Contest with a Givaway!!!!

Dear readers, I feel you are bored with my posts. I very rarely have many comments. This is my social network! I hope I have not peeved you off in any way. If I have, tough. But here's a fun contest I've been meaning to post for awhile and I hope this makes up for my boring, everyday life.

WE ARE EXPECTING!

Bet that caught some attention eh? No, not me. That requires a man remember, and I don't have one, but Daddy Chex (aka Rumba, the dancing queen) is! This is my fantastic Appendix bred horse that has become a wonderful brood mare due to her penchant to break in half when I ride her. It's said letting them have a foal calms them down and it's extremely true in this situation. In fact, she's so mellow, and since I have plenty of other horses, Rumba is now the perfect mother.

Background Info:

For those of you unfamiliar with horses and their gestation periods, here is a run down of a 'textbook' pregnancy. A mare is pregnant for an average of 340 days. It is not unusual, however, for a mare to foal as early as 300 days, or as late as 370 days. I even know someone who's horse went to day 402 with no problems!

During the last two weeks of pregnancy, the mare's belly will typically appear to drop and then look smaller as the foal gets into a birthing position during the last week. The muscles around her tail will begin to relax also as muscles begin to anticipate the future stretching during birth. Occasionally the tail will 'twitch' to the side as well. Her bag will begin to fill, more full during the night, and drying up a little during the day as she is more active. Within the last 48 hours before foaling the bag will stay full, and waxing often will begin to occur. This is when droplets of milk and colostrum form a waxing covering on the end of each teat. Every mare is different though, so all of the above may be observed or not. Mare's often show signs of discomfort, sweating and kicking or biting at their sides as they go into early stages of labor. A large percentage of foals are born in the early morning hours.

What I already know:

Rumba was pasture bred with her previous foal, so I did not have a good due date - but from what I did know is she was average, probably foaling between day 335 and 350.

I saw little evidence of her milk coming in until the last few days, and her bag was never completely full until she actually foaled. There was, however, a little waxing the night before.

She showed signs of discomfort the evening before and though her belly had done the classic drop and suck back up, she dropped extremely low the night before, and her muscles were extremely relaxed around her tail.

Her foal was born between 3 and 5:30 am.

She was bred April 12th - 15th, 2008 with this foal. If you calculate from that last day bred (assuming that's the day she became pregnant and not on day 1) day 340 would be March 20th, 2009.

Her belly is incredibly distended and hanging very low. She dropped this last weekend after I moved her into a better pasture for foaling.

I see no sign of any milk coming down.

"What? Are you talking about me?"

What you need to do:

1 - Pick her due date!

2 - Pick a time period (12am - 6am; 6am- 12pm; 12pm-6pm; 6pm-12am) when you think she will foal!

To get you started this is what I think - March 18th @ 12am to 6am - but I am not counting myself as part of the contest, so don't worry!

I will be giving away something fun to the winner! I've been trying to be creative lately so maybe perhaps I will make you something!

If you are a reader of my blog, but aren't a blogger, just e-mail me your answers and I'll post them for you!

I will keep the contest open until the end of next week as I'm going on Spring Break and probably won't be checking or updating the blog during the week of her anticipated due date. As soon as I'm back around a computer I'll give you all an update!