Troy is 11 weeks old

I cannot believe he is already 11 weeks old! It seems like just a few weeks ago that I was sleeping in the caravan every night and looking like a zombie in the day time. I just have not had the time to keep updating this blog, but while I have a day off I thought I would fill you in on what has been happening in Hannah and Troy’s world.

Hannah gradually became more settled being led out with Troy and after the first few days she started to relax and would let him leave her in the field for short periods of time. She is now quite happy for him to be led away from her (I think she likes the break) and the other night my husband walked her around the corner and into her stable and she did not bother at all that she could not see him.

Troy had to have a little operation when he as just a few weeks old. I started to notice that his willy was quite swollen when he came in from the field. At first I thought it could be flies biting as we were having some warm weather, but when it was still swollen after two days I called the vet up. Kathleen said his willy was too big for the opening therefore it was impossible for it to pop out. So a trip to the vets was required and as you can imagine, it was quite a stressful event. Hannah loaded perfectly the first time but Troy ran off around the back of the trailer so we brought her out and then started all over again. The second time we practically lifted Troy in and they both travelled and unloaded really well.

Coming home was less of an ordeal. Troy understood what was expected of him, and as soon as Hannah had been loaded he ran up the ramp to join her. We travelled Hannah tied up and Troy loose with no partition, and this seemed to be the best option for these two as Hannah did not sweat up as she usually does when travelling.

Despite this little set back in his life, Troy seemed to get quite coltish and I wanted to nip it in the bud before it became worse. So I organised for Richard Maxwell to come up in April and do some work with both Troy and me to point us in the right direction.

When Max came out he showed me the sort of work I could be doing with Troy to keep him interested (rather than nipping all of the time) and teach him things that would be so valuable to him in the future. I have continued to do some work with him both in the field and in his stable, which does seem to be making him a nicer foal to be around. He still nips quite a lot, but he also knows that she should not be doing it too! His leading has improved, although we still have stand offs where we both refuse to move, but he is now giving in every time and the periods of standing still are reducing each time.

I will try to update this more often from now on because he is changing so much and developing new characteristics every day. He continues to nip, but has been much easier to handle and is now starting to respect people’s space rather than just running into you. The only time he is a handful is when he is wet and wants to rub on anything in his reach, including me!

Troy's first day out in the field

It did not go quite according to plan!

Hannah is very foal proud, so is not happy when she cannot see him at all times. We tried taking her out of the stable first, but she just went crazy, so then we tried leading Troy out in front. Hannah started playing up the moment Troy put his head out of the stable and proceeded to jump on my foot!

Bringing her in was just as eventful, as she fell on her side panicking!

The second day out was much calmer as I think we were ready for what Hannah was going to react like, and it went without incident. I think it is going to take time to get her relaxed going in and out of the yard with him, but if the improvement yesterday is anything to go by then hopefully she will start to trust that I will not let anything bad happen to him.

At first she would not let him near to the stable door and would not leave him alone. But last night she left him with me at the door and went back to her haylage, which was a big thing for her I think.

Troy is getting a bit more independent though too, which probably helps. He is starting to be interested in things, and keeps chewing my wellies for some reason!

Meet Troy!

Well, Troy finally came into the world at 10.30am on Monday 12th March! At 5am, Hannah’s foaling alarm went off and I started watching her carefully on the monitor. She was getting up and down a lot, and breathing quite heavily. At 6am people started coming onto the yard and I couldn’t risk anyone tying up near to her so I got up, threw some clothes on, and raced to the stables. Hannah was still down and looking at her tummy a lot, but she didn’t seem to be doing much else.

Corrie came as soon as I phoned her, and thought it might be a good idea to telephone the vets because she had been down so long (around 20 minutes by now). I spoke to Kathleen and she said to give them a call in 30 minutes and see what she was doing then.

