Our first's mini's special page...

We received Candy in September of 2004
and she was a little over  2 years old.
She will be three on June 2, 2005
We where told  that she may possible be pregnant. 
When she arrived she looked just fine and 
we where thrilled to have her. 

She isn't a tiny mini  ( 38 inches) but we didn't care,
as we now have our first mini 
 which we have wanted for a couple of years now. 

As time  went on, she just didn't seem to get any 
bigger so we thought she wasn't in foal.
Along about mid March of 2004 she suddenly 
looked huge and new she was, just had to
 call our vet to confirm and sure enough, she was.

Because we didn't have an actual breeding 
dates there was  no way of telling for sure 
when to predict a due date.  The vet thought a least a month to go, maybe more but to be ready anytime. 
We had all her shots updated and added a selenium
supplement to her feed (this area is selenium poor) and a small handful of triple crown senior,
three time a day along with her hay ( all she wants of hay). 
Normally she gets little to no grain  but being she is in foal,
we wanted to be sure she was getting all the 
nutrition she needed to insure a healthy baby. 
So from March 12th until birth, we where 
on  MARE WATCH. 

Candy's foaling page

The first couple of weeks where not a big
deal as we really though we had a ways to go 
and weren't on high alert and this proved to be true. 
Once we passed the the four week mark 
the  true foal watching began. 
Wouldn't you know it, I ended up in the
hospital ( I am fine btw,  but it was a set back as
I couldn't be there) a few days. 
 At that time my daughter in law stepped
up to the plate 
to handle my farm responsibilities alone with my boarders 
who  where a huge help during my hospital stay
and my recouping time. 
Prior to that Tricia's was showing an interest
in our mini but was not 
very informed on the process and what it
involves and it was a learning proccess for her 
 with me as her mentor,  as well as
researching on the internet. 
It was Tricia that became my right 
arm ( thank you Tricia) with she really 
started having  a stronger  interest in
Candy and her foal while she was on
foal watch and I wasn't there. 

 At first she was afraid that Candy 
would foal while I was gone and 
 with mini's  it is a bit different then a regular
horse (they tend to have more complications). 
That didn't happen, fortunately, 
so the pressure was off once I got home. 

It was then we decided to have pages 
about Candy , her foaling and  decided it in part, 
should be from Tricia's prospective also.
I have been through it several times 
 (though it's been a few years) before and thought
her sharing her first experience would be 
helpful to others going through their first foaling experience. 
 Tricia's Chronicles