In other news, I just found out that Inbegriff sired a chestnut foal this year. In five years of foals, all of them up to this point have been black or dark bay! With Dolphin being so dark and Inbegriff's record of dark foals, I had only ever considered my foal being bay or black. I will have to prepare for the possibility of a chestnut now, unless I find out that Dolphin is homozygous for black...
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Linda delivered Dolphin to me on Monday, July 12. She quickly became known as Mira, because Dolphin just did not do such a beautiful mare justice. It always made me think of "porpoising" which is when a horse is not quite bucking and not quite cantering. Mira is a latin name which means "wonderful".
Not much exciting happened between July and January, I guess, other than the incredible increase in the amount of food going into Mira. Rosalynn and Mira are mares of approximately the same size but Mira eats about five times the amount of grain and over twice the amount of hay.
On January 1, 2005 I brought Mira in to groom her and I saw her flank moving suspiciously so I put my hands on her and could definitely feel the foal moving inside. So exciting!!! On January 10 she saw Dr Alexander who said she was at a perfect weight and was showing a classic pregnant mare shape now.
The photo series below shows the changing shape of Mira from July through February. She has cycled through various pasture mates and gets along well with everyone except for Owen.
