Lightning part 2- The Birth of Autumn Star

Okay, I need to start out by letting you know that I usually do not share this story with anyone until they have known me long enough that they realize I am not a nut job.

It was mid September, a couple weeks after I gave Lightning to my daughter for her birthday, when I decide I needed to get a stall ready for Lighting to give birth in. Anticipating winter weather coming in soon, I had to tarp up the top side of the stall to keep snow and rain out. Then, of course, I needed shavings added to the stall. I got it all done on the 15th of the month. I tucked Lightning into the stall the next morning. That night I went to visit a friend 45 miles away from where my horses were kept.

I was there about an hour when I started having very strong pains in my abdomen that would come and go. It felt like strong cramps, but it wasn’t that time of the month. The pains started coming closer together and getting even stronger. I suddenly had a visual image in my head of Lightning’s large eye with worried wrinkles. I instantly told my friend I had to go right now! I knew what this meant. I told him she is having the baby! I know he thought I was crazy, but I ran out the door to my truck and raced back to my house, picked up a flash light, iodine and towels, then went to my parents, where the horses were kept.

Just as I shined the light in the stall, Lightning’s water broke! I called everyone I could, but she had the baby within minutes. I was the only one who got to witness the magical event. It was a pretty little filly. She had just a tiny star on the forehead of her very Arabian type head, and was a bay like her mother. Such a sweet girl and very healthy, amazing considering the shape her mother was in for the majority of her pregnancy.

I had the pleasure of imprinting her, then I gave both of them a hug, praised Lightning for her good work, thanked her for letting me know, and went on home to try to sleep in my excited state. I would call the vet in the morning.

See, now, you all think I am crazy right? I would think I was crazy myself if I didn’t have a witness. I can’t help wondering why she let me know.. She had the quickest birth I had ever witnessed. She didn’t need me there. I like to think she was thanking me for bringing her to a better place, and saving her baby who certainly would not have survived in her previous home. Did she want to give me that gift? Most horses prefer not to have a human present and even have the ability to hold off labor to ensure that happens. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.