Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Happy Birthday Crystal!!!

As you may know, we have been anxiously waiting for Opal (SOPD) to have her foal.  Our journey to buy her started this summer and it has been a VERY long wait!  There were some ups and downs, and we almost thought for a while that maybe things weren't going to work out, but the we eventually came to terms with the seller.  Once we figured it all out however, we didn't know exactly when Opal would have her foal.  We thought it might be soon, but we weren't sure, so we decided with the seller to wait just a little while longer to try to help her be comfortable for birthing.  That's when the waiting seemed to drag on and on.
In fact, we thought that she would have had the foal at the end of August, she was showing so many signs, but through September, and into October, she just kept looking more and more like any day would be the day.
TODAY WAS THE DAY!!!
Opal was checked on earlier today around lunch time and there was no foal, but by 5 when the seller came home from work, there she was!
Opal seems to be doing very well.  She was calm and composed and attentive to her foal.  The foal is a filly!  We wanted to name her similarly to her mom.  We liked how we picked the names for Opal.  We picked the first name for her temperament (she is docile sweet and very different from how we were told miniature horses could be), her second name for her appearance (lots of variation of color and textures, the more you look, the more you see), her third name for her size (she's small like a pixie), and her fourth for what we knew about her breed (we were told she had some Appaloosa in her pedigree).  
We followed that pattern for the baby!  Her full name is Spunky Crystal Fairy Jem.  We only spent about an hour with her, so the elements of her temperament remain to be seen.  As a new life, she was very independent and full of her own spirit, full of spunk.  For Crystal, she has different colors and her coat seems to almost sparkle and shine. And we feel that miniature horses are Jems.  They are wonderful companions and can be hearty and fun.   We picked from a list of names we all liked, but we also feel the name fits!
Crystal seems to be very sturdy and strong for her first few hours of life.  She nursed, and then after we had been there a while started to fall asleep.  Being born is a lot of work!
She has roan coloring like her mom with some spots by her rear.
She is a lot lighter though, maybe she will darken with time, maybe not.
She has lovely eyes, with black all of the way around them, like she's wearing eye liner!  And she has the cutest chin whiskers.
And her coat is super soft, with curls and whorls all over it. I've never seen a baby horse, let alone one just a few hours old, I didn't know what to expect. She's super adorable. Her little mane and tail are kind of laughable, they were soft and curly not like typical stiff horse mane and tail hair. And the hair was short, not long like you think of a horse mane and tail.  I wanted to keep petting her.  
Opal has a lot of whorls as well. The ones on her flanks stand out and are are pretty visible.   You can see one in the middle of Crystal's forehead, as though there should be a unicorn horn starting to grow there.  
She has a nice temperament like her sweet mother.  She wasn't skittish or anxious at all. If anything, she was curious.   Her little curly tail was swishing around the whole time. She was happy to stay by Opal, but also to explore a bit and even follow me around a little too.   

We are planning to FINALLY bring Opal and Crystal home this Sunday evening.  I can't wait!



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