Finally in the pouring rain on a very cold day April 23 Rhea gave birth. Her last and only mating date was April 12 so this should have happened around March 19. Chas has palpated her many times announcing that there WAS someone in there and were the dates right? Not only has the cria been in there for far too long she also hasn’t read the book about birthing in the morning and waited until four in the afternoon and was a right cow about it all, twirling round and round screeching and then doing an almighty spit that caught me in the neck. Lovely that, a green neck.
Anyway it is a big healthy dark fawn male cria that I have high hopes for, our last cria from CME Tulaco Centurion. Rhea herself is a Jaquinto daughter, the best fawn on the farm and has done very well in the show ring. Her dam is a line bred Brigantine grand daughter.
We had to bring them into the barn for the night as it was so nasty outside along with the others in the birth field as Rhea was hysterical pacing up and down. Eventual;ly she calmed down and when Chas gave the cria plasma assumed the role of ferocious mother! He may not have needed plasma but nether of us planned to spend the evening in a cold barn waiting for him to suckle. The prospect of sitting in front of a woodburner was far too seductive.