No foal!

This week, the two Nigerien vets Dr Madougou and Dr Hamzy conducted a rectal palpation on Arwen (their first ever on a mare!) and I finally got the answer to one of many questions concerning my little mare: Arwen is not in foal! Not much of a surprise really, but she did have us fooled there for a while, while her belly growing and all the signs of impending birth... She must have resorbed very early on (when it's easy to miss), but I'm just happy that there was nothing seriously wrong with her (like having a dead foal stuck somewhere). They did not find any cysts or anything else that seemed to be the matter, and the only thing I am waiting for now is for my mare to return to her normal cycle and not be so sensitive all the time. But that seems to be taking its time and right now, she seems to be in some sort of mourning! ...Which my jockey is taking more seriously than I! But then again, I have my own hormones to tend to regularly so maybe that's why I'm not so alarmed... :-D I'll let you know when Arwen falls in love again! It might be a few years though before I actually allow her to mate again. Not while she's still in training, that's for sure!

Ishtar

Arwen's foal makes a move

A lot of things happened today. Arwen was supposed to race today, but when I went out there this morning, I could tell she was not feeling well. Her head was sunken low and she looked thoroughly depressed. The Snowman passed by and convinced me to take her out anyway. After all, Sofia and I had been looking forward to this afternoon as it was one of the main events of the year. When we arrived however, it turned out that Chinada, Arwen's jockey, had signed a contract with the Gold Man (as we kindly call him) and would not be riding Arwen, even though he had been talking about nothing else for about a month. It was a very eventful afternoon which ended up with Chinada loosing his job with Arwen and me making a very swift entry on a galloping horse. Arwen was at first upset that she was to be taken away from the track without having given her all, but she quickly calmed down and Sofia and I had a very nice walk in the fields. Once home, we left the horses in their garden and walked over to Ali, who had not been present at the track because one of his bosses needed him that particular afternoon. He was devastated about Chinada's behavior and had not know about the contract (I figure we were about the only two in town who did not know about it until this afternoon) but would find me another jockey the very next day. I told him however that I was pleased that Arwen had not raced, because for the first time since her pregnancy, she had shown signs of discomfort.

The discomfort continued and in the evening, Moussa knocked on my gate to tell us that Arwen had run through the gate to their garden. It was a boxgate that I had bought in Sweden and was a very solid thing, but Arwen had just run through it and split it in two. I found her grazing in the courtyard... We brought her back inside, fixed up another temporary gate and then stayed with her for a while. For fifteen minutes or so, it looked as if she was going to labor that night, since her stomach was living its own life and she was clearly very uncomfortable. She stayed to close to us as long the foal kept moving, but then all of a sudden it was over and she headed back to her food. Sofia and I thought about staying around, but knowing false alarms are all to common when it comes to horses, we decided to go to bed and just hope for the best.

Ishtar