We went back into the caravan for a cup of tea and some digestive biscuits, watching her all the time on the monitor. She seemed to settle, so I popped in to have another look at her and noticed she had sticky stuff running down the back of her legs from the vulva. I telephoned the vets straight away, and Kathleen said it sounded as though this was the cervical plug and she was well on her way. But she wanted to send someone out to see her, because she thought she might have stopped because of the activity on the yard.

At 9.30am John turned up at the yard, had a quick fee inside of her, and said she had definitely started and stopped, and that he was going to induce her. Panic set in, as in the foaling bible it says on 25% of inducements survive!!!

I asked John whether he thought she should be induced, and he said she was ready but the foal had its legs tucked under so she might need some help and he would rather be there. He then gave Hannah the injection and went back to the practice for his clothes.

I watched Hannah from the caravan, and she started sweating up almost immediately. When John came back 15 minutes later she was absolutely wet through but not showing any signs of getting down and foaling. John felt inside her again and said there was no reason she shouldn’t be pushing as the birthing canal was open. As soon as he went to get some more of the inducement injection, Hannah lay down, pushed, and out came the bag!

I videoed the whole birth, so when the DVD has been formatted I will try to put it on here.

Watching Troy being born was a very moving experience, and the sounds they make to each other is just so lovely. Hannah loved him the moment she saw him, and was soon licking him all over and encouraging him to get up.

He took about one and a half hours to get up, and had difficulty finding the udder to feed from, partly because he is so big. I helped him, and once he had latched on, he soon knew what to do. Poor Hannah, she just stood there and let him suckle without moving once.

She is turning out to be a very good Mum.

Hannah's foaling alarm went off last night

Hannah is now 9 days over her due date and is looking more and fed up, the poor thing. She had a really restless night last night, and was pacing around a lot, getting up and down and breathing heavily.

I checked her through the night, but at 4.30am the foaling alarm went off. It took Corrie and I some time to realise what the noise was. At first I thought it was the monitor so turned the volume down, then I thought it was the heater, but while turning that off I realised the red light was on!

We got dressed, had a cup of tea and kept a close eye on her through the CCTV. Then at 5.30am she started munching her haylage and seemed to settle down. So we got a few more hours sleep after a very sleepless night.

This morning she had some milk down her legs and her left hock was swollen, probably through rolling around. I turned her out this morning for a few hours, and when I went to get her she wanted to come in. Her bag had gone down a little bit, but there was wet milk down her legs and more coming out when I squeezed them a little.

So it is yet another night in the caravan tonight… Number 14!

Today is her due date

What a night last night! At one point I thought the caravan was going to take off and take me to Oz… There’s no place like home (or at least there is no place like my own bed at home)!

Hannah was very settled again last night and showed no signs of discomfort. I checked on her at 10.30pm, then at 12.30pm and finally at 3am. She was snoozing a lot and seemed quite content keeping me waiting.

I went in to see her this morning and her stable was uncharacteristically tidy. She has not done many droppings in the night which is unusual for her, and there was quite a bit of haylage left on the floor.

I turned her out for an hour while I mucked out, and after half an hour she was shouting to come in and messing about by the gate. But to be honest, I don’t blame her; the weather here is dreadful today.

When I brought her in she started eating her breakfast and then left it. I popped in to have a look at her and could not believe she had hardly touched her favourite thing in life… I checked her over, and again her bag had decreased slightly during her time in the field. Someone on the Horse and Hound forum said to see what came out when you gently milked the udder. So, I decided I would give it a go. There was a small amount of clear liquid and then big blobs of creamy yellowish liquid coming from both. I stopped when this happened as I don’t want to disrupt the natural balance of things.

So, another night in the caravan tonight… I am starting to feel like Trailer Trash. I am thinking of changing my name to Brandeen!

Still no foalie, and only one day to go!

I got to the yard at 10.15pm last night and had to go into Hannah’s stable because I had forgotten to fit the camera when I left. As I got to the door I noticed she looked a little agitated and her stable was an absolute disaster area.

I skipped her out, tidied her bed, and then went to the caravan for a well earned cup of tea with Sue. I honestly thought that last night was the night!

