bad foaling and the first time was with us about eleven years ago.
Star is very stressed as is the foal, it was Stars first foal, also the foal seems to have very tight tendons on its front legs and we are struggling to get it to stand up by itself. We have fed it its colostrum for now and Janette will keep trying to stretch its front legs straight whilst Star recovers a bit.
I need to go back to bed now so update later.
11pm - Update on Fairytail Star and the foal - What an exhausting day, I managed a bit of sleep midday but this afternoon Janette has been trying to get the foal onto its feet, she fears that something is wrong with the foal, it cannot stand up on its front legs. She has been trying to feed it by hand but it is very difficult.
You can put milk into a foals mouth but you cannot make it swallow.
The mare Star and the foal are both very stressed, Janette reminded me tonight that when the foals head finally came at foaling with the wrench that there was a loud crack, I assume that was the mare as she is very swollen tonight and walking badly.
Then later this afternoon the afterbirth had not come, I tried to get it by very gently pulling whilst turning it as Ian had taught me, it snapped in the end so we had to call the vet again.
This time we eventually got Bruce who had foaled the dead foal earlier in the season, Bruce is a really nice Australian vet and he took a lot of tender trouble and eventually got the afterbirth out, he checked it and it seemed all to be there.
Bruce treated Star with various drugs and as of now, she is much better and has stood up and fed a little at the hay rack.
Little foal is still very poorly, while Bruce was here Janette got him to check that the foals legs and joints were correct and in proportion. Bruce was very happy about that and reassured us that we need to give the pair of them some time to get over this trauma. Even Bruce was amazed that Ian had got this foal alive after needing to use a calving wrench to get it out.
Tonight while Janette is in bed, I have been trying to get some replacement milk into the foal by injecting 5mm at a time into its mouth while it is lying down. Earlier I cut a piece of thin sink drain pipe down the middle and strapped that to the foals worst front leg after a padding and using vet wrap. The vet had suggested that may help. This has straightened up the leg for now.
I have expressed Star's milk onto the floor to keep the milk coming.
I will keep feeding the foal this way as often as I can, little and often as we need it to strengthen it up until it start's fending for itself. Dougal was always a fighter from the start but this one does not seem a fighter yet, but it must have been a fighter whilst foaling to survive. We will try our best to help him.
Had to leave Dougal out in the paddock tonight but I will go and find him in the dark for his late night Milo soon.
I showed our vet Dougal and Panache today and he was amazed at both their recovery, I carefully pulled Dougal to the ground so that Ian could check where his disappeared hernia was, all was well and apparently they can heal themselves. However Ian told us that if we ever have that colt gelded to remind him so that he can make sure that everything is ok later. If we sell Dougal we will tell the new owner this.
"BIG NEWS" I have managed to get Janette to think about some names for some of the foals today, I had to threaten to name them myself, that did the trick. Also we have now been round all of our ponies and sorted out a quite large sales list of quality ponies at reasonable prices. This includes a few mares with foals at foot. Mares, foals, yearlings and two year olds.
Just fed new foal and Dougal, I got fed up of trying to get new foal to drink from a syringe so I went and got Dougal's big bowl of milk ready and took it to the new foal to see if it would just drink out of a bowl.
It did straight away, it stuffed its nose into the half a baking bowl full of warm milk and took its first proper big drink, it must have taken 200mls in two minutes, that is what it needs. I will do the same again later, Dougal time has just become Dougal double time. This is really helpful to alleviate our really stressed out lives but what can you do.
You should not breed if you can't take the strain. Luckily I thrive on the strain most of the time, every now and then my battery runs out but a longer sleep soon puts me back on course.
Janette's battery is very low at the moment but there is a reason for that, Janette has been suffering for the last few years with bad pain in her joints and muscles, she is a tough nut and so has hidden it for as long as she could, it all came to a head recently when I gave her a big cuddle one day and she screamed in pain. I then made her go to see the doctor. A long story later and we found out that Janette has a disease called Fibromyalgia, she has always had it but the effects do not show up until later in life, this was diagnosed with some tests for joint hypermobility.
