This post is about three weeks late; Scheherazade was born in the early hours of May 3rd. It’s been busy; the end of spring semester has combined with familial events. Better late than never, and I want everyone to meet Scheherazade before my next competition-centered post.
Jump to:
Breeding for Scheherazade
Waiting for Scheherazade
We meet Scheherazade in the early morning of May 3rd!
Why “Scheherazade”?
Scheherazade’s first three (plus) weeks
Above: I knew I was going to get chestnut out of two chestnuts, and both sire and dam have white legs and face. Scheherazade ended up with two white feet on opposite sides! At least, that’s what it looks like to me. And a white face… (very useful for finding your horse on a dark night!)
Breeding for Scheherazade
Originally, I wanted to make a Morab. First I tried to cover Fantazia with frozen semen from my mother’s stallion, Carlyle Command. (You can read more about Carlyle by clicking here.) Sadly, Carlyle’s semen was no good, so I tried to breed Fantazia to Beroni. (You can read all about them by clicking on the links.) Beroni’s frozen semen had resulted in many foals, but Fantazia still did not take. I gave up and decided to use fresh semen.
Because I could find no Morgan stallion near enough with the bloodlines (the trot!) I wanted, I decided to breed to an Arabian. After some research and thinking, I chose WT Bezarif. I have intended to write a blog post about him and his owner, Kass DiMaggio. When I do, you can learn more. In the meantime, suffice it to say that I had observed “Taser” and Kass in many rides. From observation alone, I knew he had the right temperament, comformation, and movement.
I do not know enough about Arabian breeding to say anything intelligent about crossing Taser (see his pedigree) with Fantazia (see her pedigree). My eyes told me they were a good match physically, and I did know I was going to get a chestnut! (My favorite color!)
The best thing? It took one shot. Fantazia was bred May 16th.
Above: A pregnant Fantazia looking good on March 10th.
Waiting for Scheherazade
Caring for a pregnant Fantazia
Most of Fantazia’s pregnancy was uneventful. I rode her lightly after 60 days until around nine months. Very lightly at the end! More to keep her from getting worked up when I rode River. Most of the time, Fantazia was on pasture with her regular Purina Equine senior feed. In early December, I started to wonder about nutrition. I asked for advice on the Equine Wellness and Nutrition group on Facebook. (You can read my post and the feedback I got here.)
Based on advice from that group, my mother, and friends who had bred many horses, I tweaked Fantazia’s diet. Starting in December, I added a ration balancer. The only one Fantazia would eat was Purina Enrich Plus. It is an excellent product, but the most difficult to get where I live. I generally have to order it from Tractor Supply.
As Fantazia got closer to foaling, I stopped putting her out in our large pasture. It has wonderful grass, but it’s big and steep and definitely too exposed to nature and wild animals for my liking. She still had 2.5 acres of green grass though. I also gave her as much hay as she would eat (alfalfa, wheat or oat, and Bermuda grass). Starting in March, I increased her Equine Senior.
Other than that, and frequent grooming, life continued as usual for Fantazia as she got heavier and heavier.
Above: Fantazia became calmer and noticeably fed up after 340 days of pregnancy!
It was a long wait to meet Scheherazade!
If you had asked me any time since I was a child how long a mare’s gestation lasts, I would have said “eleven months.” Just counting eleven months will give you a decent rough estimate, since the average gestation is about 340 days. However, normal can be anywhere from 320 to 370 days (KER article on gestation length in mares).
Fantazia was at 320 days on April 1st. On April 18th ( three days before her “due date”), I left her at my veterinary clinic on my way to the Treasure of the Sierra Madre ride with River, just in case. I could tell from her udder that she was nowhere near foaling though. When I picked her up a week later (I had gone straight to work in Bakersfield after the ride), I was not surprised to see her udder still rather empty.
After that, I dropped Fantazia off at the clinic Monday and picked her up Thursday evening. That happened twice. On May 1st (350 days), I called and asked my vet if she looked likely to foal within 24 hours… I had a meeting Friday at midday. Dr. Holliday said she didn’t think the foal was coming before Friday night!
Friday morning I used a Predict-a-Foal strip just in case. These give you an estimate of foaling based on milk protein content. This one said, test again in 24 hours.
Above: Fantazia grazing the afternoon before I got to meet Scheherazade. Her last dat of peace!
We meet Scheherazade in the early morning of May 3rd!
