Ugh… no more rides! :D

I just came back from riding Bella in the indoor today. Ugh… though I only hand walked her for two days and though it’s still pretty cold it was really tough work for ME to ride her! :D

So I decided there will be only one more ride in the indoor arena for her. It will be the 1st of January as it’s a German riding tradition to “jump into the New Year”. It’s supposed to bring luck. As jumping is of course not possible anymore, I will canter over a ground pole. I hope it counts too! ^^

And then there will aboslutely be no rides on the indoor anymore. Maybe just slow walk trail rides as long as the saddle still fits and longing and so on.

She has now exactly 105 days left until the foal is supposed to arrive. :) I think she will enjoy her last 3 lazy months. Afterwards she will be a busy mom. ^^

Last riding lesson before birth

Today I officially had my last riding lesson with her before birth. I think I’ll rather stop now when she’s still motivated than in a few weeks when she’ll not want to move at all anymore.

It was really really fun today. She was really relaxed in the back and just fun to ride! She even showed some nice newbie-traversales. :D I was really happy. We ended in a good mood and motivated, so I hope we’ll start like that again either after her foal-break.

I will still ride her until first week of january or so. But only very lightly 3 days a week. And then it will only be long walks, longing and trick lessons. ^^

Spanish walk, spanish walk!!

I’m amazed! I guess Bella wants to show me that I should stop riding her now, and only practice some tricks with her from now on. ;)

Today was the very first time she showed me a spanish walk! It was like the I-got-it-moment! Really cool. I will work on that and other tricks only soon. She is getting really big now and though she is still quiet motivated under saddle, I guess her saddle just won’t fit for too long anymore. And I don’t want her to feel uncomfortable under saddle…

I reduced riding to 3 times a week and only 30 minutes each time. That’s enough for her at the moment. ^^

We reached month 8!

On december the 10th Bella reached month #8! And today there are only 111 days left until birth! Wow! Time rushes, as always! :)

I’m back again

Ugh, there would have been a lot to post, but unfortunately we had a bad accident in the family so there were way more important things to do than writing some blog posts…:(  :(  right now everything looks way better and christmas-stress is almost gone either.

So I’ll do the posts I didn’t do weeks ago. ^^

In the middle of month 7…

… I want to give you a little update. Bella’s belly didn’t grow the last 2 weeks, or it least it didn’t deem to. She is full of energy and happy. I was so glad to see her happily bucking on the lunge line a few days ago.

I have got a little Zauberfürst update too. On wednesday friends of mine, sent me a text message: “what was the name of the Sire of your foal again?” As I texted back it was “Zauberfürst” they texted me that they had just seen him for the first time at a Southern German stud presentation and really really liked him a lot! :)

I googled this stud presentation and found a nice image slideshow. I love this picture especially:

Zauberfürst

What I like about especially is not only that he won a lot an is Vice-Bundeschampion and Trakehner champion, but that he seems to be so much FUN to ride! Look into the riders face. :)

7th month

Yesterday she came officially into month number 7!

How time rushes… right now you can already see a little baby belly. (see previous post) I still ride her and she does so well. Though I recognize her losing condition a bit. I think that’s mainly because she has got a very very thick winter coat already and right now it’s not that cold. But let’s see. If I observe her become uncomfortable when I ride her I will slow down a lot or even stop riding her at all. But I don’t see that coming too soon right now. Today she was fantastic in the dressage lesson. I did tons of walk breaks like i did in summer when it was really hot. So she didn’t get sweaty and didn’t lose her breath and easily showed off with very relaxed and nice gaits and a motivated attitude. I really enjoyed riding her!

I think I won’t be able to ride her like that for too long anymore. I know that the foal will grow a lot in the last 3 months so I definitely will not ride her anymore than. Maybe a tiny little bit of light riding if the saddle still fits and if she’s comfortable with it. So right now, I enjoy every minute of lightly working her, or just hanging around with her for the next 1 1/2 months. :)

Picture update

Yeah, after weeks and weeks without pics I finally managed to take the camera to the barn now. ^^ Bella will be in month 7 on Tuesday. Right now she is very content with the whole situation. I hope she will stay this way until birth. :)

2nd halftime!!!

