Pearl's story

So we are now about mid-June. Pearl is about ready to foal, it's only a matter of time. She has some milk in her udder, her hind end is relaxed and as smooshy as Jello. I am getting excited, we have no idea of her breeding date or even why she was bred if they sent her to auction not even mid-term! All we know is that the sire is a black Standardbred... pretty popular color if I may say! So I never did find the stallion.

We did find the registration for both the rescues.

I was worried, I could barely sleep at night, what if the baby was still-born (which was the first thing I tought), what if one or both wouldn't make it!? I loved Pearl and didn't want to lose her and I was totally ready to take on a foal, my first but not the first I had handled and trained. We spent a month feeding supplements to Pearl, giving her fresh cut alfalfa to increase her milk production, taking absolute care of her in hopes that the foal would make it.

Here is Pearl the night before she gave birth... you can see that she had put on a bit of weight compared to her earlier picture. I knew the birth was close due to the signs but I had no idea if the foal would be premature or if she had kept it longer due to all of the stress (being thin, new farm, etc.)

The next morning, we woke early in hopes to go meet Pearl and the new foal, we got to the barn all happy and smiling... to find.... Pearl... as big as ever! So we checked her and told her she had player a good trick on us!

I had to leave the farm because my parents own a cottage and people wanted to rent it for the summer, so we went and cleaned to whole thing, top to bottom.

We we nearing lunch time when my sister-in-law comes over. It's Pearl, she foaled at 11h20 am on June 20th 2009 and she was fine... Since my sister-in-law is a non-horsey person (I mean not AT ALL!). I saved my questions for myself. I finished up and went over to the barn about an hour and a half after the foal was born. Went I first saw him, it broke my heart. He was a cute pure black little colt with no markings... the REAL black stallion. He was thin and weak. When I rounded the corner of the barn to see him, he was lying there, exhausted, directly in the harsh sun.

Right there, he looked normal. He was born inside and had managed to make it outside. But the frogs of his hooves were unused, which led me to believe that he had not yet gotten up and nursed. We poked him and encouraged him to stand but to no avail.

His front and back legs were weak and swayed from side to side when he tried to get up... he just wasn't strong enough.

He had long legs and would be a tall guy. I wasn't going to let him die before my eyes. I went and got my boyfriend and we lifted him to his legs. He was really unsteady and fell over many times, so we held him up to nurse. At that point, mom wasn't having any of it and wouldn't let us near enough to nurse, even on a lead she wouldn't tolerate him nursing. So I went and got a bottle, milked Pearl (she was fine with that!) and proceeded to feed the colt by bottle. I managed to get enough milk in his belly to keep him going for a little while. He could now stand for short periods of time. We were happy! But that was short lived.. he would be so close to being able to nurse and mom would move away and he would just fall down again. That night, I gave him a shot of vitamins... Broke my heart to have to give a shot to such a small little guy. I noticed a deformity in his back and back legs immediatly, but I thought that it would settle itself and that it was caused by him being so leggy in such a small space during his development and by being so weak on top of that! Pearl is hardly 14.3 hh... clearly this guy is to be much taller than that. I still think it was caused by him being in too narrow of a place to develop normally.

We were getting up at night to make sure he nursed, until one day, he could nurse on his own! We were thrilled! He was now nursing, walking around and was able to get up and lay down on his own. I was time to turn him out! He could run, but those back legs always kept him dragging behind, at least he wasn't falling over!

On the night of June 28th, we had a rodeo in our small town. We were all attending the rodeo. When we got home, it was about midnight and we decided to make our way to the barn to check on the colt. We found him laying in the shelter, with mom, Peg and Dandy all watching over him. He was still weak and would always do the thing with his mouth... you know, what foals do to tell other horses the submit... it's like grinding their teeth or chewing the air... he always did that when we approached close enough and would always whinny when he heard our voices.

So anyways, that night, he seemed fine, we didn't make him get up because he was sleeping when we found him there and felt a bit bad that we had disturbed him. So we went to bed and I remember clearly saying to my guy that I thought he would make it (after spending 8 days dangling!). The next morning, my guy was up early and went out to check the horses. I remember it was a foggy morning. He came back and told me that the little colt wasn't going well and that he was dying. I couldn't believe it, jumped out of bed into clothes that I probably had worn before (I didn't really care!!!) and made my way to the field. The horses were WAY at the other end (we have a 40 acre pasture) and when they spotted me, Dandy came running over, screaming and Pearl came half the way, quickly going back to the foal. I slowly walked over...

My heart was in my throat, I couldn't see the foal, but could tell from Pearl whereabout he was lying. I got close and spotted him... he was lying flat on his side, breathing hard and groaning. I talked to him calmly and petted him a bit. I lifted his head and he just couldn't hold it up. I started worrying that he had broken his neck running and falling. But I palpated everything and it was all clear, all legs were ok... nothing apparent. We called a vet as soon as we found him, but our vet is a 2 hour drive away... and that is if he is not in another emergency situation. he was finishing something up and coming right over... I had no hope. I called my mom crying and she made me feel a bit better. I returned to the field slowly and saw both Dandy and Pearl running over... Pearl came right to the gate, she had a look in her eyes saying "Help me!" and she quickly turned back and ran to her colt. Dandy walked the whole way with me. I found the poor little colt lying there, still breathing hard but the breaths were far apart. I decided to stay with him.

I sat beside him, in the damp grass, petting him and comforting him. I told him it was ok to go, that I'd be ok and that I would look after his mom. I was broken and tears were running down my cheeks. I soon noticed that he wasn't breathing anymore, his little mount had opened a bit, so I stuck my finger in... there was nothing, not a blink of an eye, nothing. I was devastated. I gave him a last kiss and told him goodbye, but at that time I was truly crying and sobing. I remember telling him not to go yet, but it was too late. I had to live with this. I took hold of my emotions and went to get my guy (he didn't want to see him die). We took the foal away, mom and Dandy (Dandy was the gardian of the colt) screamed the most heart breaking whinny. The foal was burried and the vet hadn't even been near. I doubt he could've done anything at that point, so I called and cancelled.

Somehow, the horses knew exactly what had happened. We were heart broken for a week solid and we cannot mention the little guy without tearing up. I still have tears running down my cheeks as I write this. The colt is burried on our farm, not far from the pasture.

I will never forget him, he was my very first foal (from one of my horses) and lame or not, unrideable or not, he would've stayed on our farm forever.

Love you Little Guy (We had named him Black Jack)