Anything but an Encore (continued)

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Peter Solomon didn't say anything, but this didn't bother the girl - whom spoke as little as possible herself. She glanced over her shoulder as Shiloh pawed at the ground, and Cara took this as her cue to exit the stall - the mare being very polite about asking the girl to leave - and she left the mare in peace. She made sure the lid was on the foaling kit so that none of the dust particles that were floating though the air could fall into the sterile container.

She stood on the balls of her feet as she looked over the stall door. She wasn't so short that she couldn't see over while standing on the flat of her feet, but balancing on the balls of her feet helped her feel slightly less nervous as she watched the pretty little horse as Shiloh resumed her pacing, stopping every now and then to kick at her stomach. She watched with interest as the mare lay down, stood up and then returned to lying on the ground. Another contraction rippled through the mare as she fell onto her side with her legs fully extended. Cara frowned though as the mare's perineal region was facing the back of the stall, hiding the birth from the humans.

Cara licked her lips and looked at Sir Solomon. "May I go in there with her?" She asked. She knew that she owned the mare, but while she was under the care of the Academy, she knew that she had to ask. She also knew that the mare would remain where she was if she entered the stall. She just wanted to be able to watch, just in case the foal was breech - which would then require the help of the barn manager.

[Peter Solomon]

Peter watched as Cara left the mare's stall without a word, nodding just slightly to himself as he saw the care with which she made sure that her foaling kit stayed as sterile as possible. He turned his attention back to the flaxen mare in the stall, watching as she paced around. He kept a 'respectful' distance away from the stall door, knowing that Cara and the mare had a close bond. The distance didn't bother him, as his six foot two inch frame let him look into the mare's stall without any difficulty. He watched the mare's movements in a silence that didn't show how he was comparing the mare's behaviour to other cases he had seen, hoping that nothing would go wrong with her foal this time around. As the mare fell onto her side, he shifted forward just slightly, to get a better angle of the mare's head, which was hidden by the stall door.

When Cara's soft voice broke the near-silence, Peter shifted his attention to her for a moment, considering for a split second before he nodded, "Let me know if anything is going wrong. I don't want to come in and bother her, but if anything seems abnormal, tell me right away." He knew the girl was used to births, had heard the story of the twins in the equine clinic, but still, that didn't mean he would trust her without some trial. Trial by fire, he mused briefly, before watching Cara again.

[Cara-Jean Kitchi]

Cara bowed when she was given permission to enter the mare's stall. "Of course, Sir Solomon." She replied, slightly surprised that he felt he needed to tell her to speak up if anything went wrong. This was one foaling she wanted to be as normal as possible. If the mare lost another foal, she would be dropped from the rehabilitation programme and then she had no idea what would happen with the temperamental mare.

Entering the stall, she smiled as Shiloh as the mare looked up. "Hey girl." She said in a calm and confident voice, the strain she felt was missing from her voice as the last thing she needed the mare to pick up on.

Walking down the stall, she nodded when she saw that the mare was pretty much lying in the middle of it, with lots of room on all sides, which meant that she had no reason to make the pony stand up and then get comfortable again. She walked over to the back wall and sat down so that she could watch the mare without distracting the Haflinger too much.

Once things got going, it all just happened at once. Cara silently begged that the amniotic sac would be white. "Okay, so far things looks good." She breathed as the balloon like membrane came into view.

The mare strained again as another contraction rippled through her and the feet were easily seen. Cara frowned as she studied the feet and could see that one foot several inches above the first, and she nodded when she could see that the feet were facing down. The girl forced herself to remain as still as possible, and oh so thankful that everything was going by the book.

She smiled as the nose was the next thing to appear, which was always the next thing to go wrong, as the foal's head could have been lying against it's back. It was at this point that everything seemed to come to a halt as the mare took a rest. Cara's silent thoughts went to the mare as now was not the right time to be offering the mare words of encouragement, all her concentration needed to go into delivering the foal.

Cara glanced over at the door and gave the man a hint of a smile to show things were going well, before she turned back to the mare as another contraction rippled through her and she gave another push and the rest of that foal slid out, landing gently on the straw.

The girl knew that it was important to make sure that the foal could breathe, but it was also important not to get between mother and foal. The foal flicked it's head and the white sac that covered the foal broke open before the baby rested it's head on the ground again. She looked at Shiloh who was lying flat on the ground, gaining her strength before she sat up and looked over at her baby, the movement easily breaking the umbilical cord.

She looked at the little foal that lay on the ground, the baby was a cream colour with a dark mane and tail. "Possibly a buckskin." She said with a smile as she pushed her back against the wall and slid up the wall until she was standing. "Easy, Shiloh." She whispered. "I'm leaving." She watched as the mare heaved herself up to her feet and carefully turned around to check out her baby.

The girl didn't leave though as she watched the mare bond with her baby as she licked the foal clean. "A filly foal." She said softly as she finally stepped away from the pair and over to the door. "When they have finished bonding, I'll clean the foal's stump." She watched from the inside of the door as the bay's colour began to come through as her dam cleaned her. "I'll need to phone Mr and Mrs D'Angelo this morning and let them know they have a filly." The one condition of her being able to use their stud was that they had first reserve on the foal, especially if the baby took on the stud's colouring.

[Peter Solomon]

Peter watched the petite girl entering the stall, then turned his attention again to the mare laying down in the stall. While he couldn't really see anything about what was happening, apart from the contractions that rippled across the mare's body. When Cara spoke, Peter briefly looked at her, nodding silently, before fixing his concentration at a halfway point that he could watch both the mare and the girl. As he saw the girl's smile, he returned the gesture, his ears picking up the soft thump of the foal making its way out of the mare. He stayed silent, watching the barest sliver of the foal that he could see above the body of the mare, until Shiloh rolled back onto her stomach, concealing her entire foal once more.

As Cara mentioned the colour of the foal, Peter nodded. While it wasn't yet what the D'Angelos wanted, he knew that the spots could be obscured at the moment, and would show once the filly was a little bit older. He stepped back to let Cara out of the stall, watching Shiloh licking the little girl, "Well done." When he heard Cara saying that she would clean the foal's stump later, he nodded again, not surprised that she knew what she was doing. "That sounds wonderful." He looked at the filly again, "She looks healthy, Shiloh did well this time." He knew of the mare's previous history, which made the perfect-looking little filly twice as nice.