Little Lefty and his pal Stormy: unloading from the trailer, meeting the first time, drinking milk, and Lefty’s layers of blankets!

This is a round-up of my social media updates, all in one place for your reading (and viewing) enjoyment!

Videos of the orphans arriving. Little Lefty got his name because he has white on his left front and left hind. Later, after he had the name a few days Clara Quade (you’ll see her in Stormy’s video) observed that the rhyme many children learn when tightening and loosening something says, “ righty tighty, Lefty, Lucy”… which now makes me tear up every time I hear it💔

Video #2 of orphans arriving. In the video, you’ll hear me say that the paint filly doesn’t have a name yet. She came from Last Chance Corral with the name Hazmat, but shortly arriving here, she became Stormy.

This is a video of the two orphan foals meeting for the first time. The body language is fascinating to watch. They were born within a day of each other but have already had vastly different life experiences. �Little Lefty (in the blanket) had only been with his mom up to this point. He was born premature and struggled to live for the first few days. As he improved, his mother declined due to repercussions from the birth. With both of those things going on, they had each other for company.
By contrast, Stormy was at Last Chance Corral with other foals.
Watch as they meet, how different they are with their body language. Stormy has the cutest ‘bold’ walk as she approaches Lefty for the first time. Lefty pays no attention, and has no reaction. He was exploring the round pen panels instead. Stormy tries to decide what to make of his lack of reaction, and walks by him several times.
Notice how aware Stormy is of her surroundings. Noticing Lefty, looking over her shoulder at me, etc. Watch how her walk changes from high-neck and animated, to more fluid.
Also watch when Lefty does decide to say hi. He looks confident and trusting as he walks up, Stormy is the one who shrinks back from his touch. As she walks away, he follows her into the stall.
I love watching body language in horses. As you develop your eye for what is going on, you learn much from the horses because this is the language they speak.

Yes, they actually have 2 buckets…but after only about 24 hours together they prefer to do EVERYTHING together. 😅
They get especially excited about warm milk. Although they always have milk available (it’s my new part time job), they get especially excited when it is still warm.
I’ve been getting questions about what they eat and how often so I’ll answer them here and post some more pictures and videos in the comments.
They always have milk available. They are averaging around 15 gallons a day, total for both of them. I wish you could smell it… but if you’ve ever smelled cake batter, that’s exactly what it smells like. I will post a photo of the product and a link if you’re interested in what it’s made of.
They do have a milk pellet available but they’re not interested yet.

Lefty and the ‘sleeping bag’…🤣
If you’ve been watching Lefty’s videos closely, you might have noticed him shivering slightly. Although I have never previously blanketed a foal, it was obvious that Lefty needed something. My first guess, the little light blue blanket, just wasn’t enough.
The first night he was home, I used a knife to poke holes in that light blue blanket, and sewed two layers of a fleece blanket inside of it at 8pm. At 2am, he was shivering again and I added two more layers. Imagine folding a twin sized blanket into four layers and cutting it to fit under the foal blanket.
☹️Still…he was shivering. So I wrapped him up in a full size horse blanket (I’ll post a photos below) and waited for the sun to rise.
At 10am (when they open) I called Schneider Saddlery and explained my situation. They were AMAZING. I told them he was tiny, asked them to hold one of everything in his size…and they told me ‘yes, and we will pull the large dog blankets too’.
🤗If I could have hugged them through the phone I would have.
It’s an hour and forty five minutes one way…but in the early afternoon I left with three more layers for Lefty.
Yes, he owns more blankets than any other horse in the barn.
I’ll post photos of his ‘base layers’ in the comments. First, the large dog blanket, then the smallest horse fleece…and then the top one which I refer to as ‘the sleeping bag’😂…because when he curls up all you can see is his tiny head poking out. (I’ll put a photo below)
🥰It is the cutest thing ever.
Well, one of the many cute things.
Last night, as I changed his layers (the warm day/cool night issue), I cracked up. Here he stands, a few weeks old, and doesn’t move as I put a full body wrap on him.
His ‘sleeping bag’ comes off when it warms up…and the best part is that he finally stopped shivering!
P.S.- Keep in mind he was born premature, so he doesn’t have a full hair coat like Stormy does. His mane is very sparse and his body hair is very fine and silky.

Lefty’s base layer is an XL dog blanket.

His second layer is the smallest foal blanket.

His final layer (if needed) is the smallest 200g insulated blanket for foals. I call it ‘the sleeping bag’ because when he is all curled up, only his head sticks out!

Me attempting to sew more layers into blanket

the blanket is very tough, I could barely get through it with a knife so I involved a drill also!