Making Dreams Come True

"This is one BIG baby!"

March 17 2022: After nearly a week of watching Ruby from the barn video cameras (culminating in a solid 3 days where my amazing barn owner and I tried to rally each other to stay awake for 24h surveillance (shout out to her husband who also picked up shifts so we could catch some z's!)) we had entered the "any moment now" window of Ruby stamping her feet, dripping milk, stretching, and flank-checking. 

We ate dinner, checked Ruby's milk pH, loaded her stall with straw, and hunkered down to wait. 

And wait.

And wait.

March 18 2022: The sun peeked above the horizon. A full moon (in Virgo) hung overheard, obscured by thick red and grey clouds. A flash of lighting, a clap of thunder, and a sudden torrential downpour of rain. It was right around 6:30am.

This was when Ruby decided to go into labor.

The barn owner came to me and simply said "it's happening."

I had never felt such an overwhelming mix of fear and excitement in my entire life: this was it, my baby was coming. I thought of all the scenarios that had been covered in my CSU foaling class- would the baby be positioned correctly? Would I be able to identify a dystocia? Did we have the equipment needed to re-position? What if the foal got stuck in the birth canal? What if there was a red bag?

All sources say that when the mare's water breaks, you should leave her alone and let her figure out what to do. We stayed back and watched Ruby pace as her water broke. She seemed uncertain, worried. I went to her.

I will never forget the way she nicker/huffed and came straight to me. 

I was her person.

I was her rock.

I was going to be with her through this no matter what.

The foaling process went smoothly for the first part, but the foal got elbow-locked and was stuck. I said words of encouragement to Ruby while the barn owner (thank God for her) helped pull with each contraction. With a few good pulls, out slid a baby.

"It's a girl!!!!"

At 7:04am, I had a baby on the ground. 

We let Ruby and her filly get to know each other with supervision (Ruby was having a hard time with after-birth contractions). We cleaned them up, we cleaned the stall, we checked the placenta to make sure it was intact. 

All was settled, and all went well. The vet was on the way to check mom and baby. 

I had spent hours researching horse coat color DNA to make spreadsheets with the possible foal coat color outcomes (black, smoky black, bay, buckskin) based on Ruby and Hero's color DNA. I made statistical charts to predict the probability of each color outcome; for each color outcome per gender. My best friend and I worked on vision boards, where I had put together a collage of foal photos showing what I had hoped for.

I wanted a black filly so bad-- and there she was: my black filly, from my beloved mare. 

When everything was done, I remember turning to my barn owner and simply saying "can I freak out now?" She laughed, I think she absolutely knew what I meant.

I cried. Tears of happiness, relief, and probably some extreme fatigue. 

I followed my heart, and it led me here.