Basically and as I understand it, Janette feels pain in her muscles and joints much more than normal. I had always noticed that Janette bruised easily, even a little pony nab would bring out a big bruise.
Anyway, the problem is known about now and the treatment is "More Sound Sleep" because the problem causes bad sleep because of constant pain. To get more sleep the treatment is a special sleeping tablet that can be taken long term and for the rest of Janette's life. However that does not work with what we do.
Foaling season this year was the most foals ever and so Janette has chosen to not take her medication to stay awake and save foals. I have done my bit by staying awake until silly hours of the morning like 3am to help Janette. I can cope with that at the moment because I think that I am healthy. But for how long.
This is why we have come to a point of a reality check.
I truly hope that we can find some good homes for many of our special ponies this year.
We will never ever sell any of our ponies in a general bidding sale unless we get desperate.
I truly hope that someone or a few of you are out there who would love to continue what we have done so far in breeding the tiniest and friendliest ponies.
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23rd May 09 10.30pm - Today has been quiet with regards to the ponies but very busy with visitors, I met a childhood best friend today who I had not seen for thirty two years. My old friend found me on the Facebook website and sent me a message saying "Is that the Selwyn Cheadle from Ashbourne" that was all it took.
The internet is a very good communications tool witch is helping old friends and relatives to find each other, I have used the genecology sites to find my ancestors and built up a family tree. My old friend Mark has found his new love by using the internet and they are now a very happy couple who are planning to get married later this year.
And the internet brings this boring web diary to you, the man who invented the internet deserves to be recognised as the one person on earth ever who did the biggest thing ever. He enabled the whole World to talk to each other instantly and with little cost and without control.
My sister Donna also visited today with some of her family, I took some nice video. I did a video last night of the second bad foaling and it took hours, but it ended up about 20 minutes long and I had forgot that the You-tube web site only allows videos up to ten minutes long.
So that you are not so disappointed with that, here is the video of the first bad foaling, Ian Taylor the vet has now given me permission to show you this. The end is sad though.
A bad foaling earlier in the season
The night is still early, I will need to feed Dougal soon and Dougal 2, we seem to have amplified our exhaustion to feeding two colt foals now. The last one is a black colt, it is Ian Taylor's only second foal born alive in his many years so it is special and we need to keep it alive.
It is much better today, it is bad on its front legs and we have struggled to keep it on its feet at feeding times, Janette has done that today as I have entertained friends. I feel very sun burned tonight because I did not realise that the sun was getting me today.
New foal suckling milk out of a bowl but standing better now, his legs are getting straighter but maybe not in time for natures milk bar. We keep milking Star in the hope that new foal will latch on, Janette is very fearful that he will not. We really need a person in the area to help us now if they care to help us feed this foal, we will give this foal for free to someone who will pay for the special milk feeding which costs £50 every two weeks for three months. That's £300 cost and millions of pounds of pleasure got back with one foal. Very Cheap.
But we need to know that you have the right home with land and the capability to look after a special little fella that lived through a very difficult berth. Please call if you think that you are the right person with the right home.
Later Update: No One Called To Help
It is now 1am 24th May and I have fed Dougal and Dougal 2 is now is doing alright now. I am trying to get into a film about Pearl Harbor and the second World War but with many distractions, I am uploading a short but very important film of Ian Taylor, our vet getting the new foal out yesterday. It is good and I hope that it works this time.
Our vet Ian Taylor foaling his only second live foal ever
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Sunday 24th May 2.30pm - At about 9.20am this morning Janette woke me up to say that Minuette was foaling, we both sorted that out and I pulled the foal out, it was a bit tight and again Min was a first time foaler.
It is a nice piebald filly, as at this time of writing she is now out in the field with mum.
