Some days you feel like a nut

And some days you feel like a complete fool instead.

For the past couple of months I've been slowly riding Meghan, trying to get some pounds off of her, build her stamina, and get her fit. We still haven't cantered. It's just been trot uphill, walk downhill, round and round in circles, bend, flex, a trail ride here and there, etc. etc. The mare just kept gaining weight. I was feeding her very little on her "diet", they were all wormed when they got here, and there was simply no reason why she wasn't losing weight and getting fit. Yesterday I went to get her out of the field for some grooming and trimming. As we were walking down the hill she kept stopping and I'd look back to see if something were wrong. Every time I looked back I'd see that huge swaying belly. When I got to the bottom of the hill I stopped short and quickly adopted the famous deer in the headlight look. A memory of something the woman at the last 'rescue' had said came floating up from the recesses of my brain: "we didn't geld Chief right away, we waited a few months". DING DING DING DING!!!

Self-mocking ensued for a few minutes, then I shared my light bulb moment with Glenn. Then the cursing really got started and we had a few choice things to say once again about where these horses had come from. Meghan stood quietly behind me with this look on her face that said "What's the big deal, all you had to do was ask me. Can I have more food now?"

We're pretty sure Chief is the daddy-to-be. Which means not only with this foal be conformationally (new word, call websters) challenged, but it'll be tiny. I'm hoping there are some big horse genes in Chief and he's just small because of his starved childhood. He's certainly got a big enough head that doesn't match his small frame. I had originally hoped that he'd grow into his head, but gave up on that notion already. I *think* Chief was gelded in March of this year. So at the latest we could be expecting a baby in January-February next year. If I'm wrong about Chief's genes we could end up with something smaller than Zeus.

Now our quarantine paddock plans have turned into our nursery plans, Meghan has been temporarily removed from the available horse list on the web site, we've got a date with the vet next week, and we're way too young to be grandparents. Thor has still not fessed up to the whereabouts of the camera, so I don't have pics of Meghan and Chief for you. Maybe tomorrow? And maybe as the estimated date arrives we'll do a guess that birth date and time contest. Or a name that foal contest. Or a guess how many hours of sleep WVFarmgirl has gotten while on foal watch contest?