See what arrived the first day of Spring...

My husband, Roger, had to leave before daylight on March 20th, the first day of Spring. Ordinarily he would check on Gypsy, our Tennessee Walking horse, but this morning, he didn't have time and asked me to feed and check on her. When I went to feed her, there was the baby! It hadn't even stood up yet. We thought Gypsy would go a couple more weeks, but she had other plans. I ran to the house and yelled for my daughter to bring the camera. After taking several photos, I called Roger. He didn't believe me at first, lol. He was a couple hours from home, so it's not like he could drop everything and get back home in a few minutes.

Gypsy had to sniff the camera and give her approval. That's her hairy chin in the photo below...

Roger told me to go back and make sure the foal stood up to start nursing pretty soon. The foal was nearly dry when I first saw it so it had been a while since it was born. I went back to the barn, and when I was talking to it and trying to help it up, Gypsy was nickering and nudging it's rear trying to help. It finally got up on it's wobbly legs, staggered a little, nuzzled with Mama a little bit and then started nursing! It was sooooo sweet!

This video was taken when Smokey first started to nurse. You might hear the chickens in the background ~ they were busy laying eggs and clucking that morning.

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Smokey and Gypsy are so much fun to watch. Smokey is getting playful, running and jumping and bucking! Gypsy showed him how to lie on the ground and roll around. She did it first as Smokey stood there and watched. Then when Gypsy got up, Smokey slowly went down on the ground and began to roll around. Gypsy keeps a very close eye on him ~ she is such a good mama.

Mama's left front leg is dark and baby's right front leg is dark...

Jessica and Smokey...

Roger and Smokey...

Smokey loves Roger's hat...

This last video shows Smokey and Roger with Gypsy munching on her sweet feed and alfalfa cubes.

Stay tuned for Smokey updates.

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