Valentine's Day was another frozen day in an unusually long cold spell in Central Kentucky. My seven-year-old Thoroughbred broodmare, Exotic Blue, looked comically distorted, with a belly that stuck out dramatically on both sides and fell so low that I had to crane my neck just to locate her udder. At 16.2 hands tall and with a rangy build, this pregnancy was the first time I'd ever thought "Blue" looked like a broodmare, even though it would be her third foal.
There was no mistaking the situation on that Feb. 14 evening: foaling time wasn't going to be far off. Once I did sight the mare's udder, I could see it had bagged up quite a bit since that morning--and it had already been filling up a lot over the previous two days. She had a large cap of milk crust on each teat. The frigid temperatures had helped to make it obvious that she was waxing up, freezing a layer of the dripping milk over the head of each nipple.
Blue has the type of attitude that gives broodmares a bad name. She is especially sensitive near her flank, and anyone brave enough to reach for her udder will be rewarded with a cow kick that several times has knocked veterinarians to the other side of the stall. I did my best to clean her in preparation for foaling, then led her into the broodmare stall and latched the door for the evening. Even if she did show irritable temperament during examination, Blue was generally a friendly mare and had been a terrific mom to two prior fillies. I was confident that she'd soon have another foal by her side and the months of waiting would be over.
Our in-stall wireless video camera wasn't functioning properly in the cold weather, so every 90 minutes that night, I bundled into several layers of clothing to make the two-minute walk to the barn. Each time, Blue seemed a bit more distressed, and made it obvious that she wanted to be released to her pasture. When I went up to the barn at 6 a.m., I wasn't surprised to hear an additional little whinny coming from Blue's stall. I peered through the barred window down to the straw-covered floor and saw a large bay foal with a big white star on the center of its forehead. Blue had cleaned the foal and the mare's placenta was still hanging: an apparently successful delivery.
