In true China form, she has made a story about bringing her first baby into the world. China was due exactly 2 weeks ago but showed no signs of being interested in having her baby any time soon. Then 3 days ago she started waxing. Many times when a mare waxes you have a foal within in 24 hrs. In true China fashion, she held out on us.
As the days passed we worked to get her out of her stall to stretch her legs a couple of times a day. Every time she would have a good roll and then be more interested in the hay around her. It was Sophie that said last night, "do you think if you left her out in the arena she would have the baby?" I responded that probably because I felt she thought the stall was too cooped up - even though it's a nice large foaling stall. China has always been a bit of a diva and nothing we have here is quite up to her standards.
With her third day of wax, dripping milk even, I watched her like a hawk again last night. It was another sleepless night with no baby. When the alarm went off to do chores, I headed out to put her and Cher into the arena to roll. I put them out and watched them for a minute. Nothing exciting - they both went right over to a round bale and started eating. I headed in to get in a quick yoga session and came out to help Tim put them back in their stalls. In Tim's no nonsense voice and no worry tone he met me to say, "China is in labor in the arena. Do you want her to have it there or in the stall?" Being as it was around 23 degrees in the arena we had to make China get up and head back to her stall.
China was a trooper. Between the couple of minutes it took to get her to her stall before there was a foal all the way out was maybe 15 minutes. For her first baby she made it look easy. After she needed a bit of a rest but was immediately in love with her creation. Even though she got up and almost immediately went back down to rest, she reached her neck out to her little one and that first momma nicker made me so proud of my big girl.
Below I will share a post I made on Facebook when Sundae was just 24 hours old. Hopefully this explains what makes China's first baby so special:
Libby will often remind me that China was supposed to be hers. She is always horse shopping and she found China’s ad as a yearling on the internet. I put a down payment on her and then my life fell apart (again) when I had to ask the narcissist I had been sharing my life with for over 2 years to leave. It was an ugly breakup with him refusing to leave and my financials a mess and blah blah blah so I contacted China’s breeder and asked him if we could back out of the deal. He never responded (apparently the internet gods intervened and he never got that email). With the help of my family we decided we could make Libby’s new horsie dreams come true and we would bring her home and figure it out.
The day came to get her and I borrowed money from Libby to pay for her and a truck from my dad to drive to IA. I had just met this wonderful guy and he volunteered to come with us to pick her up. The poor guy had to drive the entire 5ish hour round trip hearing about every horse story we could cram into that time. The roads were horrible as we started and again God smiled on us because we safely arrived at a Perkins parking lot in IA to swap China from her breeder’s trailer to ours. She had never been in a trailer before so let’s just say she wasn’t excited about getting back on one in a Perkins parking lot. That poor new guy, who was a dairy cow guy and had zero horse experience, had to link arms with me and we lifted scared little China (who was really like 14 hands) onto our trailer. This would be Tim’s start to becoming a future “equine guru”.
China was with Tim and I through the start of our new relationship and move to the Eyota area. She moved with us through 2 different barns before she was able to make it to our new farm with us here in Dover. During that time, Libby was busy with other projects so I had decided to start China and fell in love with her. I paid her back and officially bought her new horsie from her. And China and I were off on our adventures together.
As a 3 year old China made all of my childhood dreams come true. She won me my first belt buckle, then my second and my third and my fourth. That fall she won me my first (and probably only) high point series saddle. I knew everything about her and she knew everything about me. The next year we planned to add loping to our career.
I was still relatively new to showing and China had taken care of me through it all. Now we were going to step up our game from walk trot. Then she decided to stop eating for 2 months. To this day we still don’t know what happened but we almost lost her and my heart almost broke. But then she bounced back and it was game on. She was rolling through her 4 year old season and we were just getting her lope figured out, when she came up lame. Suspensory strain and rest for China. I bought a pony project and decided to give her all the time off she needed. She did heal up and came back for one more show. Sophie rode her that show and won every single class she entered and another buckle. Then disaster again. This time the injury was permanent. What to do with China? Make baby Chinas.
In true China fashion she wanted to have her baby on her terms. She held on for two weeks past her due date and waited until she was turned out in the arena for her stall to be cleaned to go into labor. We did manage to make it back to her stall before Sundae arrived. And she’s perfect. I still can’t stop watching her and crying.
This little filly has big shoes to fill. Her momma stole my heart a long time ago. She was beyond easy to start and made me look like I knew what I was doing. I remember one time practicing with a finished western horse and me saying out loud to her, “JUST LOPE LIKE THAT FOR THE LOVE OF GOD!” The next day she said, “like this?” And that’s the story of how China learned to slow and collect her lope. No one will ever convince me she doesn’t speak English. I have a million China stories and memories. Not everyone wants a fan club shirt (hehe) but most that meet China love her. She’s a true all arounder and I know with the outstanding stallion we bred to, Sundae is going to be even better.
So yeah, if you’re wondering why I share a million plus videos of Sundae and China this summer- now you know why. All of our ponies are special to us, but China is just. Well. You get it.
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