Something positive for our Passover holiday, celebrated in the early spring:
A bit over a month ago we had an unexpected surprise. A kind of surprise that none of us horse breeders are happy to have; in the middle of one of the coldest nights here this winter; one of our finest mares, the multi champion Lutfina AA (Nader Al Jamal x Latifah AA by Al Maraam) lay down and starting to foal. All seems to be in order. Just another mare giving birth...
The first foal came out, a tiny little filly. She seems alert but very, very small. Then the mare kept pushing and pushing, as hard as she could. We had no idea what was going on so it was actually a very scary moment. Shortly after, two other tiny legs came out and within a few moments, a second filly was on the ground. She was alive too but both fillies were very small and looked extremely fragile. About half the size of a normal foal. To our surprise, both girls were standing up and drinking after three hours.
Unfortunately, the mare didn't have enough milk and became extremely impatient with her fillies. It was even dangerous to keep them with her without any of us standing next to her stall. So after giving them plasma, we decided to start feeding them with a bottle and stayed next to them around the clock.
It was a long road but slowly the mare became more and more patient and started caring for her girls. You could actually see her improving every day that passes. She still didn't have enough milk but the fillies seemed to be very happy with the bottle and then the bucket feeding. They slowly started to put on weight.
Now it's been a bit over a month since the birth of these fillies. We are happy to share that they seem fine but still have a long way to go. Until now we didn't have the courage to name them, but it feels like now is the time. So, we are asking for your help to help us to find two good names that start with "L".
(In order to remove any doubt and before any negative comments will pop up; please note that Lutfina had only one follicle during the time of her breeding and only one (!) Corpus Luteum after ovulation. She had five pregnancy checks during her pregnancy!)
Photo by Bar Hajaj.