After yesterday I have cancelled all visitors today as we need to have a moment of Selwyn-Janette time as well as spending time trying to get Dougal 2 to suckle his mum Star.
I have refitted a splint to his week leg to help straighten it and support it whilst he is standing, we have missed a feed this morning to make sure that he was really hungry and then we have tried to get him to suckle his mum.
It has been a bit of trouble but he has latched on to one teat and had a good drink. That is a very good sign. Star is still very poorly, she can hardly walk and is still very swollen.
I think that having the foal is keeping her alive at the moment but we are both very worried for her.
More news later.
Minuet & Filly Foal Cherise
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24th May 10.30pm - Bad News Tonight. We have done everything that we could today to help Star's foal to start suckling its mum, we did it at 11am this morning and then 12 and then 1pm, we thought that we had cracked it.
You only need to read my earlier news to see that.
From about 4pm Janette noticed that the foal was very cold even though it was in lovely sunshine, it was asleep, we tried to wake it for a feed but it never properly woke up. Janette tried to tell me in a careful way that she thought that we had lost this one because it's gums had gone yellow with Jaundice. I went through my head trying to think of what we had done wrong many times. The foal was obviously very sick.
It is a very difficult time when you have just made special friends with a mini horse in trouble and thought that you had got it through it's problems.
Fairytail Star,s first foal died at about 8pm tonight. It did not suffer any pain as it had fell into a very deep sleep earlier.
Star is still very poorly herself, she has been eating grass today in the lovely sunshine but she has had an awful discharge from her foaling department.
I am tearful now whilst writing this, but we have to take the good with the bad. We have a field full of lovely foals so if someone in heaven decides to order one early, then I hope that they look after it as we would.
I need to feed Dougal now and I am late, he is doing brilliant now "Touch Wood".
It is later now, we have left the dead foal with Star for tonight so that she can morn it as best she can. We will remove it and give it a good burial tomorrow.
Janette had a lovely email today from a friend today. I think that it may be a good time to show you that.
To: janette@shetland-ponies.com
Hi Selwyn and Janette, I have just read your latest update of foaling diary and I am so upset at the sad news of Janette's illness.
My sister has suffered from this terrible illness for 5 years now and is constantly battling with pain and lethargy.
Janette has been so brave to battle on without her medication throughout your foaling at it shows the true dedication you show .
I know how hard you have struggled with Dougal and it is a credit to you both that he has made it.We have had 2 foals this year that struggled to feed,one is a silver dun colt by James that we syringe fed for his first 49hrs but he then picked up and is now doing great.
The second was a stunning skewbald filly,she just did not get the hang of the milk bar.We fed her`day and night as you are doing for 5 days (we milked mum and fed her that) eventually she got the grasp and fed herself .
Unfortunately like yourselves we do not have enough stables to house each mare and foal,once they have foaled they move to another block for a couple of days,then they have to move out to make room for next ones .
Little Pebbles as we named her made it for 10 days then whilst out in the field we had a horrendous night of wind and hail.
We went out with torch to check all was well and she was down in the field,quickly had a shift around to make room for her and mum,got her dry and under heat lamp, but the poor little mite was to weak to stand and feed,so vet called and back to milking mare and string to syringe feed but as you say you cannot make them swallow.
By the time the vet had arrived she had slipped away.We are truly devastated by the loss and myself personally was that upset I was ready for calling it a day but there were more mares in waiting that I was responsible for so had to crack on.
I for one know all the hard work and commitment you have put into your ponies over the years.you can both be proud of everything you have bred .If there is anything I can do to help at all don't hesitate to ask.We have finished foaling now.5 fillies(including Pebbles) and 6 colts.All but 1 are sold to fantastic homes.
Just an update on Ace,I have moved him away from the farm and to a yard nearer to home so that the kids can spend more time with him.At the farm he was a real handful around the mares(even threatening to take James on lol) he brought a few mares back into season last year .I had arranged to have a blood test off vet in January but changed my mind as I decided I could never part with him regardless of result,so I moved him instead.The difference is truly amazing he is an angel for kids to handle but seems to know when myself or Amy have him it is time to strut his stuff.Adam is riding him out now on the lead and he is a gem.