Since yesterday my Bella has officially reached the second halftime of her pregnancy!! Wohooo, time to celebrate! :)

I would like to post some update pics of her now. She has become so furry and her belly really tells you there’s a foal inside now. But unfortunately my job doesn’t allow me to go to the barn before sunset and pics in the dark are not so good. Maybe next weekend. :)

I hope the second half time will work out just as good as the first one. And I hope birth will not be a problem. I’m already having birth-nightmares from time to time as I’ma  bit worried. I guess that’s normal.

She got her hoof shoes back

Weeee, my lady likes to come out of her box again!!! And she loves to buck on the lunge line a bit! I’m glad she’s not having hoof pain anymore. Ich will try again in February or so, when I won’t ride her anymore.

By the way: we’re now in months 6 of the pregnancy! :) Her belly looks sooooo fat, because of the foal and a bit of fat and because of her winter coat. This will be the firstw inter I won’t blanket her. –> Fuzz-alarm! :D

Completely off topic test

Hey guys…. my beloved Vista (no, I’m not kidding, I’d not want to replace this operating system, I love it!) has just updated. And now I got Windows Live writer… I want to see how it works. ^^

Haha, a really stupid test pic of my Bella just about to jawn. ^^

Well…seems to work! :) Nice!

The hoofs are down... :(

Wow bummer.... only 2 weeks since my farrier took the hoof shoes away and now her hoofes are run down so much that she is already really ouchy... :(
She can only hardly walk on hard surfaces. On smooth surfaces it's way better but in trot she's very very ouchy, one could even say lame. :/

My farrier and I didn't expect this. She made great progress last week. I swear, I even got the feeling she was really enjoying her time without hoof shoes! She was very willing to go forward last week, didn't really have problems on hard surfaces and was as relaxed in the back and in her mouth as she has maybe never been in her whole life!!

And this week she began to get more ouchy every day. :( My farrier already checked her. He said it wouldn't be ulcers, but the hoofes looked really run down. We wait until wednesday, just to make sure it's really not ulcers. Then he'll test her again for ulcers and if it's not that, she'll get her hoof shoes back.

Let's try again in spring when I really don't ride her at all anymore. Maybe I was doing too much with her the last 2 weeks because it looked and felt so good first. :(

The hoof shoes are gone

My farrier adviced to get rid of her hoof shoes before the planned birthday of the foal. He said mares are less sensitive and careful of they still have their hoof shoes on and might step on the foal.

We decided to take the hoof shoes on the hind legs away now, in autumn and to take the front shoes away in February or so, when I won't ride her anymore anyway.

Since this Wednesday the hoof shoes on her hind legs are gone.

Right now she gets along with it quiet ok. She moves almost normal on grass and in the indoor. Her stride is very normal and she's relaxed in the back. She is only a bit slow and walks more carefully. Outside on little stones or streets she is very every slow and careful, she's having a few problems there.
I hope she will get used to it soon. Right now her frog is not hard enough. I hope it hardens out soon and I also hope the hooves won't get too damaged because of the nail holes she still has got in her hooves.

Let's see. I'll only rarely walk her on stones or streets and mainly go into the indoor now. And I'll buy some hoof hardener to help her. Maybe I'll take pictures of her hoofes soon to have a documentation of her barehhoof progress she'll hopefully have.

I saw Zauberfuerst last weekend

Hey everybody. :)

Last weekend I was at the stud which owns Zauberfuerst, the stallion my Bella is pregnant from. They had a stud presentation and of course I took many pics of "my" stallion. :)

Enjoy!

PS: Bella is in month 5 of her pregnancy now. :)

Update pics and a vid

How does a mare who has been pregnant for almost 4 months look like? The answer is: bigger than you expect! *lol*


Honestly, she just eats too much grass and the weather was too hot to work her the last weeks. So she has a grass belly in which she hides her baby belly.... well... as long as she doesn't get bigger or so... ^^

And here's my little trail ride video. :)
She was so calm and self confident. ^^

Day 99 - Still pregnant wooooooh!! :)

Day 99 - the critical days are now officially over!!!

