Still With Us

 Yesterday was a day of absolutely wonderful news 💜

don't judge my scanner pictures, I have no idea what I'm even looking at right now

At Standerton Show in September 2019, Arwen and I competed against the absolutely divine Wilgerus Dakota and his rider. Dakota had many in-hand and ridden championships under his belt at that point, and so did the dragonbeast; it was a pretty neck-in-neck competition. He was impeccably behaved and inexpressibly beautiful, and as always, I had to admire his classiness and his wonderful, elastic movement - a rare characteristic in the older type of Nooitgedachter. Even though he's only about 14.3hh, he moves like a dressage horse.

Arwen put in a really great test that day, however, and she ended up being the champion - with Dakota as a very close reserve. His owner suggested that perhaps we needed to bring these two champions together. Dakota was very much on board with this suggestion right at that very moment, being reined in only by his impeccable manners. I wanted one more competitive season for Arwen (which turned out to be the 2020 season, lol whoops), and so we made arrangements for Arwen to meet her handsome beau in the 2020/21 season.

In mid-January 2021, after an unbelievable hassle because her royal dragonness simply WOULD NOT show her heats to the mini teaser stallion and also wanted to absolutely murder the real stallion, I finally caved and gave her some Lutalyse to bring her onto heat. Arwen has never had irregular cycles, but she's an undemonstrative mare (surprisingly), and she was not even remotely enamoured with poor little Sputnik despite his best efforts to romance her. I even teased her with one of the bossier geldings - the only one who could elicit a response from Faith - and she ignored him flatly. As for Dakota himself, who was already on the farm to cover Faith and René, her only response to him was flat-out aggression. Teasing with him proved to be as difficult as it was dangerous, not because of the angelic stallion but because of my psycho dragon mare who just wasn't having it. She wanted to jump on her hindlegs and fight him like another stallion.

Don't let the cute-kid-pony look fool you. She crazy

The Lutalyse worked great. I gave her a little flunixin with it to mitigate any side effects, and she was a little sweaty for an hour or so afterwards, but otherwise fine. Three days later, she came into absolutely roaring heat. She stood in the corner of her field positively screaming for the stallion.

OK, then. I took her over to his field, she pushed me out of the way and presented herself with gusto. From that moment on, she was as sweet as pie with him. His owners have stabled him at my place for the whole summer to avoid moving him during the AHS season, and she's been his faithful little wife and companion ever since. We get it, girl. Hormones gonna hormone.

totally in love

The great thing about being able to do live covers in the field, as opposed to AI or covering in hand, is the fertility rate. Nothing beats natural covers out in the field. All three my mares conceived immediately, and were confirmed in foal by scan shortly thereafter. I tried to get a picture of tiny BabyDragon, a mere speck floating around on the screen, but of course Arwen decided that she was done standing still right at that moment.

The first three months of her pregnancy went without a hitch. She was friends with Dakota, who respected her sassy personality and quick hind hooves, and I was coming up with names for BabyDragon. Then, I had five biliaries at my yard in six days, after a very quiet season. We have awful biliary (piroplasmosis) in our region and normally it's pretty easy to handle, but when Arwen's temperature was up at evening check in mid-April, I was horrified. Not only does high fever cause abortion in mares - and at 89 days, Arwen was still in the most fragile part of her pregnancy - but none of the drugs we have for treating biliary have been researched in pregnant mares.

We didn't have a choice, of course. Working with my vet, I treated her as conservatively as I could, which proved to be nearly impossible. Arwen's fever was uncontrollable except with NSAIDs, and as soon as they wore off, it would spike massively again: 40.0, 40.5, 41. Biliary normally has a biphasic fever that gives us a little breathing room every 12 hours or so, but hers just stayed jammed through the roof except under the influence of the same drugs that were also a risk to BabyDragon.

On the third day, my vet and I had both had enough. Longsuffering Non-Horsy Man and I loaded her into the horsebox (transport stress being yet another risk for abortion or resorption of BabyDragon) and drove her an hour and a half north to the veterinary hospital.

When she stepped out of the horsebox, Arwen was already feeling better. Her fever had come down without intervention this time, but the vets were still quite concerned about her. They asked to keep her overnight and run a set of bloods, which I was entirely on board with. Anything the dragon needs, it gets - and I wanted to give BabyDragon a fighting chance. Even though the stress of overnighting in hospital was yet another risk to BabyDragon, it was better than being stuck at home without the top supportive care that Arwen could receive in hospital if she took a turn for the worse. I went home without my dragon and did the last thing I could: I prayed. My dear friends, online and in person, rallied around Arwen, her baby, and I.