I checked on her every hour, but she seemed a lot more settled and started eating her haylage and then finally went to sleep at around 3am. I continued to check on her, but I knew that it had just been a false alarm… can you imagine how tired I am this morning?!

There is no wax still, and no sign of her running milk. Her bag was more swollen this morning than it has been and her quarters have noticeably slackened now, although still not to the extent I have seen on some photographs of mares ready to foal down. I think the caravan is going to be my home for quite a bit more time yet!

The caravan saga begins

Last night was my first night staying in the caravan. Sue Williams’ Mum and dad have kindly let me borrow their caravan until Hannah has her foal and I cannot thank them enough. It has a heater, television, kettle and a very comfy double bed that I slept in last night.

I got to the yard at 11.30pm last night (wanted to be there for 11pm but had fallen asleep on the sofa). It was a really cold night last night, and as I had not been sure what I was going to do, I had not left the heater on in the caravan. It took quite a while to heat up, but by then I was lay on the sofa watching Wags Boutique with a cup of tea and my CCTV screen at my side.

I set my alarm to go off every hour so that I could check on Hannah and get to know her routine at night. The last check was 4.30am and she was fast asleep and very quiet so I decided that I would go back to sleep until 7.30am.

I woke up to the sound of heavy rain on the roof, howling wind and someone opening the gate to tip their wheel barrow on the muck heap. I stayed in bed for a little while longer watching Hannah on the camera and then got up and made myself a cup of tea.

Wandering out to feed the girls with my cup of tea in my hand, I went straight into Hannah’s stable to have a look at her. She had something sticky all over her udders, but still no sign of ‘real’ waxing up or running milk. Her muscles in her bottom have definitely slackened even more and you can now see the head of her tail, but I don’t think she is going to foal in the next few days if I am honest.

However, I will be staying in the caravan until the foalie arrives as she now has her foaling alarm on at night and I need to be close to the stable in order to hear it go off. Sue is staying with me tonight and bringing hot chocolate and carrot cake… so it looks as though we will be having a little feast watching Hannah happily snoozing!

Hannah had a restless night

Hannah was really quite restless last night. I went up at 11pm (after Lewis had finished) and she was stood breathing really heavily, her head down and her flanks heaving quite a lot. She kept looking around at her tummy and then putting her ears back as she tensed it up. I honestly thought this could be the first stages of labour.

I wanted to give her some peace and quiet for a while so I went home, had a cup of tea, and then drove back at 1.30am. She was still breathing heavily, but definitely much calmer and no longer tensing up her tummy. I knew that whatever it was had not passed, and she would be quiet for the rest of the night.

Her muscles around her tail have slackened off a little more this morning and are now quite spongy but they are not as concaved as I have seen in some pictures I have seen. There is still no sign of waxing up or running milk, and she seemed quite calm when she went out in the field this morning. However, she was very ‘slow’ this morning and seemed to be dragging her feet and quite stiff in her back end.

Her udders are still very warm and have a very strange smell to them. It reminds me of the waxed table cloths that children have at their parties, but as I have already mentioned, there does not seem to be any wax around the udder itself.

Not long to go now

Hannah is getting ready to foal now. Her bag is absolutely HUGE, her stomach looks as though it has dropped even more and the bump has moved backwards. I don't know how many more sleepless nights I can take!

Sue's Mum and Dad have kindly given me their caravan so I can stay over at the yard when she looks as though she is ready to have her foal. It has a TV, cooker, fridge (for the ever important champagne) and shower! I am very grateful as it allows me to keep an eye on her and keep the foaling alarm close by when it finally comes on Monday.

Until then, there is nothing I can do but sit and wait...

Bagging up

Hannah is looking so fed up at the moment, I think she has finally had enough of being in foal. She is restless, cannot get comfortable in her stable and is not eating much now. Her bag has started to fill quite a lot, and one side is now hard all the way down to her udder. She also looks to have lost a lot of weight over her hind quarters and looks very 'hippy'. However, I am still hoping she makes it to her due date as the weather is so cold at the moment it would be a great shock to the foal should it come out in the next few days.

