Athena was born at 6:34 on December 12, 2007. I did my usual rounds of chores, but since Ginger was close to giving birth, we kept her inside. We were keeping Monty inside as well, to keep her company. The December ground was covered with snow and not ideal for having a baby.

Since Ginger was staying in, I would finish my chores by cleaning her stall. If she had her baby she would at least have a clean stall. On this particular morning, we decided it was time for Monty to join the herd and no longer sit in his stall next to Ginger’s. I put Ginger in the arena while I cleaned, but she wasn’t happy about Monty leaving her. She ran up and down the arena, pacing the door, who knows, perhaps this was enough to get things moving.

Chuck bought and set up a web cam on Ginger’s stall for Maddy’s birthday in the end of October. It ran live to our t.v. inside the house and took static images for the web every few seconds. When I went inside after morning chores, I looked at the t.v. screen out of habit (we would have it on 24/7) and noticed that Ginger was laying down, but trying to get up. She was struggling. I called down the hall to Maddy and told her that her horse was having a hard time getting up. Suddenly Ginger did stand and I noticed things were not normal. She was having a baby.

This time I screamed down the hall, “Maddy, your horse is having a baby,” and maddy went flying out of the house as fast as her body could carry her. My job was to call the barn owner, gather towels and find our camera. The barn owner wasn’t answering her phone, so after I dropped off the towels, I hopped in my car and drove to the barn owner’s house to get her out of bed. (She lives down the road). Before I left, I threw Maddy her cell phone and told her to call her Uncle, who happens to be a large animal vet.

By the time I got back (5 minutes later), Athena was born and Maddy was covered in blood, but smiling. At the age of 17, she had delivered her first baby. Her Uncle helped via the cell phone, telling her what to do and what to look for. Thank you Uncle Larry. They got cut off a few times out of excitement, but all worked out.

Athena spends a lot of energy entertaining us all. Many of our friends and family would watch her constantly on her own web site called http://athena.webfactional.com/

You can still catch her on camera when she’s in her stall.

Maddy was trying various blankets on her. The foal blanket she bought was too big. This is a foal blanket of the barn owner.

This is her new blanket over the other one.

A bird’s eye view from the web cam. Ginger stands guard.

Sleeping rotation.

The blanket is a little big and sometimes Athena gets trapped in it. So Maddy found another solution.

Recognize this blanket? Duke was kind enough to share.

Underneath the red and black blanket is Duke’s fleece. I wonder if he knows how generous he is. Here’s the proud owner with her new baby.

New born horses are amazing. Here Athena is running after her mother in the arena. Hmm…let’s see—she’s almost 15 hours old.

It’s been a good day.