It's a Boy!

We have been waiting a long time for the arrival of the new horse, and finally he is here!  Sonita delivered a colt on Thursday 5/18, at approximately 5:00am.  Nick and I woke the kids up to see everything, so it was a long day for them, but I think it was worth it.  Our new colt and his mama are doing great.  His barn name will be Thor.  The kids loved this!  This post will be completely dedicated to the horse aspect of our lives, but we have had a lot of other activities going on, as well.  

This is Sonita the day before she gave birth.  She was very calm and quiet the day before.  I am not working right now, so checked on her quite frequently that day.  Nick was up with her that night a lot when she started getting really restless.

Welcome Thor!

Here are some of the first pictures we have of the little guy.  It was amazing how fast everything happened.  He was up on his feet within a half hour of being born.  He had figured out how to nurse within an hour and a half and he was running around the yard later that afternoon.

Look at those long legs!

Mom and baby resting

Standing up is hard work!

The kids got to pet him.  I think he was confused at first and couldn't find his mom.

There she is!

She makes sure that he stays pretty close.  So far, she has been a great mom.

By afternoon, his color had lightened a lot and the kids got to go in the pen to pet him and play with him a little bit.  Grace and Owen couldn't believe how soft he was by afternoon.

Playing in the yard.  Sonita got to eat grass for the first time in a few months.  There is something about a certain kind of grass that they're not supposed to have in the last two months of pregnancy.  She has been strictly on hay.  Thor liked to wander, but mostly followed his mom and the kids around.  He was pretty funny to watch.

The next day (Friday) the vet came out to check on Thor to make sure he was healthy.  She had to sit on him and cover his eyes to make him calm down.  Within several minutes, he fell asleep and let her do whatever she needed to do.  She let Gracie and Owen listen to his heart beat.  Sonita stayed close and watched everything that was happening.



It was amazing how quickly Sonita's delivery happened after she finally started labor.  I woke up around 4:30am to get up and go running and Nick had been going back and forth between the house and barn since 2am.  I went out to check on everything before I left and asked him if he thought I had enough time to get a run in and he wasn't sure.  I went back into the house to grab my watch and light and by the time I was ready to head out, Nick came in and said that her water broke and if the kids wanted to watch we should get them up.  At first Gracie wasn't sure if she wanted to watch, but I told her that she might never get a chance again.  It was difficult to wake Owen, but once he was up, he wanted to see everything.  He was right next to the gates during the whole process.  Less than fifteen minutes later, we had another horse.  Good thing I skipped my run. (It's not very often that I say that.)

The rest of these photos were taken a couple weeks ago.  Gracie had played softball in the morning and didn't win, so we had the rest of the afternoon to play with the animals.  Gracie got to ride Indee for the first time.  We kind of had a horse parade in our front yard.


Gracie looks pretty happy up there.  This was the first time Indee had ever had anyone on her.  She did great and didn't even move when Nick helped Gracie up.  Nick led them around the yard for a little bit and Indee didn't seem bothered at all.

Owen's turn.

Gracie on Indee

Gracie with her horse

Owen riding Dancer.  He had a hard time getting her to go when there was so much yummy grass to eat.  Luckily this keeps her from wandering away.  If Owen keeps growing so quickly, it won't be long before he's too big to ride her. :(


Here's another picture of Indee being lazy.

This is the update on our horses.  It has been an exciting week, with a lot of other activities, as well.  I will address those in a different post.  Nick and Gracie are already outside this morning working with Thor and Sonita, since Gracie's softball games were delayed due to rain.  There is always something to do.























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