Protective Mom

Wow did I get a lesson in how protective a mom can be!

On Wednesday when I went to feed the morning grain to the girls, I noticed Shelby was shivering. We have been watching her closely because she's the smallest and because her mom is outside a lot and Shelby tends to stay with her mom outside. We had snow on the ground but there had been some rain first. She had gotten wet, then the water froze and she was cold. I was alone at the barn but decided I needed to get a cria coat on her ASAP. I grab the cria coat and then I grab Shelby. Well, she's a strong little thing and it took some struggling to get the coat on her. In the end she had cushed and I was on the ground almost sitting on top of her. Mom, Victoria, did not like this one bit. As Shelby squirmed she cried and Victoria came to her side. When I had Shelby on the ground Victoria was behind me spitting at me and ready to step on me! I have never seen her so protective. I was sort of glad to see it because she's seemed like a very easy going mom, I wondered what she would do if her baby was in danger. She showed me.

This whole incident got Tucker all excited. Seems he likes a girl that is feisty. Later on that day we spit tested the girls with Tucker. Sancha spit at him before he even got through the gate. Kateri was spitting next. Victoria ran more than spit, but when she is open she is a flirt so this confirmed all three of them pregnant via spit testing (a female will spit off a male if they are pregnant, though this isn't 100% accurate by any means, it has some validity). Sommerfield was much harder to read. This is her first year being bred so she might not even know herself if she's pregnant. She sniffed at the males and flipped up her tail (signs of being open). Being that she's never been pregnant though, it's really hard to know. What was more telling to us is that Tucker chased her and tried to mount her, as if he could smell that she was open. We'll see. I think we will have her u/s this spring to see if we need to rebred her or not.