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The Horse That Almost Wasn't by Heidi Richardson

Hi, my name is Heidi.

In 1999 I decided that I wanted to breed my quarter horse filly " a spicey story". I looked at several different stallions trying to find the right one. I couldn't decide if I wanted a Paint Horse stud or a Quarter Horse stud, so I had my mare DNA typed just in case. Well after a long search I finally settled on a Black-n-White Stallion w/dun factor, his name is Medallion's AMXpress. Well I took my mare to the vet and had her checked out to make sure she did not have any infections that would stop her from breeding. This was her first time and I was nervous, I wanted to make sure she was OK. The test results came back fine so I took her up to see her new boyfriend. We dropped her off on March 19,1999. I was so nervous, wondering if she would be OK, I had never left her anywhere before.

The next day the lady that owned the stallion called and told me I was in luck, Nikki was in heat. This news was great, I thought she wouldn't have to be there that long. Well the lady used Medallion to breed on , she bred her everyday for about the first three days, then every other day. I called daily to see how she was doing. The lady (Tammi) told me she was doing fine. On April 4,1999 Tammi called me and said 'Heidi there's something wrong, your mare is still standing and letting Medallion mount her'. I didn't know what to do, this was the first time I had ever sent a mare out to breed. 'Well' she said 'I'm going to call my vet', and also gave me his phone number so that I could talk to him. We both called the vet, he said that the mare was in a transitional heat cycle and that we would have to give her regimate for 14 days and bring her out of it so she could come into a regular heat cycle and release an egg to be fertilised. Instead of going all the way there and bringing her home we just had Tammi give her the medicine. But before she gave her the medicine I asked the vet if there was any chance that my mare was in foal. He told me there's a 90% chance she was not. So I gave the OK for Tammi to give Nikki the medicine. When the course of medicine was complete, I called Tammi and asked how long we wait until she is in heat again. Tammi told me it should take about a week. Well, one week later Nikki wasn't in heat, so Tammi called me and we agreed to have the vet come out and check her. He palpated her and told Tammi she had an ovary swelled up and should release an egg soon, so we waited 5 more days. By this time she still wasn't in heat, so we agreed to have the vet come out again. He did and this time did an ultrasound test. He said she's pregnant and has been the whole time. I asked him if the regimate would have hurt the foal, he said no, some people put their mares on it to keep them bred. After going through all that, we were relieved when we could bring her home. Two days after she was home she started with colic. So we had to take her to the vet again, that cost us even more money.

Needless to say on March 4, 2000. Nikki gave birth to a beautiful Red Dun Lineback Tobiano Stud Colt. He is 60/40 color, just beautiful, I registered him as Heartbreaker Express. I am now offering him for sale, as my husband has decided he really wants a black-n-white foal. So here we go again breeding our mare, I guess some people {us} never learn.

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