Wow, just wow!!!

The vet did an ultrasonic check today and she's still pregnant! That means the critical days are now over, she will not resorb anymore from now on! :) I could even see where "my" babies head was. ^^
I'm so glad how everything's going so well for her! *knock on wood* She seems to be born to be pregnant. :D I hope birth will be as easy as pregancy for her and the baby. :)

The vet did vaccinations and tooth floating too. He used a mild sedation for making her teeth. He said that's ok in pregnancy. She was very calm during the floating process and seems to have gotten over sedation very well either.

The only bad thing right now: she's getting fat! And the size of the embryo diesn't quiet fit to the size of her belly. *lol* I'm doing a lot of things to avoid her getting too fat but she doesn't make it easy for me... she just eats more than she did before and is hart to motivate during riding...

Day 95 - I'm way too excited

Oh dear.... 5 days left until the vet comes again to make an ultrasonic check... and more than 200 days left until my foal finally arrives...

Well... I always need to find myself something to keep me busy at the barn. Cleaing hooves, using hoof polish, cutting tail and mane, thinning out pastern hair, grooming and scratching the whole horse, letting the horse roll, groom the horse again, clean the tack... *lol*
At least my horse and my stuff has never been THAT clean before.

A good example, my jumping saddle... let's just say I don't jump very often! :D

before














after

Stallion behaviour = colt???

OMG! Today my oh so cute and nice mare has turned into a stallion!!! O.o

The mare in the box next to her is in heat and as soon as I got Bella out of the box she behaved like a stallion ready to mount a mare in heat!! She curled her neck, made stallion noises, humming noises and high whinnies. She was very hard to get away from that box again with only a halter on and she almost slipped...

Luckily she turned into my nice little mare again as soon as I got her away from that other mare. She behaved like an angel... well, until I got her near the other mare again as I leaded her into her box again... veeeeery strange!

My barn owners said that if a pregnant mare behaves very stallion like, it's much likely she will get a colt. What's that theory about? Any experiences?

My pregnant lady

I think she enjoys being pregnant! :D

No, honestly, the hormones seem to make her really calm and confident. I guess she's also happy that she doesn't get in heat anymore. She was always kind of depressed every time she was in heat.



I still ride her a bit, so that she keeps her muscles, stays fit and doesn't get too fat. (she need space for the baby in her belly, not only for fat) :D

Zauberfürst has qualified for the Bundeschampionat again!!

Jupeee, I love it! The stud Bella is pregnant from has qualified again for the German Bundeschampionate! This is the most important show for studs and other horses in Germany, it's like a German Championship.
When he was 3 years old, he got German Vize Bundeschampion, when he was 4 years old he got a reserve place there. I'm excited to see him perform this year!


I noticed that I made one of the best decicions in my life in trusting the stud Schwaiganger in Bavaria to give me great advice which stallion to choose. AND they actually have the best stallions ins Southern Germany. Three barn buddies of "my" Zauberfuerst have qualified for the Bundeschampionate, too, and one was even better than Zauberfuerst. His name is Chat qui Rit de L, and he has qualified with teh record score of 9,2!! (he was on my stallion list, too, but his back was a bit too long for Bella)

Source: eurodressage.com

Regumate?

My vet asked me wether I wanted to use it or not. He told me the risks of absorbing the foal might be lower if I used it.

I thought about it a lot and did some recherche in the internet. When I read that most mares don't need it, that it's expensive and that one has to give it every day at exactly the same time I wasn't so sure about wanting to use it anymore.

And then I remembered the "rules" I told myself before I let my 16 old mare, who never had a foal before, cover. I wanted to keep it as natural as possible so that if it wasn't meant to be for my old lady anymore, I would just let it go. I didn't want to try everything, medicines, hormones and so on, just to get her pregnant in any case. I wanted to see it as a "sign", that she's already too old for a foal if she hadn't become pregnant without hormones or so.
And I want to see it like this now, too. If she absorbes, which would be very very very sad, I would see it as a sign that it was maybe better like this.

