This is HF Albina’s Thistled Spring, who we called “Thistle.”

We purchased Thistle’s mother, Jules Monet Albina of Horsefeathers Farm, in August of 2023.  She was placed in with our full-sized herd which included our full-sized stallion, Mason, for a possible late-summer breeding.  We don’t like to breed after the end of August because we like foals to wean and adjust to their new diet in the autumn before the cold of winter sets in.

Our autumn pregnancy checks came and we were pleased to find that Bina was pregnant, which made sense to us, since the only horse that Bina bonded with in the pasture was our stallion initially.

I remember looking at Bina in February and March of 2024 and thinking to myself, my goodness she’s massive!

April and May came around, and she continued to add girth.

We had a buyer who we now consider a good friend come to pick up a filly foal from us.  She was a very experienced breeder with decades of experience.  She remarked that Bina looked like she could pop any time, and she said that she looked only six weeks out when she looked at her.

Bina was moved into the birthing barn shortly after that when I also noticed developments that signaled she was closer than we had anticipated.

Bina was a maiden mare, and if you know about breeding horses, early development of udders could signal bad things like placentitis.  She was put under close supervision with checks several times per day physically and overnight watches on cameras along with our other imminent mothers.

There are good days for foaling and then there are “please God, don’t let her foal today,” days.  That last week in May in 2024 had some of those bad days.  It wasn’t cold, but we had had a lot of rain, everything was mud, there was no wind to dry things off, and the skies were overcast and gloomy, so there was no sunlight to help dry things up.  It was just a soggy mess.

We had our two last mares for foaling in the barn at that time, Bina, and across the hall from her, Sparrow.

On the 26th of May, I had done my morning checks on both mares.  Bina was showing signs that she’d be going first, but nothing looked imminent.  I went along with morning chores with feeding and watering duties.  I was finishing up with going into the barn to tidy stalls and place fresh hay for the pregnant mares when I heard a “Rhee, hee-hee-hee,” issue from Bina’s stall.

There she was.  Laying in the murky, damp stall that needed a lot of spot-cleaning from the prior night.  She was fully formed and absolutely full-term.

Mental calculations told me that Mason wasn’t the daddy.  She had come to us pregnant and had been pregnant for two months when we purchased her.  I don’t believe the prior owner knew that she was pregnant.

We had another Jerry Springer moment of “Who’s the Daddy?” on our farm.

The prior owner had had a Quarter Horse gelding in the pasture, but also a very young Gypsy Vanner colt.  We went with the thought that the Gypsy Vanner colt must be the daddy or there was an outside possibility of a proud-cut/field cut Quarter Horse daddy.

Thistle was born mostly white with an almost lavender top-line dusting from her head to tail.  From the name bank, Thistled Spring fit her very well.  She looked like the color pattern of a thistle flower, and we knew that based on Bina’s genetics, she would lighten up to a white just like a thistle flower.  Her granddam was Darby Rose and her mother had the birth name of Jules Monet.  Monet was a painter famous for the painting Water Lilies.  She needed a flower name and there wasn’t anything more perfect for her.

Bina was a maiden mare and was just figuring everything out.  She was very painfully engorged.

Thistle was up and about and hitting all her milestones properly.  The last one was not going well, though.  She was actively seeking suckling, but Bina didn’t know what was going on and every time Thistle approached her, she side-shuffled away because of the pain in her udders.

It’s a struggle to sit and watch and let nature take its course.  This is a difficult and stressful period for breeders.  A year of planning and caretaking comes down to what happens in minutes.

It quickly became apparent that we had a three-person job here with only two people available.  Bina was not going to allow Thistle to feed.  We needed one person at the head of Bina with a halter, one person at the hindquarters to keep her from dodging away, and one person to guide Thistle to the right place.  We didn’t yet have our stocks up, and that would’ve cut it down to a two-person job, but the stocks went up a few months after this.

Every configuration we attempted failed.  It was beginning to upset Bina.  The decision was made to haul them up to the large animal veterinarian clinic to get the extra hands that we needed and to also do the IGG checks we needed anyway.

At the vet hospital, they put Bina in stocks, milked her, relieved her pain from that pressure, and the first bits of milk that Thistle had was from a bottle.  Day 2, Thistle did require a little bit of plasma, so it was a good thing they were brought in.  Maiden mares sometimes have colostrum quality issues their first time.  Bina had lots and lots of milk, but it was just a bit under the quality needed.

It was a short stay for them there, and there was no looking back once they were back home at our farm.

Thistle was the other half of the “sabino twins” with Fluffy.  They did everything together as they grew older.  It was often hard to tell them apart.  Where Fluffy was just a tad more reserved, Thistle was a straight-up pickpocket.  She was always bold and in your face.  She demanded daily attention and petting and then would chase you out of the pasture when you tried to escape.  She was a bit of a tomboy horse and was no delicate, little flower despite her name…as flowers go, Thistle was a good one for her.

She’s silver dapple sabino like her momma.  The only thing that missed her from her momma was Bina’s H2 gene, so Thistle is a carbon copy of her mother but should be about a hand taller.  Bina being somewhere around 13.1hh to 13.2hh, Thistle should be a big, beautiful white unicorn somewhere over 14hh.  She was nearly bleached out when we found her new owner.

When parentage DNA results came back, the Gypsy Vanner Horse colt that we had suspected was her sire was confirmed.  Thistle was a Chywoon Remington granddaughter.  If you know this stallion, you know how happy we were with that.

She found a home with a local person who we had been friends with over social media for some time.  It was great to finally meet face-to-face.  For a few years now, we wanted her to have one of our foals, and Thistle was the one for her.  She’s going to have a fantastic life with the potential to be put in shows.  This entire year has been great for our placements.