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Diary of Jewel page 1/ page 2/page 3/ /page 4 /page 5 March 21 Just another day on the farm, endless chores, wondering if spring will come, horses demanding attention...you know... Then the world turns and Terri, from MA lets me know that her lovely mare Chakola's Jewel was available. Since I already had her full sister Chakola's Gem, I knew that this mare would be a wonderful addition to our family. Gem came to us in March 2003 and is loved by all. She had basically just been started under saddle and nothing more.
She evolved gradually into a wonderful horse for us and had me wishing if I could only, only have another Gem.... This was a be careful what you wish for...but in a good way... Back to Jewel...I knew we had to make this work. March 22 The stream of calls start. What to do?! Jewel's due date was April 20. Do we move her now or after she has foaled? To make the decision more difficult, we had some concerns about her getting on a trailer. She had done the typical Cleveland thing a year earlier by planting her feet and refusing to get on the trailer. We felt this was simply because she had not left home for awhile and was doing "her thing". But, I was afraid my 2 horse would not be as inviting as more of an open stock type of trailer. With Molly Cossart's help, I called the man who had moved Molly's pure 2 year old filly to us. If he could handle Phoebe, Jewel should be a piece of cake! Luckily i was able to catch him before he started trips to Florida and back and we set up a tenative for March 27. March 23 Ok, coggins, shots before foaling, health certificate...all in time to get her moved! Terri had it all together. Vet rushed the coggins and gave us the go ahead to move her after checking her out. Both of us praying she would not foal in trailer or shortly after! March 26 Paperwork came. Everything is a go for tomorrow. Moving horses around to make space for the new girl. March 27 Hardly slept, just hoping all would go well in moving Jewel north. I know Terri at that end was doing all she could and stressing, probably even more than me! She calls at 10:30 am and said Jewel is on her way and by 5 pm she arrives, cool as can be and typical Cleveland, walks in and starts eating. She drank 3 buckets of water in the first 12 hours! Wow, she is big with foal...
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March 28 Well,
thought yesterday was stressful, now I have to get Jewel turned out. How?
alone? With Kat my TB mare due the same time? That is actually what I
want to do, but will these very pregnant mares be good to each other?
She was not happy about being out alone, so I took the dive and turned
Kat out with her. We had some running(5 minutes for Kat and 1 minute for
Jewel) and then they settled for a time just looking at each other. By
noon, they
March 29 Jewel is more comfortable
and thankfully the whole barn is settling down. Everyone has been so excited
to have a new lady in, just been chaotic, neighs back and forth etc.
Vet tomorrow for shots and will have the ladies checked out. Kat's udders is filling and going down through the day. Jewels really is small, but than again this is her first foal. March 31 Short one today.
I'm running late because of vet who was of course late. She said Jewel
looked great and did not look as close as Kat.Kat is actually due a week
later.I think that is just first foal stuff. But none the less, both mares
don't look imminent. Was my feeling anyway. April 5 We had 2 inches of snow today! Jewel just pushed the snow aside and ate. Her udder is evening out. One side was filling more than the other. Still goes down quite a bit during the day and she is moving more. All is fine except I'm so tired of the crummy weather. There has been one nice day since Jewel got here! I need a nice day to take down the wall for the second foaling stall. I know, they probably aren't due for a couple of weeks, but I would be happy to have them both in foaling stalls tomorrow...in case. April 7 I know, have slacked of on the writing, but we have had rain, wind, snow, mud..etc, etc...basically, horrible for horsekeeping. The mares are doing well. The stalls are ready, the sun is out...all is good. I introduced Jewel to her full sister Gem. Jewel is 10 years, while Gem is 13. Gem was the first foal, so she stands 15'3 and Jewel stands 16'1. Their sire is Fryup Marvel and great gransire on the other side was Cholderton Yeoman, hence the 5/8 Cleveland. Both were bred by Penny dePeyar. Jewel was bought by Terri at 7 months and she has had her till now. I have to say she has done such a great job with Jewel. What a pleasure she is to handle. Below sisters...
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