Good luck with yr 4 remaining mares and my thoughts are with you both xxxxxxxxxxx
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12.30am 25th May - I have just fed Dougal and reminisced on the day, I was out in the dark in the field, Panache came for a cuddle, Dougal came for his feed, Little Kissie came for a cuddle and her new foal came for a cuddle.
These ponies are very intelligent so much so that they seamed to know that a dead foal was close by. Lets see what tomorrow brings.
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25th May 12.10pm Midday - All quiet again, Star seems a little better. We will probably shortly put her out with the youngsters on some lovely rich grass..
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26th May 12.10pm Midday - Still quiet, I thought that our pony Hermits Jigsaw was going to foal last night at about 10.15pm as she was very restless. I had promised a Neighbour that I would invite then to a foaling when the time was right. They came round straight away and we sat and watched Jigsaw go around and around looking very uncomfortable until 1.30am, Jigsaw switched off then and I presume that they were very disappointed.
They had seen me feed Dougal in the dark and thought that was sweet.
Lets see what today brings.
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26th May 9.15pm - Still all very quiet. Fairytail Star is much better today.
28th May 09 1.20am - At about 1.20am I was about to go to bed, I had fed Dougal and needed to go to work in the morning, then one of our last mares started to foal. It was lucky that I saw her.
She foaled very well, I need not have been there apart from the bonding. It was a nice piebald filly by Fairytail Shamrock.
29th May 09 12.45am - The new foal last night was big and healthy and up in a couple of minutes running around its mum. It was amazing. I did my stuff late in the night while Janette was asleep and I took a video clip this morning after we had put the mare and foal out in the field.
You will soon see that the foal ran straight back to me even though mum did not want her too, mum ran around and herded her away again.
We have had one of our mares called Stardust who has always looked in foal but who has never scanned in foal go through foaling behavior yesterday, we are baffled and have scanned her today but we get no reading.
We wonder if she has a dead foal inside her from much earlier, maybe it has crystallized as can happen very occasionally. We are watching her along with the last two mares tonight. Our batteries are very low now and Janette is very irritable with me now but I have seen it all before and in a few days the sun will suddenly come out in our lives for 2009, I am looking forward to that.
Janette has changed of recent because of her condition and she has surprised me by listing a large number of ponies for sale, she has listed many ponies with foals at foot.
None are on our sales list yet because I need to do that but I have not got time yet. Dougal seems to take up all my Selwyn time.
Some people have already pre-ordered ponies with or without foals, Janette is sorting out a big problem now. I hope that many very caring people will try to take over a little bit of what we do so that the Fairytail dream of tiny ponies is achieved in the end.
Morjoy Bubble with new Piebald Filly called Fairytail Savannah Beauty by Fairytail Shamrock
Fairytail Tribal Warrior out of Morjoy Puppet
30th May 1.45pm - Our 28th foal was born at about 2.40am yesterday, it is a bay & white colt out of Morjoy Puppet. We missed the foaling, Puppet had been showing no foaling signs when I finished watching her at 2.20am but janette saw the foal running around mum with all the afterbirth attached still at 3.00am, Puppet was just stood as if nothing had happened.
The foal has a very unusually marked head like an American Paint horse and two big blue eyes.
Just one mare to foal now being Hermits Jigsaw.
11pm 30th May - This is Saturday night and we have just watched the final of Britain's Got Talent while watching the last mare Jigsaw. She is very rest lest as she has been for many days. I am expecting a very special foal out of this mare so if I get a black colt I will shoot her with a pea shooter. We have decided tonight to go back to normal sleep and rely on the swinging foaling alarm system. If Jigsaw lies down properly to foal we will be alerted, if she does not, she will be on her own. It is the call of the gods now, Janette will set her alarm for about 2.30am to check and Janette will also set my alarm for about 4.30am, its a man thing. Can run a web site but cannot run an alarm clock.
