headThe vet had checked Ruby earlier that day and said shed be having the foal that night. So we drove out to see little Chitlin, as I wanted to call him, arriving around 10:30pm. It was 10 degrees and a blizzard, so we ran straight from the van to the cabin, knowing Mac’s mom would wake us up to see the baby being born. That night I had a dream I was out at Ruby’s pen, the baby had a white stripe on its nose and was in a heap on the ground trying to stand up but it couldn’t. Ruby was agitated and trying to bite me through the fence.

I thought it was because I was taking pictures of her baby and was too close. When we woke up the next morning we found out that the baby had died. For horses labor only lasts an hour at most, but Ruby most likely struggled for over two hours. Baby horses are supposed to present feet first and face down with the hind legs trailing out behind. But there had only been a head sticking out. They tried to pull the legs out front but couldn’t because some of the tendons in the baby’s legs were malformed, stiff and wouldn’t allow the leg to stretch out straight. If the baby had made it out it probably wouldn’t have been able to walk, just like in my dream. Also, its hind legs were bunched up and caught on Ruby’s pelvis. There was no way he could have come out and he suffocated. He was so stuck the vet had to cut him out in pieces and poor Ruby was in shock and shivering. So much depends on a red wheelbarrow….