He's Here!!!

"Bailey" finally arrived at 10:30 last night, a huge foal with incredibly long, spindly legs. It took him longer than usual to stand and nurse because he couldn't figure out how to get those long legs organized! But he's walking and nursing on his own now and both mama and baby are doing well. Bella is an excellent mother, cleaning, encouraging and helping her baby every step of the way - we are so proud of her! His full name is "Bailintin" - an Irish name meaning "valiant," which he has already proved himself to be! He has three white socks like his dad, a beautiful dish face exactly like his mama's, and already looks like his big brother, Paladin. We are so excited to have the first HGF baby, this gorgeous little Irish stud colt.

Jamie's sister Jenny took LOTS of pictures and video last night, and I'll be posting them as soon as she has them up. For now, the webcam is on and we are all getting some well-needed rest after a long, exciting night.

Delayed and Waiting

Well, we were supposed to be in Myrtle Beach this week. But we weren't. Instead, we were here in NY waiting for Jamie's mare Bella to have her first foal. She is now 2 1/2 weeks overdue and all of us are exhausted from the late nights of waiting for this baby and the many false alarms she has given us. Luke and Sadie crashed last Sat. afternoon on the couch after a late Friday night checking Bella's webcam every hour because she seemed to be going into labor:

(I was still up checking the camera!) Poor Bella is cranky and uncomfortable. Her bags are just about bursting with milk, and they keep getting bigger every day - a good sign for us, but not very comfy for her! We are hoping for a colt, and Eric says that 95% of the time when cows are late it's a bull, so we are keeping our fingers crossed. This will be a half-sibling to my horse, Paladin, and the last foal their daddy, Mountain Pearl, bred in the US before he was shipped back to Ireland last April. So we have one special baby coming, whenever it decides to get here! We have long lists of Irish names that we are considering - if you know of any good ones, please leave them as comments or email them to me!

After living out of our suitcases for almost a week, waiting for the baby to be born so we could leave, we decided to officially postpone our trip to Myrtle Beach so that we could unpack and go grocery shopping, since we had eaten all the good food in the house in preparation for leaving. We are now planning to be gone the last week in March, so we can visit everyone in Charlotte for Easter and hopefully have some nice warm weather at the beach. We can't wait to see what Sadie thinks of the ocean!