Gazin ibn Pharao

* 10^th May 2009

Thoroughbred Arabian gelding (polish-egyptian), rigid measure: 148 cm

breeder and owner: Sabine Brockamp

Gazin is a real darling of fortune! At least during his birth he had a blessing in disguise. His story goes like this:

I was feverishly looking forward to my first birth of a foal: "Such a birth of a foal is a real great experience! It's hard to believe how fast it happens. Normally the foal is born in about ten minutes! I hope it isn't yet there when we arrive at the stables in a moment." - so my wife promised me. We both did not know what was going to face us!

When for our mare Galina the time had come to give birth to her foal Gazin, she somehow must have felt that something was different than with the previous foals, that something wasn't right! Horses are able to control the point in time to foal in a certain range. In the great outdoors this serves to find a secure moment/a secure place to give birth to the foal. We suppose that Galina shifted here as well and delayed the nativity. She waited until we showed up in the stables in the evening to check if everything is in order. She did know, she would need help with this childbirth! And directly when we looked for her it started, "The amion already burst, it's starting!"

Galina lay herself absolutely unfavourably into her foaling box, with her hind quaters directly into a corner. One could hardly stand behind her. The egg integument appeared and a chunk of a fluid-filled bladder looked out of the vagina. Then Galina stood up again, reclined again, she squeezed, groaned - but nothing budged! When laying down for the forth time she finally lay in the correct position. She was severly sweating and appeared to suffer heavy pains. As still nothing was to see from the foal my wife took of her jacket, rolled up her sleeves, yelled for iodine soap and water and stout-heartedly reached into the mare. What a shock, the foal lay somehow wrong! The small hoofs were beeing pressed towards Galinas tail root. My wife pushed back the foals legs and somehow manage to extract the two front hoofs. Meanwhile I called for the vet.

We ripped open the egg integument and tried to pull out the foal on his legs while Galina was pressing. Each of us hung on one leg and dragged as hard as we possibly could! During the third further contraction finally half of the foals head appeared. His tongue had already turned blue and laterally hung out of his mouth! "I'm afraid the foal's already dead!" my wife said. The head wasn't located above the forlegs as it normally is during birth, but below them - the foal lay headlong in the dam!

Galina visibly smote herself and in her torment she rolled herself on the back and remained in this position. She lay there almost like a dog, the forelegs angled, the hindlegs steeply streched into the air. She pressed and we continued to pull, but the foal stuck. After a short time I turned Galina with her legs into a lateral position, while my wife clamped the foal with his legs. Hereby it somehow worked to turn the foal into the womb. Then with the next contraction we finally could drag it out up to the spine. The hindlegs weren't out yet when suddenly the foal stirred - it was alive after all! Quickly we completely pulled out the little worm - it was a small brown stallion.

Gazin was so weak due to his birth, he couldn't even lay upright. Meanwhile the vet had finally arrived. She examined the newcomer and his mother and assessed that the two were fine, according to the circumstances. After Gazin drank for the first time, his animal spirits visibly revived. And two days later nothing gave away anymore, that he almost failed with his start into life.