Well, Frosty told us today that she can’t wait to get up to bat so she can hit a home run like her “sister-mare” did! She’s getting closer, both in days and in readiness. Last udder check showed no wax yet, but she is really filling up. She has some edema, too, along the sides of her belly.  We’ll be moving her to the foaling stall this weekend, a little earlier than planned.

Cookie’s new little one sure seems to have made up for lost time since those first few hours of her new life! She is eating constantly, even watching mom and imitating her browsing through the straw for nibbles of hay. Both Cookie and filly passed their vet checks with flying colors (or colorfully passed!!) Ears, eyes, heart, lungs, legs… everything checked out great. The vet called back in record time to say that the IGG was really good – above 800 which is about the best you can get.

We can’t wait to find out what the little gal’s name is going to be! Cookie is very relaxed and kind of carefree with this little one…maybe that happens with Number Four! Horses are big and strong and mares can exhibit “tough love,” but the babies deal with it really well. Webcams bring that normal behavior really up close and personal, plus we humans tend to view them with our own characteristics – mama horses don’t let their babies grow up to be cowboys, or even cowgirls for that matter! Just strong independent horses. We regularly check our new moms for signs of mastitis, which would make her very sore and unlikely to have the baby nurse for any length of time. But all is clear and both mom and little Pajama Pants/Snickerdoodle/Beauty/Cutter are doing just fine. Also, not to worry – while we post the poll on the honor system and count on folks to vote just one time, we know from experience this doesn’t always happen, especially with some younger voters. In a few more days (Animal Planet just got their poll up on Wednesday) we will “close the polls” and tally the non-duplicate entries with the AP results and announce the winning name. Of course we want to pick the registered name before we decide on a barn name in case one naturally leads to the other.