Little Friends Noelle

- Sold -

Date of Birth: 24. December 2006

Birth Height: 19 1/4 - 19 1/2" at 4 days

Foal Coat Color: Very Dark Brown or black/brown

Sire: HR Black Magic

32" Black/no stripe

Dam: Annie's Acres Miriam

32 1/4" - dark Brown

While others would probably not announce the birth of this special little girl we think she deserves a birth announcement just like all of our babies. Everybody knows that not all babies are born perfect and what went wrong here - we don't know. Little Noelle was a complete surprise since we didn't count with her until the end of January. Apparently Miriam came back into heat but was actually pregnant already. We had just given Miriam her "baby shot" the day before little Noelle was born (that we give about 30 days prior to foaling. Little Noelle did not get here without problems. While her birth must have been normal, we found the still wet little girl with her tongue hanging out to one side. Miriam had sense enough to deliver her first baby in the shelter but we still had freezing temperatures that night. Noelle didn't have much control over her tongue and couldn't keep it in her mouth - which of course made nursing a chore. She figured out how to wrap her tongue around one teat to get some milk but each nursing would take very long and she wore her patient moma out on that one side. Noelle was not able to nurse on the other side and we had to keep mom milked down so she wouldn't be so sore and feed some of it to Noelle to keep her satisfied. She expanded so much energy just to keep her tummy filled that she was exhausted every time that she finally had enough. We didn't see any attempts of her wanting to play for the first 4 days and she had to wear a little blanket to keep in her body heat (the first time we ever had to use a blanket on a baby). She didn't want to use the heat lamp that we had out for her. The nursing problems are probably caused by one of the worst overbites that we have seen, yet. At 4 days of age she finally was able to keep her tongue in her mouth most of the time and figured out how to nurse on the other side as well. She is now 9 days old and we are guardedly optimistic but know that she is not out of the woods, yet. She has been grinding her teeth a lot which normally suggests ulcers but the vet said that she shouldn't have those without being on medication and on a normal diet. Today she seemed to grind her teeth a little less.

While this little girl is never going to be a brood jennet (if she makes it) she is still very special - a christmas baby that has a very sweet personality and is of beautiful color. We are hoping so much for this little girl to grow into a healthy adult. Miriam is such an attentive moma. Her baby takes one step and Miriam stops whatever she is doing and goes to check on her baby. I think Miriam would go crazy if something happened to little Noelle and we would miss her terribly - afterall we spent more time in the stall over Christmas than anywhere else.

first two pictures at 3 days - last three pictures at 12 days