I have a new boy in the herd!

Finally!

My mare, Calypso, a Rocky Mountain Gaited Horse, was a week overdue from the latest possible date I calculated. The best I can calculate, she held the foal for 353 days! Normal gestation is 330-345 days. I was getting pretty concerned! My new boy was born early Saturday morning, April 4, 2020.

I had been going out and checking on her every few hours, because I wanted to be there for the birth. I wanted to be able to do some imprinting training with the foal during that critical two hours right after birth. On Friday night I was exhausted and slept like a rock.

I got a call about 7:30 Saturday morning from the landowner from whom I rent pasture, letting me know I had a new foal. Dangit! I missed it! I arrived about 8am. We think the foal was probably born a little before daybreak. He was already standing when I got there. The three geldings with her in the pasture where curious and wanting to get to know the new arrival, which was causing Calypso to get agitated and protective, so I pulled her out of the pasture and carried the foal to her.

Well, I missed that critical imprinting period, but I was able to spend a lot if time in close contact with him. I spent most of the day caressing, holding, and touching him all over. Now, two days later, he’s a little wary of people and he prefers his mother, which is the way it should be, but he’s friendly and unafraid of people.

When Chief was born I had the help of a couple other people, who handled him before I was able to get there a couple hours later. The imprinting done with him has made a marked difference in the way he relates to people and to me in particular. I wanted that for this new boy as well, but missed the opportunity. Still, I think the time I was able to spend with him has had some effect. He will not leave his mother to come to me, the way Chief would do, but he is not afraid.

Last month, my mother told me she had a name for my foal if it turned out to be a colt. She suggested “Trooper” and I liked it. So, the new boy’s name is Trooper. He is half Missouri Fox Trotter (Chief is his sire) and half Rocky Mountain Gaited Horse, so he should be a well-gaited horse.

The pregnancy was accidental, as she was placed in the same corral as Chief and several other horses when Chief was just getting old enough not to be “shooting blanks” at 18 months. When I realized she was coming into season, I immediately separated them, but when I went out to feed the following morning, Chief had completely destroyed the gate between their corrals and they were standing together in her corral looking very satisfied and content. Chief is now a gelding. I look forward to watching Trooper grow and I’m hoping he’ll get to 15 hands. We’ll see.

I had thought Calypso had had foals before, but it didn’t take long to recognize that she was having a hard time figuring out what to do. It is apparent to me now that she was a maiden mare, and at age 15, many of her maternal instincts were vague to her. Initially, she would not allow Trooper to nurse, wanting to keep him directly in front of her. When Trooper would move back to try to nurse, she would move her hindquarters away from him to keep him right in front of her. It took some work to get her to stand still and allow him to nurse. I used treats as a training aid, giving her a treat as soon as the foal began trying to latch onto a teat. That worked well and within a few hours she was standing to let him nurse as long as I was holding her head, but she would not stand still for very long and would start to fidget and lift her leg to get Trooper off the teat. It was obvious Trooper wasn’t getting enough milk, although he was able to get the full load of that all-important colostrum.

Trooper was beginning to weaken and was having a hard time standing by the time we were finally able to get Calypso to stand long enough for him to nurse well. By late afternoon, however, she was beginning to relax. By Saturday evening she was allowing Trooper to nurse without me holding her and his strength and appetite had improved. He began nursing every 15-20 minutes.

Once I saw that Trooper was gaining strength and his appetite was strong, I felt comfortable reintroducing Calypso to the other horses. I pulled the dominant gelding out and put her and Trooper in with Chief and Chocolate. They were curious, but respected Calypso’s defensive posture and they caused no problem. I then brought Bandit back into the pasture. Chocolate immediately took up a protective stallion-like posture between Calypso and Bandit, like he was protecting Calypso and Trooper from an invading Stallion. However, they all returned to normal without any fighting or problems. I was confident that everything would be fine by the time I left them that evening.

When I checked on him early Sunday morning, Trooper was feeling good and starting to test out his long legs. I shot this short video of him:

Sunday afternoon I got a call from the landowner, telling me that somehow Trooper had gotten through the three-rail fence and couldn’t get back into the pasture and Calypso was going crazy! I got there in short order and carried Trooper back around and put him back in the pasture and all was well. I doubt Calypso will let him get near the fence line again!

So, I have a new boy in my herd. He’s almost an exact copy of his mother, all black with a white star on his forehead. He is showing some silver highlights in his coat, but I think that’s just his new foal fur and that once he sheds it off he’ll be black. I hope I’m wrong and he keeps that silver-black smoke-like color. We’ll see.