What A Week

Okay, so yesterday was one hell-of-a day. Most of the day, like most of the week, pasted in a blur and at one moment around 7:00 last night I took a step back and went "Woah! Where did Wednesday go?" So, I appologize for no photo challenge Wednesday this week, some how that day seemed disappear- maybe it was all the studying I was doing. I did take pictures this week though, and I have some video I'll share with you- the only reason I managed to do this however, is because I've started bringing my camera to my horse handling lab. Not only is it foaling season, so there are a ton of cute babies to take pictures of, but its much easier to study the things we learn if we can take pictures to review. I wish I had taken more pictures of a few things in the course of the day, but my batteries were low. One of the things I saw yesterday will never leave my mind, even if I didn't take a picture. While we were taking our horse handling exam, one of the mares aborted her nine- month old foal (gestation in horses is eleven months, so the foal had no chance). After we had finished our test we were given the option to see the foal, and most all of us took the chance. Although the abortion of a foal is sad, it is an opportunity to learn, and should be taken. We weren't told why the foal was aborted, or much of any information, the barn manager and our teacher didn't want to go into details and we weren't going to push the sensitive subject. However, we did talk about the development of the foal, and the condition of the placenta. At nine months the foal is almost full sized, and looks very similar to how it would in eleven months; the major external differences are the ears are not fully developed and cannot hold any ridged form, and the hooves are soft- the hard hoof walls being the last thing to develop. The image of the dark bay foal, half wrapped in amnion, attached by a thick twisted umbilical cord to the placenta, laying beneath that heat lamp will never leave my mind. One day I hope to keep as many abortions from occurring as I possibly can.