After waiting 11 months we finally have our new baby pony. Even before leaving California we tried to get Zanna pregnant but had little success with artificial insemination. The original stud just didn’t have good swimmers I guess.
Well, last summer we took her for a live cover breeding just east of Denver and it took.
Saturday night the 15th we went out for a BBQ with friends and came home about 8pm. We had been testing Zanna’s milk for calcium levels as a predictor of the foaling date, but she was showing a few days away. When the horses didn’t come down from the east pasture by 11pm or so, Sandi went up (in the pitch dark) to get them while I settled into bed. Within 5 minutes she came running into the house screaming "We’ve got a baby!". Apparently she preferred having her foal in the open pasture rather than in the fresh, clean, well-bedded stall area we created for her and baby.
Zanna had a beautiful little colt without any help from us and mom and baby were ready to come down and get some food and rest. The other 4 horses were hovering around her in a protective manner and it was a challenge to get mom and baby to come down without the other horses getting in the stall area. I finally haltered and tied two of them to the fence while I held the other two (and got my foot stepped on in the process). That tiny, minutes old baby followed mom on his long, wobbly legs the entire 300 yards to the foaling stall without a problem.
Many were taken the night of birth or the day after. He is a beautiful baby from 7S Rose Zanna and Jaz Poco Goldun Blue.