FRIEND story and FOAL update

If you've read yesterday's post, you know I owe you another story attached to that one, about the GREATEST FRIEND in the whole wide world. This is him. He used to be a professional showjumper and has been my horse riding trainer for about 5 years now. He also taught hubs how to ride a horse. And over time he and his wife have become our good friends. He knows everything about horses and has been breeding them for many years. And he promised us that he would be here if our foal was due to 'pop out'. He also had a pregnant mare. She should have given birth a week before Naloma. But....of course she didn't. So over the last couple of weeks we were calling each other every day: 'How's your mare doing?' Last wednesday I woke up having dreamed that hubs told me milk was coming out of Naloma's udders. In the real world that can mean the time of birth is near. Although sometimes mares give milk for weeks before the foal is born. So I woke up thinking I needed to check if what I had dreamed was actually true. And....I had a strong feeling that our foal would be born that day. The due date was April 12th, but still I felt that we wouldn't have to wait that long. When I went to the stables to check on Naloma, there they were. Little drops of milk, dangling from Naloma's nipples. I called our friend to tell him the news. 'Ooooo', he said, 'milk is flowing freely here. My mare will be having her foal some time today! But keep checking on Naloma, because it's her first foal, we just can't be sure what this means. I know my mare after so many foals. It won't be long now.' 'Well', I said, 'strange thing is that I have a strong feeling that ours is coming too today. But you never know of course.' The day passed while I was keeping one eye on Naloma and the other on what I was doing, but she was very calm. However, the drops of milk started falling more frequently. I called friend again. 'Ha!'he said', if my mare moves a leg we have to duck because the milk shoots out of her udders!' That evening another friend (who also bred a couple of foales in the past) came over and I told her about the feeling I had. My actual words were: 'I have the feeling our foal will be born when you are still here.' 'Oh no', she said, looking at Naloma. 'She would be acting very differently then. She is far too calm. Although you can never be sure of course, but I don't think it will be born so soon.' So we went inside, had a cup of coffee and she left. I thought I'd check my e-mail and just when I sat down the telephone rang. Another friend called and she is a vet! 'How is Naloma doing?', she asked. I told her about the milk and that Naloma was very calm. 'Hmmm', she said. 'Could mean anything. But if she isn't giving any other signs....' And we talked a bit more, had a giggle, when hubs came in and said 'there is water coming out, like she's peeing.' Hearing that, my vet-friend said: 'Oh, maybe the foal is pressing against Naloma's bladder and it could be urine.' 'I don't know', I said and told her about the feeling I had about the foal being born that day. 'I'm going to check. I'll call you back.' Hubs already went back to the stables and saw that it really looked like amniotic fluid, not like urine. And he had already called our friend, who was sitting with his very restless mare. 'I think Naloma is in labour', hubs said. Friend said: 'OK, I'm coming over!' 'But you can't leave your horse now', said hubs. 'Don't worry, she is not having her foal within the next two hours.' He actually lives about half an hour's drive away and they were here in about twenty minutes. Meanwhile I had called the friend who had just left to tell her, but she did not pick up her phone so I left her a voicemail message, and I called our vet-friend (who lives about two hours driving away, so she wouldn't be jumping in her car) and told her what was happening. 'There is a hoof coming out. Oh and I can see the other hoof coming too!' 'Do you see a head?' 'No, not yet!' And so forth. Just when the nose peaked out, our friend and his wife appeared so I hung up on vet-friend. (And the friend who had left just before it started, forgot to take her phone out of the pocket of her coat - always has her phone within reach, but for once.... - so she was utterly upset that she had missed it all. But she was the first to visit us yesterday morning.) Friend came, saw, took off his coat, and started pulling on the foal's legs. It was hard work, because the hole wasn't quite as large as the foal if you know what I mean, so pulling the head through wasn't easy. But finally the head appeared and with the next push of Naloma, the rest of the foal popped out. Friend called the people that were watching his mare. 'How's she doing?' 'She getting more restless and wants to lie down (the mare lies down to give birth)', the watcher said. 'Right, well, everything is okay here, so I'm coming back!' 'But first I want a cup of coffee', his wife said. So we had coffee, did a happy dance, were left with instructions what to do next and they hopped in their car to drive, uhm...race, back to their stables. I called vet-friend again to give her the big news and then I called FRIEND to ask how his mare was doing. 'Nothing yet', he said. 'Not long now!' 'Call us if the foal is born okay? Even if it's in the middle of the night. We can't sleep anyway I think (which was true).' And their foal, a little boy, was born at 01.00 that night. Are he and his wife not the greatest FRIENDS in the world? To leave their own mare to help ours? And yesterday they were back again to see how Naloma and her little girl were doing. And when I said that I wanted to go and see their little foal, they said: 'No! You have to stay with your foal, you can see our foal some time this weekend.' Which is sweet, because I really rather want to stay here during daytime. Hubs is at work, so I am alone most of the time and I don't want to leave Naloma and the foal alone for a couple of hours. But they brought pictures of their foal yesterday and it's beautiful. Even bigger than ours with legs of about two meters high (just a joke). A wonderful dark brown little boy. Now.....the name of our newborn mare! Oh, first something else. When our foal was born, it had the same colour as her mother. You saw the pictures! But yesterday she was very much lighter, so I took a better look, and it turns out that she will be white (or grey) just like her father who was also brown when he was born. Not a brown (well for now she is) little girl at all. Finally then, the name. In an earlier post (an ABC Wednesday one) I asked for name suggestions (with lots of rules) and you, lovely fellow-bloggers, came up with a lot of great names! We decided on a name suggested to us by Berthddu Suit. EAVANALOMA (Eavan is Irish for 'fair radiance'), Evie for short. This morning hubs came home in between visits to his clients and we let Naloma and Evie out for the first time. 'Mommy what's that?' 'That, my dear, is sand.' 'Look Mommy, I can run reaaaaaally fast!' 'Just be careful now.' 'Mommy, I'm tired.' 'Then you have to take a little nap.'