On the morning of the 147th day after her breeding to Boreas, Brighid was acting normally and had a marginally more full udder. Her ligaments were softer but still palpable, so I resolved to keep an eye on her for signs of kidding. There was a cold front bringing snow in that afternoon, and I expected the barometric pressure shift to kick her into labor.
By 3pm, Brighid was hunkered down in her polydome with some herd mates, so I pulled her out and noticed that her udder was even more full and her ligaments were gone. Not wanting to risk delivery in the cold weather, I decided to move her to indoor kidding stall, even if she wasn’t quite in labor yet.
As I watched Brighid on the monitor, I became more convinced that I had made the right decision. The camera angle was good at highlighting the fact that the right side of Brighid’s abdomen had dropped and hollowed out. She displayed many classic signs of labor: air-licking, restlessness, and digging in her bedding. I wasn’t sure how many kids to expect; on ultrasound I thought I saw 1, possibly 2, and last year she had triplets. This year she seemed bigger.
By 5:30, Brighid was starting to strain a little with her contractions and by 5:45, she was really starting to push. I gloved up to check the baby’s position and was happy to feel 2 hooves with a nose in between. A few pushes later, and I was able to grasp the front legs and give Brighid some help, and it was a good thing. This kid seemed pretty big and Brighid was very loud as we got him out. At 6lbs 8oz, he’s the biggest kid we’ve had this year, and almost twice as big as the kids she had last year. Although she passed another sac of fluid, she did not have any more kids. This boy is a lovely light bezoar with a full belt, white on his poll, probably some moonspots and may have blue eyes. He is available