The next morning, the news was very good. Arwen had been dehydrated, but she'd quickly remedied that by, you know, DRINKING WATER like a NORMAL HORSE and not requiring ENDLESS IV FLUIDS (looking at you, Magic). Her blood smear showed that the biliary parasites were gone and she was responding great to treatment. By the evening, the vets were happy to send her home. She had made a great recovery, but they cautioned me that between the fever, the stress and the medications, she had a 50/50 chance of aborting or resorbing BabyDragon.

Three very long weeks followed as I waited. The effects of it all could take a few weeks to affect BabyDragon, and I wanted to be sure that we were out of the danger period before I had her scanned. Finally, yesterday, my lovely repro vet came out and gave me the best news ever.

Blogosphere, meet BabyDragon... or possibly just some of BabyDragon's amniotic fluid, tbh I still don't know what I'm looking at, but the vet says there's a foal in there!

Despite it all, by amazing grace, Arwen held on to her foal. She is completely fine and in great shape, and BabyDragon looks just fine on the scan. And this time I had the good sense to have the groom feed Arwen copious amounts of treats so that I could get my first pictures of BabyDragon!

Arwen is a very civilised mare to foal down - she waxes 48 hours in advance, unlike Skye, who NEVER WAXED, WHY?? - and she usually goes for 345 days. If she does the same with this one, she'll be due on Christmas Eve. We're getting a baby dragon for Christmas!

I am really, really excited to meet BabyDragon. Not just because, you know, BEBE HORSE, but because this is the result of a breeding that I'm really confident in. Dakota is not a big stallion but he's very correct and has attributes that will improve on Arwen: his perfect shoulder angle, athleticism, and wonderful elasticity. Arwen brings her stronger neck and bigger bone to the table. They both have absolutely perfect feet and legs. If we win the gamble that breeding always is, this should turn out to be a very correct hony in the region of 14.3-15 hands, with good legs, a good brain, and elastic movement.

Either way, I'm so happy and grateful after all the drama that Arwen and BabyDragon are both super healthy and well. The great vets of Heidelberg Animal Hospital and Witbos Animal Clinic went to such great lengths to make sure my girl would be OK, and I so appreciate that, as well as all the love and prayers from everyone.

Most of all, I stand awed once again by the wonderful way in which God loves. He breathes galaxies into life, controls storms, bids the waves of the sea - He is so mighty, shown in Psalm 104 below. But the God Who builds mountains and placed the sun in the sky is the same God Who hears our prayers about tiny things, things as small as an unborn horse.

If Arwen had lost BabyDragon, God would still be good, but today, I'm grateful to praise Him for this very good news!

Bonus pic: a Friesian fetus, Nita (Tsjerk 328) x Kalvin fan Stal Bellefleur. Nita is quite a bit further along than Arwen and we could see her baba very clearly! Apparently this is the little one's head. You can kind of make out the eye socket.

Psalm 104

1 Praise the Lord, my soul.

Lord my God, you are very great;
    you are clothed with splendor and majesty.

2 The Lord wraps himself in light as with a garment;
    he stretches out the heavens like a tent
3     and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
    and rides on the wings of the wind.
4 He makes winds his messengers,[a]
    flames of fire his servants.

5 He set the earth on its foundations;
    it can never be moved.
6 You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
7 But at your rebuke the waters fled,
    at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
8 they flowed over the mountains,
    they went down into the valleys,
    to the place you assigned for them.
9 You set a boundary they cannot cross;
    never again will they cover the earth.

10 He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
    it flows between the mountains.
11 They give water to all the beasts of the field;
    the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
12 The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
    they sing among the branches.
13 He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
    the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
14 He makes grass grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to cultivate—
    bringing forth food from the earth:
15 wine that gladdens human hearts,
    oil to make their faces shine,
    and bread that sustains their hearts.
16 The trees of the Lord are well watered,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
17 There the birds make their nests;
    the stork has its home in the junipers.
18 The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
    the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.

19 He made the moon to mark the seasons,
    and the sun knows when to go down.
20 You bring darkness, it becomes night,
    and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
21 The lions roar for their prey
    and seek their food from God.
22 The sun rises, and they steal away;
    they return and lie down in their dens.
23 Then people go out to their work,
    to their labor until evening.

24 How many are your works, Lord!
    In wisdom you made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
25 There is the sea, vast and spacious,
    teeming with creatures beyond number—
    living things both large and small.
26 There the ships go to and fro,
    and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.

27 All creatures look to you
    to give them their food at the proper time.
28 When you give it to them,
    they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
    they are satisfied with good things.
29 When you hide your face,
    they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
    they die and return to the dust.
30 When you send your Spirit,
    they are created,
    and you renew the face of the ground.

31 May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works—
32 he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains, and they smoke.

33 I will sing to the Lord all my life;
    I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
34 May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    as I rejoice in the Lord.
35 But may sinners vanish from the earth
    and the wicked be no more.

Praise the Lord, my soul.

Praise the Lord.[b]