Hannah is getting out for an hour or so every day, but she is quite bored on her own in the field and does start running around if there is any banging going on in the school. Hopefully once the foal comes she will settle more and not be so worried about things.

I will keep the diary updated as often as possible over the following few weeks, as she is changing so rapidly.

6th February 2007

Hannah has become quite restless over the past few days, and has gone off her food. He bag has become extremely hard and full, but there is no wax appearing on the end of her teats yet.

She still has over 20 days to go before she is due, but I have a feeling she is not going to wait that amount of time now. Even though she has only just started bagging up, it seems to be coming thick and fast. Also, the fact that she has gone off her food is a big indicator that something is not right because Hannah lives for her haylage!

I am going to sort out her foaling bucket today and buy a foal slip, just in case!

Rapidly changing shape

With 27 days to go until Hannah’s foaling date, she is changing shape every day. He stomach has started to drop even more, her quarters have slackened, and she is showing signs of bagging up.

Hannah is now going out in her own field for a few hours every day which seems to be helping her stiffness. She also appears to be much happier now she is getting out every day, she was obviously feeling fed up when she was staying in.

I am not organised at all for the actual foaling, even though I started off completely on top of things. So far her CCTV has been fitted (but not turned on yet), her foaling alarm ordered and she now has her Nedz Bedz bedding which is lovely and thick.

This weekend I have planned to sort out her foaling bucket and leave it outside the stable and buy a foal slip and rug (just in case the weather is dreadful on the foal’s first day out). I don’t know whether it is unlucky to buy things like this before the foal is born and is healthy, but these are things that it will need straight away should everything go nice and smoothly (fingers crossed!)

Apart from looking huge, Hannah is actually looking really well. Her coat is extremely shiny, her feet seem to be doing quite well considering she has always had poor hooves and she is keeping condition over her hip bones where she usually loses it.

Not long to go now though…

Only one month and two weeks to go

I cannot believe how close we are getting to the big day now. I have a feeling she will be a little bit early as her shape has changed a lot while I have been away and she is starting to get a bit restless and fed up. Also her stomach has dropped considerably and she is beginning to have a small swelling in front of her udders. Poor thing, she must be feeling huge by now.

I am hoping to change her bedding either this weekend if I have time or the weekend after, and she is going onto Nedz Bedz rather than straw. I am also ordering my foaling alarm tomorrow, and will get someone to fit my CCTV as soon as possible so I can start to see what her activities are at night.

Sorry it has been so long... Hannah is now 284 days!

I cannot believe how long it has been since I last posted an entry. So firstly let me apologise to those of you who have been checking to see whether it has been updated.

Hannah is doing extremely well and getting fatter and fluffier by the day. We only have one month, three weeks and five days to go before she is due to foal… I am not ready at all and have to admit the panic is definitely starting to set in a little!

But my lovely girl is taking the whole thing in her stride, so hopefully she will take to being a mother just as she has taken to being in foal. She is getting a little uncomfortable now when it starts moving around as she goes very still and puts her ears back, stamping her back foot and glaring at me. Then she will go back to munching on her haylage once it has finished moving. It seems to happen mostly in the evenings as I have not seen it moving in the day time yet.

Hannah is going out for a couple of hours every other day and seems to be doing well from this. I know it is not ideal at this stage of her pregnancy, but she does not seem too keen on being out for longer periods and comes running to the gate when I walk up to get her (not something she usually does when she is in a field). Our yard owner has sorted out her field for when the foal is born and has said Hannah can start going out in that so she can get out every day, but it is so wet at the moment that I have been putting it off as I do not want to spoil the field for the summer. When she gets a little closer to foaling I will put her out in there every day, but at the moment she seems very content and actually prefers eating her haylage in her stable than being out in the rain.

I am hoping to get some pictures of her and put them on here when I get back from my holidays… I am sure you will notice a huge difference!

Hannah is now 180 days in foal!