But of course I hope she keeps her tiny little foal! The whole family is so excited! :)

Still pregnant!

Day 33

Wohooo!! I was soooo afraid she might have absorbed her foal when she came in heat a few weeks ago, but the vet checked her now and she's still pregnant!

I could already see the umbilical cord of my future foal! :)

Official message: day 33, still pregnant!

I hope she stays like this, she seems to be very confident with her pregnancy so far! :D

In heat???!!!!

Oh sh**..... she's in heat. Just in a very mild way but anyway... it's making me nervous... :/

I already called the vet and he said that it was not very unusual for a pregnant mare to get in heat though. I hope he's right and cross my fingers all the time....

She's pregnant!!

Day 18

The vet did the ultrasound check today! She's pregnant!!! I'm soooo glad!!!

No bad for a 16 year old mare, who never had a foal before.... getting pregnant at the first try! :)

I'm soooo much hoping she will also stay pregnant!

I got her back!!

And I hope she's pregnant now. :)

Here she is, in her guest box at the stud:

I'm sure she really like it there! :)

And surprise, I got to see "my" stud in an every day training session too, very exciting:

I even took a vid of him:

They did the AI yesterday!

:)

Oh great! I called the guy from the stud yesterday and he told me she came in heat a bit late, on tuesday. But he also told me he just did the artificial insemination yesterday and wants to do it again today to be sure.

I guess I can pick her up again on saturday! :) I'm so much looking forward to get my girl back! And I hope it worked. :)

I miss her

*sigh* She's been at the stud for 7 days now and I really miss her. :/

I hope they call me soon and tell me everything went well and I can come and bring her home. :)

She's in the stud now

Yeah, Bella is in the stud now! She was really calm all the way to the stud. She has never been trailered 3 hours before, but she did really well.
When we arrived at the stud, she just unloaded from the trailer, let me lead her into her new box and began to eat. She wasn't worried at all. She seemed to say: "Ok Ma, I got food here. You can go now!" :D

I'm glad she's taking everything so easily.

I'm awaiting the stud's call. They said they called me when they had finished the artificial insemination. Then I'll pick her up again! :)
I'm not missing her so much yet and I know she will be handled in a great way. But I think on tuesday will be the day I want her back so badly! ^^ I hope they will have finished everything then. ;)

Tomorrow

.... will be the day I'll drive her to the stud! Wohoo! :)

She's not in heat yet, but I wanted to bring her there just in time. :)

Vid of the stud

Here you can see vids of the stud I chose. :)

Vid of Zauberfuerst

Vid of his Sire Interconti

Vid of his Dam's Sire Caprimond

I'm sooo excited!!

A little math exercice ^^

As I already posted somewhere below, my Bella is a Bavarian warmblood. This breed has got an open studbook and is open to any licenced European warmblood breed and some Thoroughbreds. They only must be licenced (keured) and also accepted by the Bavarian warmblood comitee.

So my Bella is a registered Bavarian warmblood broodmare but when you look at her pedigree she's in fact:
50% Anglo-Norman
25% Hannoverian
~25% Trakehner

Pedigree Bellarina


The stud I chose, Zauberfuerst, is
100% Trakehner

Pedigree Zauberfuerst

So when everything works well my awaited foal will be "made of" these breeds: ^^
65% Trakehner
25% Anglo-Norman
~13% Hannoverian

.... math is fun when one waits for her mare to get in heat! :D

One week left

Today's only about one week left until I'll drive her to the stud or to my vet's clinic. My vet said her next in heat phase will be around april the 30th.

Until then there are a few more things for me to do:

1.) let the farrier come (it's about 7 weeks ago when he did her hooves the last time and I don't want to make a "messy" impression at the stud...

