A Little Praise for A Big Accomplishment

Those were the words on a card we received on Monday afternoon.  The card was from our neighbor Darlene and the Big Accomplishment she was referring to was the birth of one special cria to our girl TeQueely.

 

We almost lost TeQueely when she was seven months old, she suffered tick paralysis at that time and it really was touch and go as to whether she would live.  As a result of the tick paralysis TeQueely could not stand for over a month.  With a lot of TLC we finally got TeQueely walking again, she has a bit of a funny gait these days, but at least she can walk.  (You can read a little more about TeQueely on my blog entry of December 6, 2007)

 

During TeQueely’s illness Darlene was a huge help.  She helped with chores, brought us extra pillows and blankets for TeQueely to lie on, sat with TeQueely to keep her company and even on one very cold weekend supplied us with a lovely thick down-filled horse blanket to help keep TeQueely warm.  Naturally Darlene is very attached to TeQueely and was excited when we announced that TeQueely was pregnant.

 

Following TeQueely’s illness, once she reached breeding age we discussed TeQueely’s situation with our vet prior to breeding her.   TeQueely does have slight nerve damage in her front right leg and we were not sure what other unseen nerve damage had occurred.  Our vet told us that he felt that TeQueely was sound to breed and so we bred her knowing that when the time came for her to give birth we would need to be extra vigilant.

 

TeQueely’s estimated due date was May26, a day which came and went with no sign of impending labor from TeQueely.

 

Just this past Sunday Darlene had dropped by for a visit.  She was concerned that TeQueely was overdue and worried that she was going to have birthing difficulties.  I reassured Darlene that all seemed well with TeQueely’s pregnancy and told her that we would just have to have faith that all would go well when it came time for the cria to be born.

 

The very next day, Monday June 9, 2008 TeQueely went into labor and delivered a beautiful fawn male cria.  The birthing went well, it was a little bit of a slow process but TeQueely delivered her cria without needing assistance.  Of course I called Darlene at work to let her know the good news as soon as I had the cria dried off and made sure that TeQueely was okay.

 

TeQueely’s cria is a lovely little guy, he has inherited the heavy bone of his sire, Windrush Jennifer’s Zindel and the expressive face of TeQueely.  His fleece has a long staple length and a lovely silky feel to it.  The cria’s ears must have been pressed flat for a while as both of them are inside out in appearance, but a couple of days of taping them into the right position will solve that problem.

 

TeQueely herself is doing well and proving to be a great dam.  She is very bonded to her cria and gets quite frantic when he trots off to play with the other crias, but who can blame her, for her cria is a great accomplishment indeed.

 

Rosemary