The hardest topic I've ever had to post about.

Wow. Started out a fairly normal day. Worked with Lucas to get a fly mask on him, worked with Hankster to get him away from the dang fence (not so successful), worked with Alee to halter her and make her a little more willing to let me see the foal. Spent a few hours out in the pasture reading "Blessed are the Foals". Of course, she (the author) brings up the topic of the navel stump and how it can stay wet, breed bacteria, become a source for septicemia, etc.

So I went up and grabbed some oats for Alee and got as close to the baby as I could. I've been very nervous about the navel stump - it was hours after the birth before I got the iodine, and then it wasn't "dunked", it was a quick spray attempt at saturating it before Alee whisked baby away again.

I gave Alee her oats and bent down to look under her belly at baby. I started getting chills - the stump was as swollen as it was at the time of birth. I grabbed Alee's head and raced around to the other side - yup, bigger than my thumb -how could it be so infected and yet there are no signs of depression, fever, nothing?

Then it hit me. That wasn't the navel stump. It was a penis.

OMG. Do I feel like an idjit, or what? I immediately called Terri - she blamed it all on me, of course. I told her I was going to ruin her reputation as an experienced horsewoman - she said she'd come over and tie pink bows on the girls, blue on the boys.... oh man. Oh man.

So, let's start over with the names, shall we???