2.) ask the vet again wether the little amount of harmles bacteria might influence her fertility and wether he wants to clean her one more time before

3.) change her status from "allowed for slaughter" to "NOT allowed for slaughter" in her euqine passport. Though it wouldn't matter as I never want to bring her to slaughter or sell her, it matters when it comes to medical treatment. Horses who might be slaughtered are not allowed to get heavy medicine, which would make the meat unhealthy for humans. And I don't want to risk her not getting the medicine she needs when she's a few hundred kilometres away from me at the stud in case of an emergency.

Until I wait...

... for her to be in heat again, I could post a vid, so that it doesn't get boring... ;)

This is the way I always load her since 2 years or so, isn't she handy? ^^

Too late...

The vet came today... of course now it's too late. She's not in heat anymore. I have to wait 18 more days for the very first try... ugh.... :( :( :(

The only positive thing today was the great weather and the fact that she's behaving absolutely perfectly now for any gynecological examination. She's not even pinning ears. My vet was right, she got used to it. :)

She's in HEAT!!

OMG!! Could she have a timing which is worse? I don't think so...
Nobody works here in Germany on Easter sunday or Easter monday... so I phoned my vet today and asked him wether he would maybe have a look at her on monday and check wether her ovums are ready or not. I'll have to pay a huge holiday extra fee than but well... I think I can't wait until tuesday. And my vet won't be happy to work on a holiday neither...

The guy I phoned at the stud today told me they would "produce" semen on monday, but I had to pick it up myself, they won't sent it. Great, a huge vet bill and I'll propably have to drive for 5 hours just to get the semen.

This should better work out! :D :P

Bella's last show today!

Today was Bella's very last show I think. I will not manage to show her again before I'll let her cover and I will not show her when she's pregnant. Of course I will still ride her, but showing seems to be a little bit too more stress for a pregnant lady.... I want to reduce stress as much as possible then.


And when she will have had a foal and is 18 or so, I don't want to start showing again... I only want her and me to have fun and a relaxed life then. ;)


Today at our last show we were really bad because she was too excited. She's always very excited at her first show of the season so I expected that and I'm not dissapointed. We had a lot of fun in spite of that. We even met a very nice couple who told me they owned a half sister of my Bella and they just loved her. Especially her character and her looks must have been fantastic! My Bella reminded them a lot of her! They looked at my Bella and said: "It's sad we could not have a foal of our wonderful mare before she had to be put down.... could we buy your mare as a broodmare?"
Of course they didn't mean this seriously, because they knew I would never sell her. But we exchanged numbers and I promised them to tell them when she had her foal so that they could come and see it. :)


It was a funny day! :)

Not completely negative... again!

My vet phoned me 3 days ago.... he told me the laboratory had told him that Bella is not 100% bacteria free yet.... :(
He had cleaned her uterus with a mild desinfection lotion for 2 times now. She is already getting used to it, wohoooo!! :) But still, there's a tiny amount of bacteria left.

He told me if I would wish to let her cover naturally, he would not be sure to allow her for this kind of breeding or not. As I will use artificial insemination there's of course no rule about how bacteria free the mare has to be as she can't make the stallion sick.
But my vet wonders wether the few bacteria she has now might maybe decrease her fertility a little bit.

He wanted to clean her uterus again when she's in heat the next time. As I said: "oh, and I was already hoping that she could be bred when she's in heat the next time....", he thought about it a few seconds and then said: "Well, let's give it a try. I think she's bacteria free enough that it won't affect her fertility too much."

So she will be bred to in 2 weeks or so, wohoooo! I mean even with this few bacteria, the only bad thing which might happen is that she won't get pregnant with that try. If that's the case, I'll let the vet clean her again an we'll have another try next month.

Found my stallion!

In order to make it a bit easier for my purse I decided not to chose Imperio. But I found another one at the same stud who is like the more "cuddly" version of Imperio. He's another Trakehner and his name is Zauberfürst. :)

He was given premium status at his keuring (licencing). Now he's 5 years old and he was rideability champion at his 30 day test. When he was 3 years, he also was Vize-Bundeschampion.