I had filled a stall with straw for Fantazia to foal in, with River a few stalls down, in our open-sided barn. I did not put Fantazia in that stall, because (a) I didn’t want to clean it without good cause and (b) Fantazia didn’t want to be in it and (c) the Predict-a-foal said only small probability of foal before 9am.
But I was still on the alert. Fantazia’s udder was full and her teats just waxing. The muscles on her rump were noticeably relaxed. (Read more about how to predict foaling.) Definitely looked close. I checked her at 11:30 before I went to bed and set my alarm for every two hours. The barn is about 350 yards downhill from the house, so I had started using a long range baby monitor to keep an eye on things.
But she still surprised me!
At 1:30 I got up and checked the monitor. Fantazia was eating quietly.
At 2:45 I woke up on my own. Hmm. I decided to check the baby monitor. As I turn the screen on, I can see Fantazia turning around to sniff at what was unmistakably a foal! I threw some clothes on and rushed down to the barn. I got there just in time to see the afterbirth plop to the ground.
Above: By the time I got there, Fantazia had passed the afterbirth and was licking Scheherazade obsessively, and squeaking. Fantazia squeaked pretty much nonstop for the first few hours. Watch this video of Scheherazade trying to nurse and Fantazia squeaking.
First step was getting mare and foal into the stall with straw!
I had had nightmares of red bag births (I knew that hadn’t happened when I saw the baby) and dummy foals. Scheherazade was born with a strong suckle reflex and tried to get up (see video) minutes after I arrived. When she was partially up, I grabbed her and carried her to the straw. Fantazia followed closely! Scheherazade tried to nurse everything that came near her mouth. I set her down in the straw and went to get a spray bottle of chlorhexidine for the umbilical cord and a bottle.
What to do with a newborn foal?
They say that foals should stand within one hour and nurse within two; the mare should drop the afterbirth within three. That’s the 1-2-3 rule. In Fantazia and Scheherazade’s case, all three happened within an hour. Still, there were a few things I tried to do.
First, I sprayed the umbilical cord with chlorhexidine. I figured that was easier than dipping in betadine (though I had that on hand too). I tried to spray it a 3-4 times a day for the first few days.
Second, I wanted to give Scheherazade a bottle of colostrum. A few friends told me it was a good way to ensure the baby got important antibodies as soon as possible. Great idea, but the baby bottle I had bought was too complicated. (Man they’ve changed since I had human babies!) I milked four ounces easily and Scheherazade eagerly took the nipple, but something went wrong and colustrum went everywhere, especially on me. This resulted in Scheherazade trying to nurse me as well as Fantazia (and possibly in her being especially mouthy).
I gave up on the baby bottle after that. Scheherazade was standing up anyway, and pretty soon she had found Fantazia’s udder.
Above: Scheherazade got up successfullly and nursed by 3:10AM.
Scheherazade was very active… and afraid to lie down at first!
After taking a few tumbles while getting up, Scheherazade was very worried about lying back down. She couldn’t figure out how to fold her legs! She did not manage to lie back down until 5:05! Nearly two hours on her feet. (You can watch her trying to lie down and sleeping on her feet in this video.)
Above: Scheherazade, a little over four hours old, was already running as much as she could in a small area!
What about imprinting?
Robert Miller DVM spent a lot of time writing and talking about the merits of imprint training for foals. (You can buy his book here or watch a YouTube video of him demonstrating.) I asked Bob about it several years ago (over a decade! how time flies) when I was writing the Cowboy Dressage book. I pointed out that horses, not being birds, do not technically imprint. He granted that, explained that it was still very effective if done correctly, but said the most important thing was following up.
(Read my interview of Dr. Miller and his wife Debby.)
Well, with Scheherazade it took three times!
Imprinting involves (in short), getting the foal to accept restraint and touch. For it to work, the foal must attempt and FAIL to escape restraint. (If you let the foal go when it struggles, you will have trained it to fight until the human gives up.)
The first time I worked on imprinting Scheherazade, when she was less than an hour old, she never struggled. I got bored and move on to other tasks.
On Day 2, I repeated the procedure. She resisted quite strongly. She particularly didn’t want me to touch her upper neck just below her poll. That and having her umbiilcal cord sprayed! I worked with her until she allowed me to hold her and touch her any which way.
On Day 3, she had come totally untrained. I did everything AGAIN, with Scheherazade putting up much more fight. I made sure to pick up all feet, handle ears, tail, squeeze, sit on, halter, and otherwise annoy until she gave up completely.
On the fourth day she didn’t bother to put up a fight.
