Surprise, Baby!

Guess what showed up in our "in box" this morning?

(box stall, that is)...

This adorable baby Quarter Horse.

Dusty is the Palomino on the left.

It seems that Mr. Dusty Gold Bars, Bubba's Quarter Horse gelding, was a bit busy last year before he got "fixed" (we did have him in a separate pasture, really...so it was through the fence, we guess...ugh).

You might have seen a while back that the first of his progeny arrived a mere three days before Hurricane Irene blew in for a visit.

Dusty's Briar Rose (Rosie) is part Shetland pony, part Quarter Horse. You can stop laughing now. Yes, I know it is funny trying to picture a Quarter HORSE and a tiny Shetland PONY, but apparently it happened. We weren't really sure when, but we did figure it out about a month before the due date since Merry started looking a bit pudgier than she usually gets on summer grass. Yeah, pudgy with a baby.

Rosie arrived with no problems one morning in between the horses getting fed and the mid-morning turn out. Tex and I were startled when we saw that there was a baby in that stall that wasn't there before! This is the last update I posted some months ago. She's a lot bigger now, but still cute and friendly as can be.

 This was Rosie today, wondering who the new arrival is

and why she is already as tall as her...no fair!

Lily's pregnancy, on the other hand, was a complete surprise. Kind of like those strange shows on cable where the moms claim they didn't even know they were pregnant until they gave birth...right. Do you ever believe them??

Just the other day, Lily was getting led to the back pasture and Tex and I were chatting saying, "It's too bad Dusty didn't manage to get Lily pregnant before he got gelded. Rosie is so cute. I'll bet Lily's baby would be beautiful. But it's been a year (last March 23rd, to be exact), so I guess we're out of luck." Seriously. I am not making that up. We actually had that conversation just a few days ago. Apparently it went straight from our lips to God's ears.

Lily spent a few days in the back pasture to graze when the weather was nice, and came back in with a quarter-sized wound on her back leg. Who knows what she was up to out there...So we put her in a stall for a few days to treat the injury and keep her still (one I built in six hours as an emergency solution until Hubby could be home over the weekend), and she seemed fine for a few days. Then I noticed yesterday that she wasn't looking so hot. She was acting sort of listless and a looked bit ribby with a slightly poochy belly (one sign of worms). I figured I'd worm her in the morning (I had to pick up a wormer at the feed store) and call the vet if she was looking no better, just in case the leg was worse than it looked to me.

Well, Tex came running in this morning not more than five minutes after he went out. He was yelling, "Mom, come now. Hurry. It's an emergency. Come quick!" I was half-dressed, so I grabbed the first thing I could find, and ran out of my room thinking, "The mare is dead. She died because I didn't call the vet yesterday. Oh no." I hit the landing in a panic and ran for the door, then Tex said, "There's a baby in Lily's stall!!"

What! What did you just say? Stop. Repeat that. A baby? I was dumbfounded (and relieved that nothing was dead). The Amigos were jumping around, yelling excitedly (and loudly) that they wanted to go out and see, too. No way. I sat Ladybug down and told her they all needed to sit on the couch and watch television for a while...anything they wanted (I rarely say that...we do have a nice selection of good videos, though...the worst thing they would find would be Dora the Explorer), and that we would be in as soon as possible and let them have a chance to see the baby horse.

Tex and I ran back outside and sure enough, there was this delightful creature standing in our newly built stall (thank you Hubby and Poppy for doing that last weekend).

The neatest part of the story (other than the surprise baby, which is pretty amazing) is that something unexpected happened last weekend, and we were unable to attend the Teach the Diligently conference as planned, so we stayed home and built two new stalls instead...was that a God-thing or what?? So, if Lily hadn't hurt her leg, she not have had a stall and she might have given birth in the pasture in the middle of a rainstorm...Two incredible examples of God using things that could have been seen as negative for good...Thank you, Lord!!

The baby filly is beautiful. No name yet. Just Pippi for now (short for pipsqueak...until we choose her forever name).

She has her mama's head, and her daddy's coloring. A pretty blaze with a star. No socks. Absolutely precious and miraculous.

She's as sweet as can be, but is having a bit of a time figuring out nursing. Her Mama is a first-timer (maiden) mare and her milk is a bit backed up while they are working things out. Those of you who are nursing mamas can sympathize with Lily's plight. Phillip came over tonight and remembered something he read in a James Herriot book about milking cows with udder problems and got her unclogged a bit better than I had been doing and the baby had a nice meal before lying down.


Everyone was very excited today (well, except maybe for Jake...he's just glad he's a boy and doesn't have to put up with these sorts of unexpected surprises).


It was a BIG surprise. An unexpected blessing. I am very thankful for those happy surprises when they come. God is so good.

Welcome to Blessing Farm, baby Pippi, and Happy Birth-day.

Blessings,

Simple Living Wednesdays

Wordless Wednesday

God is Good Link Up