I took a nice video last evening, see what you think.
Joy & Foals
Jigsaw and Foal at the Fairytail Stud 09
6th June 09 9pm - Last night at about 12.15am we had our last foal by Bulkgwyn Humbug out of Hermits Jigsaw. It was a colt but it was also the best marked and flashiest colt that one could ever wish for, we are really pleased.
This one if it lives will definitely go on to be one of our future stallions. We have both been amused today to watch it playing in the stable, it never seems to stop, round and round it goes bucking and kicking. We have not put it out yet because it is such a cold day.
I have called this one Fairytail Hit The Jackpot or "Jack" for short.
I think that it is glad to be out in the World.
Luckily for the mare and foal we had our backup system on this mare which is the swinging head collar monitors which trigger when the mare lies down. I had been watching Jigsaw on the foaling channel every few minutes or so but I missed this one. Janette was woken up by the alarm call and burst into the kitchen where I was at about 12.10am and we went into action. I had been doing emails and last time I looked Jigsaw was just feeding at her hay rack.
Next minute I had a potentially angry wife to contend with. I was very defensive and Janette told me that. Maybe I had not looked at the foaling channel as often as I thought or maybe Jigsaw just got down and did her stuff, we will never know.
I will keep uploading new video and photos this summer to fill in the gaps above and for the last foal.
I will also update the filly foal and colt foal pages regularly as they grow this summer.
We had four, three year old colts assessed yesterday to see if they would pass the stallion assessment, these were all TT or Homozygous for the tobiano gene. They all passed with flying colour's and the two smallest ones are now out with their own group of mares.
Fairytail Top Dollar New Stallion 09
For the very first time all of our foals born next year will be coloured, Romany Paco and Bulkgwyn Humbug have TT mares and the other four stallions are TT so all their mares will have coloured foals.
Because of Janette's condition we intend to cut down so we are only running the mares with the stallions for just three weeks this year. Janette is hoping that most will miss. She thought that last year but she was very wrong.
Putting young stallions out with first time mares should be a challenge for the new stallions this year so that will hopefully cut foal numbers.
We must be one of the only stud farms in the World where we don't want many of our stock to get pregnant, that must be strange.
Bye for now and I hope you all enjoyed this years foaling news from the Fairytail Stud UK
Important: If you wish to see all my videos including new ones uploaded last night Click Here.
For the current sales list Click Here
17th June 09 - All is well with the 26 foals so far, we have put many mares out with stallions for just three weeks to limit the foaling time next year to just five weeks allowing a week either way.
Dougal is growing very fast, he seems to grow by half an inch every day, he drinks his milk by the bowl full and often does. Janette said today that he is doing better than any of the other foals on their mums. We must be feeding him too well. Dougal had a play tonight like never before. He bucked and kicked and his mum Panache joined in, she went too it bucking and kicking and running for joy.
Sorry but I did not get to film it this time.
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20th June 09 - I have udated the normal video page today and copied all the above videos to it.
I will continue to fill in the above with videos and photos ASAP but any new videos from today will be put on the video page and by the relavent ponies on their pages.
If you do not want to miss any newly uploaded videos please subsribe to my Youtube account by clicking here.
You will need to log in to your Google or Youtube account to do this or set it up as you go.
A nice video showing a collective video of most of our foals in late June 09
Our last Mare Hermits Jigsaw with her new colt foal Fairytail Hit The Jackpot
News Update 16th August 09.
We are now nearing the final feeding of Dougal, he has taken most of our spare time up this last four months with feeds night and day but it has been worth it. Dougal has transformed into a very lovelly well put together pony. Because of our continued input he will make a very inteligent and affectionate pony for someone special. Dougal is special so we will only let him go to a very special home now.
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