Ten days until the Kentucky Derby. You’d expect me to be writing with excitement about our boy Goldencents having a Derby Horse from his very first crop, right? Nope!

We had five mares left to foal when this past week started. Born To Be Winner and Get Back Anne were both overdue (since the 8th) and Born To Be Winner is a maiden, which always makes me a little nervous. Maidens are mares having their first baby. You never quite know how they are going to react to the foaling and mothering thing. (Get Back Anne has already had a foal and was a good momma.)

Hit the Limit’s due date was the 13th and Ivanka’s due date was the 15th… so that’s four of the five.  Orientatious was just hanging out since she isn’t due til May 6.

During the waiting game, my morning starts with our guests asking, “Any new babies last night?” and my answer was the same, “No, none of the girls are even acting like they’re close to delivering.”

As most of you know, there are signs to watch for and we weren’t seeing any.  One of the first signs is the mare will produce milk, so you’ll see their bag start to swell.  Well, nobody had a bag on Sunday, on Monday, on Tuesday.  So we were surprised when Born To Be Winner gave birth to a Jimmy Creed colt at about 4:45 AM on Wednesday the 17th.

With no bag – meaning she was not producing any milk – we had to feed the little guy one of our bottles of colostrum that we keep on hand in case this does happen.  He took his bottle like a pro.  His momma did lick him a little – which usually starts the bonding process, but she was not showing much interest in being a Mom.  Chuck had started her on a medicine that helps stimulate milk production, but still she was not producing any milk.  Soooo we continued to feed the baby via bottle every two hours.

Born To Be Winner ’19 getting his bottle.

Wednesday evening, after checking in one of our guests who was returning for their third visit, I enlisted her help with the next feeding.  As you can see from the video, Click HERE the colt was loving the attention he was receiving!!!!  I hope you’ll click through and see it, as I do think it’s pretty darn adorable!  I also like how the cats were kind of photo bombing in the hallway of the barn…

By Friday, it was apparent that Born To Be Winner was not going to accept her role as a momma, so the owner had us start looking for a nursemare.  Once we found one, we arranged for the vets at Hagyard to introduce the two.

Normally when you van a baby to the clinic, you have mare and foal, but since the mare was having nothing to do with the foal, we had already separated them.  Chuck gave the baby boy a bottle right before they left the farm, lifted the baby into the back of his Escalade with Arnie to keep him company, and off they went!

Born To Be Winner ’19 in the back of the Escalade.

When Chuck got to the clinic, and told them he had Born To Be Winner ’19 to meet his new momma, they were surprised because they hadn’t seen a trailer pull up.  They were even more surprised when Chuck said that no, he brought the colt in his Cadillac Escalade.  There were several vets and techs at Medicine who came out to see that sight.

As you can see, our little guy quite liked his transportation.  He has a distinctive C shaped blaze that has prompted a nickname of Caddy.  [Big smile]  A few folks have asked if Mingo is going to have to share the Escalade, but no…  Born To Be Winner ’19 (aka Caddy) is back at the farm with his nursemare Janice.

Caddy and his new momma, Janice, back at the farm!

And the other girls are still waiting us out.

The day after Caddy’s adventure (and new Mom!), we were unfortunately reminded of the full circle of life on the farm when we lost one of our family members, Tigress Woods.  She had turned 20 this year, and had some arthritis in her right knee.

Otherwise, she was still quite feisty and enjoying being the Boss Lady.  She will always be remembered and her bloodline lives on with her two daughters, Miss Dixie Rose and Rose dela Troienne, producing foals for us.

It never, ever gets easier to lose one of our horses.  That’s part of why I hate all the recent events in California.  We, and our friends out West, love our horses and will do anything for them.

By My Standards the morning of his Derby workout that turned up his Buzz!

So, I’ll sign off on a celebratory note.  Goooooooooo By My Standards!  That’s Goldencents’ son who won the $1 million Louisiana Derby.  He had a great work two days ago and has everyone talking about how beautifully he moves. In fact, he’s been dubbed the Derby 145 Buzz Horse!  (That means the horse that has the backside buzzing about how well he’s training and looks headed up to the Derby.)

If you don’t hear from me between now and then, know that we’ll be watching with fingers crossed til they cramp on May 4!!!