Day 180

The fetus has quadrupled its weight in just 30
days. Mane and tail hairs have appeared; it's
about the size of a Beagle.



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How the days are flying by now! Hannah is changing shape so quickly that I am shocked when I look at pictures from just weeks ago.

I have not been doing much work with her as she has felt sluggish and not interested. But when I went for a lesson on an ex-Grand Prix dressage horse, I was told that the mare I was riding had been schooled long and low up until six weeks before foaling. The instructor explained that the maintenance of supple muscles across the back was what helped her mare give birth so easily. She also added that perhaps Hannah was just being lazy by not wanting to do anything (hmmm??).

In my lessons on the dressage school mistress I have realised some serious faults in my riding style. I squeeze too much when I should be letting my leg hang loose by the horse’s side and using taps. Perhaps this is due to Hannah being slow off the leg, but then again she could be slow off the leg because of this!

I tried my new riding style out on Hannah when I took her in the school for a short session on Saturday and what a difference! She was sharp off the leg, responded every time I made contact and was so easy to ride! It just shows how you can get into habits over a period of time and then your horse fall into the trap too.



I really enjoyed our schooling session and what encouraged me is that Hannah absolutely loved being back in the school again. It is so nice to see a horse enjoying its work, it makes all the hard work and effort worth while.

Hannah has also got a new sister coming in October. After a lot of thinking and discussions with my Dad I have decided to loan a 17hh WBxTB chestnut five year old mare. She will have her own Blog soon, so watch this space!

170 days tomorrow

Hannah is really blooming at the moment. Her coat is shinier than it has ever been before and her temperament is just perfect! She is going to make a great mum.

I bought her a haybar in preparation for the foal being born as if I put haylage on the floor she just paws it around and then will not eat it. She was terrified of it for the first few days but now thinks it is absolutely brilliant. I have noticed that there is always haylage left in it, which there never was in her nets. She is obviously eating much more naturally now and not wolfing it down like she used to.

She has been doing a little more this week as I feel she has been getting quite lazy and enjoying being a broodmare far too much. I went for a lesson on an ex-Grand Prix horse on Thursday and the instructor said she schooled her mare until six weeks before she gave birth. She did lots of long and low work with her and transitions to help keep her back supple and her joints moving as they should do.

So as a result, Hannah has been going back in the school and doing just that! The first time I took her back in (she has been hacking out most days) she was so excited, which just shows how much she enjoys her work. We are only taking it very slowly as I don’t want to push her too much as I know she would love to be cantering round and round if I let her.

I have also made the decision to look for a horse to loan while Hannah is in foal and has the foal at foot. Initially I did want to buy a youngster to bring it on, but my Dad pointed out that I would be awful when it came to selling time and for once I have to agree with him. At least in a loan you know where the horse is going back to from the very beginning. I am looking forward to whatever work lies ahead.

150 days... We made it!

Gaining more than a pound every 10 days, the
fetus now is about the size of a rabbit. Hair
graces its chin, muzzle, and eyelids. If you
look closely, you'll see that eyelashes have
emerged.

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I cannot believe Hannah is now 150 days in foal! In one way it feels as though she has been in foal for ages, but it also feels to have flown by without me noticing.

The picture and text above is from a really useful website someone directed me to. It’s amazing how much they change in such a short period of time. Unlike human babies, foals have to come out quite advanced. They have to be able to walk around almost immediately so all their joints have to be in an advanced form to that of a baby.

Hannah is doing really well, although she has started being very lazy in the school so I am going to reduce her work now and will keep her schooling sessions to just a walk and trot and hack out more often. She has lost a little bit of weight since she was brought back into work, but this just accentuates the dropping of her stomach. I will try to get a photo of her this weekend and I am sure you will notice a huge difference from the previous pictures of her.

We had the dentist, I mean equine dental technician, out last night. He said she had some ulceration caused by sharp teeth down her left side near the bit and up at the top on her right side. After an hour and fifteen minutes of rasping they were lovely and smooth. I wish I had called him out earlier really as he was extremely informative and tried to show me exactly what he was talking about (with the aid of a torch) and a lot of what he said made sense compared to the way she has been going when ridden.

