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It’s a boy! Last summer we bred two of our mares to our stallion, Rocky Mountain Man. Our first foal is on the ground as of May 1!
Molley (Kilburn’s Sundown Molley) was ready to pop for several weeks before the little man was actually born, and we expected a foal sooner than we actually received one (isn’t that how it usually works?). Every night we told each other, “We could have a foal in the morning!” We did night checks; no foal. Finally I resigned myself to a long wait, so you can imagine my shock when I drove out the lane to work one morning (after skipping the foal checks that night) and saw four teensy little legs behind Molley! When I drove back down to the house with a grin on my face, it didn’t take my family long to catch on to what had happened.
We got our little colt. Our stallion, Rocky Mountain Man, is getting older, so we were hoping for a colt to perhaps become Rocky’s replacement some day. This is our first foal by Rocky, and he’s such a cutie! With a beautiful chocolate coat, a blaze, and two hind socks, he’s an eye-catcher for sure. He has bloodlines like none other: his father is a son of Sewell’s Sam (out of a Choco mare) and his mother is a daughter of Kilburn’s Chocolate Sundown (out of a Robinson’s Sundown Rocky mare). In the Rocky Mountain Horse world today, that’s as tight a pedigree as you’ll find anywhere.
Behind the name…
We had a minister ordination at our church the weekend before the foal was born (and were fully expecting him to be born sometime during that weekend, but he waited until the following Friday to show his face). At our church, we draw lots to let God determine who is ordained to help minister to the needs of the congregation. When pondering unique foal names, we came up with this one. The prefix “Halal’s” is of course taken from our farm name: Halal Mountain Horses. We haven’t decided on a barn name yet. We’re throwing around a few options, but with 6 people in the family, we have about 3 times that many names to choose from and haven’t been able to agree on one yet. Right now he goes by “Little Man” for the most part. He might become “Junior”, since he’s supposed to be Rocky, Jr.
The little guy did great the day he was born; he was even out gaiting and cantering around the pasture with his momma! However, when we got up Saturday morning, we found that he was weak. Worried, we called the vet, who came out and told us that he was a little dehydrated and had basically just fallen behind a little, something that can be dangerous in a foal so young (because he has no extra reserves to pull from). The vet gave the foal some fluids through an IV, gave us some antibiotics to administer to prevent any onset of infection, and told us to make sure he nursed every hour. We babysat for the rest of Saturday, and Katelyn and I even stayed home from church Sunday morning to check on him. We think we figured out what caused him to get behind in development: Molley was most likely kept stalled for her other deliveries, and she wasn’t used to being out in a pasture with her new baby. She moved around a lot, and Junior didn’t get to nurse or rest as much as he should’ve. We penned mom and baby up, the mare settled down, and the baby was able to get the nourishment he needed. The vet came out Monday and gave him a clean bill of health. He’s doing great now, and he’s very relaxed around people. We can hold him, hug him, rub on him, and he doesn’t mind.
We are eagerly anticipating our second foal, also by Rocky and out of Toby’s Destiny, a sweet Johnson’s Toby mare.
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Kathy says
Your horses and foals are so beautiful !!
We have a rancher near Salmon Arm, BC that also raises these beautiful horses and if I were younger I would have one!!
Dianne says
What does the word Halal come from?
Briana Thomas says
It’s a Hebrew word that means “Praise Jehovah” (where our word for “hallelujah” comes from). 🙂 Our farm name is “Halal Mountain Horses”.
Deborah Millington says
He is just lovely! What a blessing for your family.
Jan Johnson says
That is one tall foal! Glad he is doing well now. Beautiful to see!
Meribeth says
So beautiful!