Well, I made the logical choice to take Christmas as my day off from drawing this week:-) This little guy is for 12/26, and is a leopard spot Appaloosa colt. If you've been following, you may remember the adult leopard spot Appy I drew - horse #24. Since I've been on a baby theme lately, the foal version seemed the logical choice for tonight. Plus, spots are fun!
I wrote on the Etsy listing about the memories doing these drawings are evoking. I'll copy and paste that part here:
"Drawing all of these babies has really brought back what it was like having foals in my life. There’s the excitement of waiting over 11 months for the birth, all the while wondering if it will be a filly or a colt. Wondering which traits will come through, and if all of the planning paid off. Then the actual birth and watching this tiny thing with impossibly long legs struggle and struggle to get up to drink that first milk – with lots of encouragement from mom (and those nips on the rump when baby nurses too hard:-). They seem to become more coordinated by the minute, gamboling alongside their mothers, so impressed with how cool they are – yet not quite daring to leave mom’s side for a little while. Watching a foal grow to adulthood is an amazing experience, and often the culmination of many years of dreams. It’s so good to have those memories!"
It amazed me to realize tonight how blessed I am to have these memories. What I didn't realize is that because of the pain of giving up my horses, I don't often delve to deep into my memories. Yet I have so many good ones!!! Foals are some of the best memories. My mom and I put so much into the dream of breeding Farrah. While we only did it three times, each time we learned more and every time was precious. I remember sleeping in the back of our station wagon in the freezing cold waiting for April to be born - and still missing the actual birth!
We actually missed all three births, though Deringer's was the closest by just a couple of minutes. Farrah had gone 11 months, 18 days with him. She also had a very serious complication just prior to the 11 month mark: she colicked pretty severely. However, even the vet wasn't sure if she was colicking or going into labor early. We were up all night, walking her, bran mash, etc. - praying. She couldn't have had surgery, because she was too far along. Finally, around 5 a.m., she passed a huge enterolith (a stone). The vet said it was the largest he'd ever seen passed without surgery! Believe it or not, we still have it;-) It's about the size of a tennis ball. If I figure out where it is, I'll have to take a picture. Won't that be exciting?
Anyways, every foal was different, yet so beautiful and so special! Drawing these babies here reminds me of them and the experiences I had. It reminds me to remember, and to appreciate how incredible having horses in my life was:-)
No comments:
Post a Comment