At the stud, I was allowed to just go into his box and have a look at him, pet him and so on. He was very curious and very very very well behaving and cute. He has got a face to die for, honestly. :) I fell in love with him from the first minute on!

As the Sire and Dam's Sires of my Bellarina's pedigree come from this stud, they could give me brilliant advice concerning what foals out of mares with a similar pedigree looked like. They told me I really need to choose a stud with a short back as Bellarina's Dam's Sire was a really heavy and long backed guy. So Zauberfürst was one of the finalists in my favorite-stud-list. At the end my intuition sais it had to be him and the boss of the stud said he was sure I wouldn't make a mistake with Zauberfürst at all. :)

Can't wait until she's in heat the next time! :D

I will visit the stud next Friday!

Wooooow! Yesterday I called the stud and there was a very knowledgable breeder giving me advice about my choice concerning the stallion. He was very very nice and realy tried to help.

He said that my decicion to take Imperio was a really good one but he said as he wanted to be perfectly honest to me, that it was probably not a good idea to use a very expensive and highly frequented stud for a mare who is already 16 years old and never had a foal before. Nobody knows wether it's still easy to get her pregnant or not.
So he talked to me about a few other stallions the stud has got. Than he asked me wether I wanted to come and let him present every stud for me next week. He said I could also bring pictures of my mare so that he has got a better idea of what I'm talking about. Then he will show me the studs, give me some extra advice and he will also show me some foals of these studs!

WOOOOW!! I'm so flabbergasted that he spents so much time just to give me advice! I'm really looking forward to visiting the stud next week. Then I'll make my final stallion-decicion, I'm very excited! :)

Not competely negative...

.... which is not good in this case. Bellarina's bacteria test in her uterus wasn't 100% negative so the vet needs to "wash it out" in a way with a mild desinfection lotion for 3 times or so.

He said that these bacteria are probably absolutely harmless but would decrease her fertility. So we need to make sure they go away...

Bella hates all these gynecological examinations, she really does. But she hasn't tried to kick my vet yet, good girl! My vet said she will get used to it. Well, she has to. ;)

Vet check :)

Today the vet checked her wether her uterus and so on looks good and he also sent a probe to a labratorie so that they can see wether she has got bacteria in her uterus or not. If they test her negative we can start when she's in heat the next time, wohooo!

I'll make up the contract with the stud now. :)

I got the breeding papers

Yahoooo!!

I got her breeding papers this week! ^^
In the breeding papers the stud owner has to sign that he has sent semen of his stud to you. It's kind of a contract and VERY important when you want to register the foal, because it proofs the pedigree.

I'm so excited!! :)

My favorite stud until now

I just love Imperio! :)

He's a 6 year old Trakehner stud and is already very successful:

Imperio is

- reserve champion of the keuring in 2005

- Trakehner champion in 2007

- 4th place in the German Bundeschampionate in 2007

- reserve World Champion of the young dressage horses in 2008

- German Bundeschampion in 2008

He scored a 10 for his trot!

And even more important: he's very very calm and I'ms ure he would fit my Bella. :)

The only thing that speaks against him right now is that they doubled his stud fee in 2009 :(

Here is the link to his site. (sorry, just in German)

Her tendon healed!!

Wohooo, I'm allowed to lightly work her again, the vet said her tendon looks very good now. It's not 100% healed but 99% and he said that it's good enough to work her a bit again.

Working a little bit seems to be very very good for her happines. She has always been a very very good girl the time she was only allowed to be walked, but now she seems to be happier.

When I tried to canter her the first time under saddle she completely refused to canter, pushed all four feet into the ground and bucked. My barn owners adviced me to let her canter at the lunge before I'd try it under saddle again. The first time I lunged her she bucked a lot and was very happy to canter, the second time she almost did nothing anymore. Then I tried it under saddle again and she was suuuuuuuuch a good girl, didn't buck at all.

We guess that it was kind of girth pressure she got when I tried to canter for the first time under saddle as I tightened the girth a little bit more that day...
My Bella is a very sensitive horse and maybe a little diva, too. But on the other hand I would trust this horse my life, she's so reasonable and nice. :)