HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKAEL..

[Heather T]

....at Rising Rainbow Arabians....

Hope that you have a great day and that the twins don't cause too much trouble on your special day!

Hugs! ;D

[risingrainbow]

Thank you, Heather. It's been a strange birthday. My mother died earlier in the week and even though we've been estranged for years, it's been a hard week.

Trouble and Surprise got to go out to play today. They were a handful, they were so excited. Surprise tried rearing to get me to speed things up. All that did was get her scolded so she shook her head at me.....but she quit rearing. Trouble danced in circles around Lindsay but didn't do anything as naughty as his sister. Not that he can't, he's turned into the terror of the two.

They are going to get split up this week. After the funeral, Dave is going to finally get that wall fixed (he doesn't know it yet) so I can get them apart and introduced to same sex buddies.

The plan is to have them all out of there by the end of next week so that Heiress can get on cam. Her due date is March 13. She is Vee's mother. She normally foals pretty close to her due date. She is also the mother of Scandalous Reflection for those of you who remember him.

BTW I am hosting a Horse Lovers Blog Carnival on my blogsite on Feb 21. The theme is "All Things Equine" so it's open to close relatives of the horse as well as horse posts. If you want to enter or attend the carnvial check out my blogrisingrainbow.blogspot.com/ I'll be putting up the information on the carnival later today.

[redmustangwoman1]

Happy Birthday! I hope you have a great day today...I am so sorry bout your Mom! May she RIP!!! God bless...Can't wait to hear what the twins do when they get seperated.. I love reading your blog.Very interesting reading...Take care Mikael

[barnmother]

A big Montana Happy Birthday Mikael. I will miss checking in on the twins from my desk and work and thank you for introducing me to the world of Mare Stare. Good luck on weaning the twins from each other. That, I am sure, will provide you with many stories to tell. - Teresa

[devotee]

Happy birthday, MiKael! I have been meaning to PM you about your blog. I'm an addict. Your entries are so engrossing that it's impossible not to share them with others, so I've got a small (very informal) reading club of far-flung friends reading them along with me. I can't wait to read about the weaning of the twins, but I'm thinking it will be installment one-hundred-and-something. LOL! I'm such a fan of you and the twins. Party hard.

[downundermum]

Mikael, firstly sorry to hear about your mum. Prayers for you all.
Now,

[cheri]

Happy Birthday Mikael! Prayers that the funeral goes off without a hitch and that Dave doesn't flip when he finds out that he's been "walled"!

[Meghan]

LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!




I SAY ITS...H,A,P,P,Y,B,I,R,T,H,D,A,Y,T,O,M,I,K,A,E,L!
(said in letters!)

[gloria]

I am new to the MareStare message board, and just found the post regarding your Twins in June 2006.

You were trying to find a brace for Surprise's foot. I also saw the pictures of the two just after being foaled that you put on the site. I was anxious to find out if everything had worked out for Surprise.

I found this message from you about happy birthday Mikael, and in it found that Trouble and Surprise had been "turned out today".
I was so thankful to know that they both are doing well.

Do you have pictures of the now? I would love to see them.
Also, how often do horses have twins? I don't think I have ever seen a horse that had twins.

Congratulations to you and all your family.

Gloria

[risingrainbow]

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. You made me smile!

I got through the funeral ok but it was hard. I wasn't welcome there. It's amazing the damage that abuse can do to a family. My heart breaks.

Anyone checking the cam will see that Dave and Lindsay are out there finishing up repairing that wall. They're hoping to get it done today. If that happens, Trouble will go to a different stall and Surprise will meet her yearling pasture buddies. First I'm going to put Gypcy on the other side of the partition, so they can get acquainted. Then I'll move Gypcy in with Surprise and put Echo and Rhapsody on the other side of the wall. That way Surprise will get to know them all before being turned out with them. Once that's done. I'm going to move them, raise the partition and put the cam on Heiress. Hopefully that will be by the end of the week. She is due 3-13. Cross your fingers it all goes smooth so Heiress can get moved into the foaling stall.

Gloria, the twins are doing great. They still have problems with their legs. I was not able to get the braces - too expensive. Surprise appears to be sound. The true test will be how big they get to be. If the bone crushing syndrome has done the damage the vets expect, they won't grow to normal size. Mother Nature protects those foals by stunting their growth so they don't carry so much body weight and that helps cut down on the amount of damage the resulting arthritis can do. Only time will tell. It could happen to one, none or both of them. Cross your fingers. Twins are very rare - they estimate something like 1 in 100,000 to 1 in 500,000 mares that settle twins will go to term. Of the twins that are born alive, only 8% live past two weeks.

Also, today is the day for the 4th Horse Lovers Blog Carnival. It's hosted on my blog risingrainbow.blogspot.com/ There are 18 entries, so lots of interesting reading. I think I'm going to do a post on MareStare for my next blog carnival entry. But I haven't seen if they've picked a particular theme or not. If not, that's my plan.

[gloria]

Thank you so much for the update on the twins. I know they must be beautiful.

Those statistics about horse twins means it doesn't happen often.
I know people must have come from miles around to see them.

Hope everything goes well with separating them. It will be traumatic for them I am sure, as well as for you too!

Thank you so much.

Gloria