Above: Scheherazade is naturally curious and brave, but she’s also naturally independent. Imprint training worked well to get her to accept that I am going to be the boss.
Why “Scheherazade”? (WT Bezarif x PGN Fantazia)
I wanted a name with a z (zed).
I had been hoping for a filly, and my vet said she thought she saw ovaries at the 60-day ultrasound, so I didn’t really worry about colt names. I had thought of several filly names, and Zenobia and Scheherazade were on the top of my list.
Zenobia was the Empress of the Palmyrene empire (Palmyra–where Syria is today–and Egypt) in the third century. She is also a talking doll in the children’s book Fletcher and Zenobia. That’s where I learned the name!
Scheherazade is the main character in the collection of stories known as One Thousand and One (Arabian) Nights.
Then my youngest son started a strong pro-Scheherazade campaign. Rodrigo has played Rimsky-Korsakov‘s op. 35, a symphonic suite called Scheherazade; it was one of his favorite pieces to play. (You can listen to it in this YouTube video. You’ll probably recognize it even if you didn’t think you knew it!)
Scheherazade it was! I was delighted to find no record of a Scheherazade in the AERC horse history page.
Scheherazade’s first three (plus) weeks
Above: My mother came to meet Scheherazade as soon as she could the next morning! She bred horses for years and misses having a foal.
Moving house
On Sunday, I moved Fantazia and Scheherazade to a larger pen in the barn. I had returned River to her usual pen, and Fantazia was so preoccupied with her baby that she didn’t notice. In fact, Fantazia spent most of her time either standing over a sleeping foal on high alert, or running around after a too active foal.
Above: Scroll through the slideshow to see Fantazia in various stages of alert mama!
After a day in the larger pen, I opened it up so mare and foal could access a larger area with grass. Scheherazde zoomed around even more! For the first few days, Fantazia stuck to her like glue.
Above: Scheherazade running around in a larger area (with Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite as sound track).
I had to go to Bakersfield to work, and when I got back Thursday evening, Fantazia had realized that babies are not enough to satisfy the social needs of adults. She had started to pace the fence and call for River. I wanted to put them in Fantazia’s usual paddock, but first I had to block off the fence so Scheherazade couldn’t go under it into River’s paddock.
Above: Scheherazade on both sides of the foal-proofed fence.
Once I had the fence blocked where it was high enough for a foal to walk or roll under, I moved them into Fantazia’s real home. She was happy to be next to River again! Scheherazade had to do with less room for the first few days. The little paddock is attached to a two and half acre pasture, but it’s full of squirrel holes.
Stretching her legs a bit
Luckily, Fantazia’s paddock also opens on to our manure field, which is regularly plowed, flat, and free of squirrel holes. I started by letting them out there. After two weeks, when Scheherazade had already tired herself out running around on the soft, flat, surface, I opened up the paddock to the hilly, grassy pasture. At first, I only let them out when I was there. Once I had seen Scheherazade step in a squirrel hole and start to pay attention, I let them out during the day. Now they are out 24/7.
Above: Scheherazade tackling a little hill for the first time!
Some early training
Other than the imprinting routine mentioned above, I haven’t spent that much time “training” Scheherazade. I have put a halter on about seven times. I pick up all four feet regularly. Frequently I have to tell her not to bite or lean on me. (It’s all very cute now, but she’s growing fast, and it won’t be cute in a yearling!) I encourage people to visit her so she gets some socialization. When the vet came to float Fantazia, she did a mini vet check with Scheherazade: pulse, gut sounds, umbilical cord, temperature.
Above: I try to pick Scheherazade’s feet up regularly. I also curry and brush her. Like all foals, she loves to be scratched!
Dietary challenges
By the time she was a week old, Scheherazade was doing her best to eat Fantazia’s food. I thought that was cute and overall a GOOD thing… until she got diarrhea. Foals can only digest milk-based food, and Scheherazade was eating too much of the Ultium growth. I ordered Tribute milk-based feed (you cannot get it locally) and raised Fantazia’s feeder. Scheherazade was not happy to be unable to reach Fantazia’s food! But she does eat the foal pellets, and her diarrhea has gone away.
She also eats Fantazia’s poop. I figure that’s good for gut bacteria!
Too many pictures!
Above: Visitors! I want as many people to be around Scheherazade as possible. At first she was mistrustful of anyone not me, but she’s much better now!
Above: Scheherazade really wants to eat big-horse-people food!
Above: Scroll through the slideshow to see Scheherazade’s changes!