Sparky, Labor, and Blizzards

Should I go to bed and get up in a few hours, or just stay up and head out to the barn again in two hours? Sparky is finally in labor. It's a blizzard outside. I have to walk through snow past my knees most of the way to the barn. She started waxing heavily this afternoon and at my last check moments ago she had started to leak milk on one side. She was also having mild contractions you could see that were occasionally interrupting her hay munching. Sparky has had many foals, all without any complications, however, Sparky's advancing age (she is 19 this year) does have me a bit worried.

The Gonsoir's have owned Sparky since she was a weanling. I vowed that I would buy a horse with my first paycheck following college graduation. Sparky is that horse. I graduated from college in May of 1992, started my first teaching job in August, got my first paycheck on September 20th, and bought Sparky at Ray and Georga Sutton's production sale on September 21st. I figured living like a college student for one more month wouldn't hurt. Over the years Sparky proved herself as a top horse mentally and physically. Soon after coming to our barn she changed ownership- my husband Tim claimed her as his horse. Tim rode her to check cows, rode her on trail rides, and even was able to shoot a gun from her back. Tim could ride her hard getting a sick cow in at the pasture and then throw two year old Joellen up on her back to ride around the pasture while he treated the sick cow. As soon as Joellen was aboard, it was like a switch clicked in Sparky's brain and she was a quiet plodding along lead line horse without the lead line. She would take Joellen in circles around where we were treating the cow, oblivious to everything around her, but her young rider.

Stan soon outgrew his mount, Lucky, and wanted to find a horse with a bit faster gear. Sparky was just the option. For two years Stan and Sparky went to AQHA shows competing in barrels and poles earning their AQHA youth Register of Merit. I even ran Sparky a few times in NBHA barrel racing. In Sparky's last barrel run with me she fell on the first barrel, hitting her shoulder on the steel barrel top. We finished the pattern, but Sparky never moved quite the same after that. It was believed she probably had a bone chip in her shoulder. A few years later, the sequestered bone finally made its way out opening a terrible would on her shoulder.

After Sparky's barrel career ended Sparky went on to raise some very nice babies that we have sold over the years. She has always been a good mother and good producer. I almost lost her two years ago in an accident. I am not sure what happened one night while she and her foal rested in a pen, but the morning found her on one side of the woven wire fence that was completely laid down- posts too, broken at their bases- and her foal still inside the pen. Sparky's right front leg was cut to the bone nearly completely around her forearm. We caught her foal and put him in the barn, and loaded Sparky to take to the vet, fully expecting to put her down. She could not use the right foreleg at all. It drug along as she hopped. Our vet worked for hours stitching her leg and chest up. He said he had seen horses live good lives as broodmares with a bum leg before. He figured she would never use that leg as the nerves were severed. I spent weeks treating her wounds and hand walking her with a rope on her bum leg. I would pull the leg as we walked trying to get it to be as natural as possible. About two weeks into treatment she started to use the leg herself and about a month later she was walking fully using the leg. Today she moves as well as most 19 year old horses. Her old bone chipped shoulder gives her more of a gimp than the leg.

Well tonight, or maybe early tomorrow morning, Sparky should have a foal. Since she is over due I am betting it is a colt. She is pretty much like clock work in that she foals two weeks before her due date with fillies, and usually goes over or at least up to 342 days of gestation with a colt. Since 342 days was three days ago I am putting my money on a gray colt, no socks, and a star.