Your Dose of Freya

[Silverine]

Welcome!

For those who don't know, I spent two years chronicling my adventures to have a (half) Knabstrupper foal. After set-backs, successes, worry, and joy, that baby is finally here! The old topic was created specifically to document the journey to the foal's birth, so I decided to create a new to document things now that she's here. My goal is to post a short video for everyone's enjoyment once a day, though there of course may be times when I miss a few days. (No daily stuff. But I will still occasionally update.)


A bit of background info first:

Freya (Dawn Valkyrie) was born just before 9AM EDT on March 15th, 2022. She is a beautiful dark brown with a blanket of leopard spotting over her hips and a bit on her flank, shoulder, and stifles. She also has a tiny star. She should become almost entirely leopard-spotted as she ages and goes through seasonal shedding. Her sire is Pax Asgard af Pegasus, a homozygous fewspot Knabstrupper stallion standing at Murder Hollow Farm in Pennsylvania. Her dam is my KWPN x APHA mare, A Touch of Magic (Mojo). She was bred with the intention of being a dressage horse in both the ridden and driven divisions (though from what I've seen so far she may actually excel as a reining horse ).

Here is Freya before she ever stood up:


And here is my favorite picture of her from her first day, before she was even twelve hours old:


Here are better views of her spots: And just for the sake of completion, here are her parents:

Pax Asgard af Pegasus	A Touch of Magic

If you would like to see pictures and videos of Freya's ultrasounds you can find them at the bottom of this post.

I think that's all the background anyone should need. On to the videos!

[Silverine]

Reserving this post in case I need it for something.

[Silverine]

03/17/2022

Freya is two days old as of 9AM this morning. She and Mojo are still being kept in a more confined area. Her fetlocks have strengthened up a bit but are still not quite where we want them. This is not unexpected. It rained heavily today and was quite cold so baby and mama came in for most of the day. Today's video showcases Freya trying out some new moves after she was let out of "jail".

Video Link

[KingstonDressage]

How exciting! I can’t believe it’s finally over and your breeding journey has come to a peaceful close! Also- thought I’d mention how pretty the name is. Freya is such a good choice of name and I’m sure she will grow up to be a beauty!

[~besthorsebreeder~]

OMG congratulations!!! She is SO pretty!!! Make sure to update us with pictures every now and again

[Silverine]

@KingstonDressage: It certainly doesn't feel over. It's so weird to be working with a completely blank slate in the baby. She has no idea what anything is and it's just not something I've ever dealt with before. Quite the learning curve for both of us. She's also not yet old enough to be bribed with grain - she's not even old enough to know what it is! I'm completely out of my depth without being able to use food bribes.

And thank you! It's not a name I ever thought of before she was born, and isn't the one I hoped to give her, but I think it's fitting.

@~besthorsebreeder~: Thank you! I think she's quite lovely myself but I'm rather biased. I will definitely post pictures as well - as long as I remember to take them!

[~besthorsebreeder~]

@KingstonDressage: It certainly doesn't feel over. It's so weird to be working with a completely blank slate in the baby. She has no idea what anything is and it's just not something I've ever dealt with before. Quite the learning curve for both of us. She's also not yet old enough to be bribed with grain - she's not even old enough to know what it is! I'm completely out of my depth without being able to use food bribes.

And thank you! It's not a name I ever thought of before she was born, and isn't the one I hoped to give her, but I think it's fitting.

@~besthorsebreeder~: Thank you! I think she's quite lovely myself but I'm rather biased. I will definitely post pictures as well - as long as I remember to take them!

[Silverine]

03/18/2022

Sadly I don't have too much to show today. I got trampled by one of the school horses this morning so didn't get to spend too much time at the barn. The horse literally ran me over and then stomped on my back. I had just put my gelding out in the field and then turned around to close the gate and she bulldozed me. It was not fun.

Anyway, before the bulldozing incident I got a few pictures. Sadly only three of them came out even somewhat decently.




I didn't get any video while I was out, but I did record a small clip of Freya being spicy on the "spy cam". Enjoy.
Video Link


My injuries today weren't overly terrible so I should still be able to spend some time at the barn tomorrow - especially as we're supposed to get more cold rain and mama and baby will need to come in for at least a little bit. Hopefully I'll get better pics then.

[BlackOak2]

Great run of great and bad luck... Seems like it's now time to pay your dues for having a safe and healthy birth and baby... -_- Such a mean world, isn't it? Balancing such things. Why Bad Luck??? Just the good. That's all we need. Just a little run of good.

It really looks like she's going to outgrow her ability to lean down and drink milk way sooner than weaning!
She'll be 'kneeing' to milk!

[KingstonDressage]

Wow! What a story- I hope your back is okay! The second picture really shows off her conformation! Don't get me wrong, I am NO breed/conformation specialist and probably don't know what I am talking about, but she looks like she a good conformation! Also, I didn't know you have a gelding! You should upload photos of him/ an other horses you have! We love to see it!