A New Filly on the Farm! 8D [Warning - Lotsa Pics]

[Sparrow]

My horse Millie finally decided to drop her baby. xD We've been waiting and waiting and waiting, and she apparently decided, "I think I'll have my baby on the actual due date like a good little pony." She actually missed it by two hours... but I figure that's close enough.

Anyways, so last night she was acting like she might foal (which she's done multiple times, much to our chagrin) and so I slept out in the pasture to see what happens. I dragged my brother out with me so he could get people if Millie did have her baby, but my mom was like, "I have a dissertation to write and I'm getting sleep. She's not gonna have when we want her too. DDD<"

But she did. The foal is a girl, which is what we wanted, and right now she looks about the spitting image of her mom when Millie was a baby. It's really fun to get a baby out of a horse I've raised from a baby too. xD We haven't decided what to name her yet- my dad is voting for Higgely- I've forgotten how to spell it but it basically means 'wonderful' or something- and I like Edderkopp- spider. (Gotta love Norwegian words. xP) I like spiders... but the rest of my family doesn't so they don't agree with me. But she sure does look like one right now, in a horse-ish way.

But yeah. xP Pics, 'cause she's so adorable:

Waitin' for mama

Newborn

Privacy please?

Sleepy

Awkwardly sleepy... xD It's amazing how flexible she still is from spending so much time curled up in Millie's belly.

Sniffing

[Jenth]

Naw!!!! I love horses and foals are so cute! Who doesn't just love baby animals? ^_^

[ShadowReine]

Aww. Gonna be a bay like her mom, I reckon.

[Sparrow]

Hahah, yeah. x3

Yeah, we're thinking she's probably going to grow up to be the same color as Millie, although she's not a bay. xP She was actually a black, but she picked up Bonnie's 'sunburn' gene that makes blacks slowly turn brown... apparently that's called a 'smokey black'. =P The baby's got some striping on her legs that Millie didn't have though (although I don't know if you can see them in the pictures) and it's making me half hope for grullo... >.> Not likely, but it'd be freaking awesome.

[ShadowReine]

No, that's called a fading black. A smokey black is a black that carries the cream dilution and thus can produce palominos and buckskins. There's two 'kinds' of black horses, the ones that seasonally fade to brown and the ones who don't.

I can see the striping. Is the sire dun factored? If so, then you could be lucky. If not, then it's just foal camouflage, which can manifest in all kinds of interesting markings.

[Sparrow]

Millie's mom was a dun. =P But I dunno, Shauna called her a smokey black and I believed her since she's the authority on horses around here. xP She could be wrong too though.

The sire is a liver chestnut, but he, like Millie, has a dun mom so they both at least might carry the gene. xP And yeah, it probably is just camoflauge, but I like to keep my hopes up.

[ShadowReine]

Dun is a dominant gene. It can only hide on horses that are either grey (in which case the dun markings tend to fade later than the rest of the coat, but may well disappear) or double cream (which can wash them out to invisibility). I hate to say it, but it's just foal cam...you can't put together a black and a liver chestnut and get anything dun. Sorry. But does it make her any the less cute?

[Sparrow]

Yeah, I didn't think so. xP I've never been good with genetics. But nope, it doesn't make her any less cute. xD I just wish we knew what color she's going to really be right now.

Weird that dun's dominant and Bonnie's never had a dun foal though... only palominos and Millie. xP

[ShadowReine]

It happens. She's obviously heterozygous for dun and the roll of the genetic dice has been such that she's not passed it on.

My guess remains bay.

[Sparrow]

Yeah. And I'd love a bay, so it'd be awesome if your guess is right.