Hello there! 
Well, the mare we adopted last year, Bella (formerly known as Kim) has delivered the latest family member, baby Claire.  We camped out at the boarding stable in the RV and were present for the birth.  It was very exciting and wonderful.  Momma is fantastic with us hovering around the baby.  We are first time foaling attendants, so we read up and
were calling the vet every other minute making sure everything was going right.   The baby was really big and squashed up in there, she was all crooked when she came out, even her tail was S shaped, and she was standing on her fetlocks.  We freaked out when she first stood up, sure she was crippled, the book didn't say anything about this!!  The vet assured us that this is common and it would correct itself in a couple of days, it did.  Everything went smoothly until the baby was a week old and developed a swelling on her belly above her umbilical cord.  We had
already had her checked for a hernia and she was fine.  Turned out to be a freakishly large umbilical abscess, the largest any of the vets at Specifically Equine had seen.  We felt terrible, we dipped the cord like we were suposed to, the vet did too when he came out right after the birth, we were picking up poop as soon as it fell practically, the stall was very clean, they assured us that we just have bad luck!
 
So, Momma and baby took a trip to Buellton to the hospital where baby Claire was on IV antibiotics for three days with no change except she turned into a
rodeo horse and had to have three people to administer her meds every six hours, and rubbed the IV out on one side.  So into surgery she went with
'terrified' vets.  I was unaware that Drafts are exquisitely sensative to general anasthesia.  They cut the abscess out, the umbilical cord to the liver and to the bladder and ten percent of her bladder and came out optimistic about her recovery.  She is a firecracker!  So far she is doing well and has had no complications.  If all goes well, she will come
home tomorrow.  Momma has received many compliments on how sweet and easy she is.  That makes us feel good.  As soon as our house in Guadalupe sells and baby Claire is old enough we will be moving back to Colorado, I can't wait for them to be in a field again.    Thank you again for all the work you do.  We hope you both have a wonderful summer!  Sincerely, Ryan and
Valarie Stucker  

Hello there. 
Well, almost two months have gone by since we brought our kids home.  Every day we are more impressed with them and are so happy weadopted both of them.  Momma (Kim-never gets called this anymore, just Momma) is being ridden, trailers, ties, picks up feet, lunges, everything... Awesome.  Her colt, Miles, is just FANTASTIC!!  Incredible temperment!!  When he arrived we couldn't catch him.  Within a week we were leading him around, now, two months later, he ties, lunges (a little bit) knows Whoa, knows clucking to him means to trot, loads in the trailer, picks up all his feet with no fuss, wears jingle bells around his neck for Christmas, walks over giant sheets of plastic, gets a bath, wears my son's little saddle cinched up and everything!!  No bucks, no reaction at all, just loves to have us mess with him and show off to the others.  They both have learned to eat grain, sugar cubes, peppermints, carrots, and are very easily treat motivated.  They are both being clicker trained and caught on to that FAST!!  (I was skeptical of this at
first, but took a class on clicker training dogs, and am hooked, it even works with my kid, without the clicker of course, but the concept..)  The first time I rode Momma, we were just messing around standing on a chair getting her used to people being above her and she was so good with me laying on her, throwing my leg over her butt, that I decided to hop on bareback and see what happened.  Not much, my husband, Ryan walked us around a couple of times around the arena and then I got off.  She didn't react at all, just bugged her eyes out.  They both have caught on from the other horses that they should come when I call "Heeerrre Kitty, kitty, kitty.  It makes my heart so happy when they nicker at us when we are loading up to go home.  Just wanted to let you know how they are doing, pass on the news to Jim Lyster if you please.  Thank you again. Have a wonderful Holiday. 
Valarie Stucker