The dental technician also said he thought she was slightly younger than I thought. I believed she was six rising seven when I bought her which would make her 11 rising 12 now. However, he thought she was either eight rising nine or nine rising ten. The latter being the more likely. So that would mean I bought Hannah as a five year old. It would explain a lot about her behaviour traits and how green she was when I bought her!

He also mentioned that he did not think she was half Irish Draught and half Thoroughbred as I thought. He has a horse at home who is quite like Hannah and she is three quarters Thoroughbred and just one quarter Irish Draught. So Hannah might not be the carthorse we have also thought her to be!

Meet Hannah's friends...

I mentioned that Hannah hacked out with her new friend Fiddler, so I thought I should include a picture of him (chestnut) and Sue’s other horse Bruce (dark bay). I am looking after the two of them next week while Sue jets off to South Africa for her 40th birthday!

Hannah is doing really well and is back in work now there is no trace of lameness and her haematoma has dispersed. I have been taking her in the school every other night for around 30 minutes but she has been very forward going and silly – at least I know she enjoys her work!

There is also some news on me too – I have taken the plunge and booked a lesson with Debbie Jones. She is a BD trainer who I found on the website. She has two school masters who are both Grand Prix level (I think that’s right, I was quite overwhelmed when she was telling me what they do) so I have to go for an assessment on 30th August. I’m going to take Sue with me to take some photos and a video of me riding, although I will probably look like a sack of potatoes!

There is only 6 months, 3 weeks and 1 day until Hannah’s foal is due, the time seems to be flying by!

We've had a tough couple of weeks :(

Hannah trotted up lame over two weeks ago so rather than waiting to see whether it got better, I called the vet and asked him to come up and have a look at her. He couldn’t be exactly sure where the lameness was coming from but from the flexion tests he thought it could be something in her hock or higher up. She was prescribed Quadrisol for two weeks and then a reassessment on the third week.

She has been on the Quadrisol now for just over a week. I was a little anxious about following the vet’s instructions to light hack her while she was on it, so I decided to field rest her instead. When she was still lame after taking the anti-inflammatory for seven days I called the vet back and was told to field rest her (which she had already been doing!)

Andrea Johnson (nee Morris) my instructor suggested she should be box rested as that sometimes just gave them the time to heal if it was muscular. Therefore I kept Hannah in on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

The farrier and physio came out on Tuesday afternoon too. Simon (farrier) didn’t think there was anything in her foot that would cause her lameness, but we all know how low a pain threshold my horse has, so it could just be that the shoes were starting to rub a little. The physio then thought she trotted up sound after she had her shoes done, and the spasm in her back she had found on her last visit had settled down and improving nicely.

I decided to take her on a short hack last night because she was looking so fed up. We went with Sue Williams and her new chestnut TB gelding, Fiddy. Hannah was very jumpy all the way around, but it was nice she see her back in action and striding out. I am trying not to get too positive about it as I do know she is still on the Quadrisol and that will be helping any aches and pains that could be causing the lameness.

It was a memorable hack though… Sue and I had a larger and lime on our way home, and Hannah had a half of Guinness. Well, they say it’s good for you when you’re pregnant!

Over 100 days now...

Well, we have made it to this stage at last! Hannah is now starting to show being in foal and is looking very well. The only problem is that she has become lame on her back left leg, either caused by a problem in her hock or something muscular further up.

The vet has put her on an anti-inflammatory that is suitable for mares in foal and she is to be ridden on light hacks for the next two weeks. If there is any sign of lameness in the third week he will then nerve block her and go from there.

Just to be on the safe side I have organised for a horse physiotherapist to come over tomorrow afternoon. She works closely with the horse chiropractor who has seen Hannah in the past, so hopefully she might be able to detect something in her muscles which is causing the lameness.

I have attached several pictures that were taken of her at just under 100 days in foal… there is a definite bump there now!