Foaling Season Catch Up... A LOT Has Happened

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I thought it was the Foal Alert again. It’s  been happening so often. Hello. Hey. Yeah,
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we’re trying to film a podcast right quick. Welcome back to Katching Up With Katie. We’re
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all very tired. We’re all very tired.  I don’t know what time or day it is   most of the time. We’ve had three foals this  week. We had one the previous week as well,
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and we have been on Foal Watch for what feels like  the entirety of existence. So it is what it is.
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We’ve been meaning to do a catch up about  foaling season at this point, but we skipped
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last week due to how much was happening. We  could not come in here and sit down and film.
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So we’re a little bit behind. We’re two weeks  behind. We have not spoken about foaling season.
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And so we have a lot of questions for  you, Lindsay. Because this is Lindsay’s
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first foaling season, and she has now seen  a variety of foalings. She has seen a super
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quick, pretty easy one. She has seen one that was  like, “Oh, baby’s not doing what it’s supposed to
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be doing.” Then she saw one that was like, “Okay,  kind of traumatic birth, but easy after.” And then
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you saw a couple traumatic births that were  easy after. So you’ve seen easy everything,
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kind of traumatic, half traumatic, kind of hard  everything. You’ve seen an array of things.
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Now that’s not anywhere near all the things  they can throw at us, I can imagine. But I
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did put a little thing on Facebook just asking  what people want to know. What do the people
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want to know about your first foaling season? Now Nate, this is your fourth foaling season.
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You didn’t see any of the foalings on that  first one, but this is your fourth foaling   season. Do you have any takeaways  from this season versus prior ones?
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I guess it’s been a little more unpredictable. I  don’t know if it’s more unpredictable, but they’re
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all going overdue. They’re all going over, and  that is something that’s distinctly different.
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Before, it was late 320s, maybe early 330s. Maybe  one a year went to their due date. And now they’re
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all like 340, 344, 342, 355, 351, whatever it was.  But they’re all going over. So that’s different.
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And we’ve never had this many foals in one week.  We’ve had one. We’ve had two in a week. Not back
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to back nights though. There were a couple  times last year in January and February where
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there were two or three days in between.  That seemed close. That seemed manageable.
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This week we had one born Monday, Tuesday, and  Thursday. And the Monday, Tuesday threw everything
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for a loop. You talk about stress testing a  system. Monday, Tuesday was the stress test.
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Can we talk about the behind the scenes part  of that that we didn’t even think would happen?
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We have so many hard drives. We have anywhere from  six to eight terabytes of hard drives just ready
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to go. We film videos like normal, and I tend to  play on the safe side of double backing everything
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up and not deleting anything until after  it’s posted. So we double back everything up.
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Every video you film takes up twice the amount  of space because you’re backing it up. So regular
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videos are already taking up six to  eight terabytes of space. Then you have a   birth and you’re like, “Okay, the birth by itself  is going to take up two terabytes.” Then the next
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night you have a long birth. That one was like  four and a half hours. That one by itself is
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taking up three terabytes of hard drive space. Now we’re in a position where we’re like, okay,
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we have eight terabytes of footage. Every hard  drive we have is full. The cards we’re filming
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with are full. We can’t film another thing. So we’re like, let’s go buy some hard drives.
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Apparently there’s a huge shortage.  We found one Best Buy an hour from   here that had one hard drive. We bought the  last one in the store. Trying to scramble
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to find new places to store footage was chaos. And then we have a really big storage system here
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that we could have been offloading things  onto. But how long was it taking you?
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See, that’s the thing. It’s a ton  of space, but it transfers slowly.  Mhm. So if you were going to transfer  eight terabytes onto that drive,
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that may take three days to transfer. But we have  to film tomorrow. What if another horse is born?
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We’re not just doing the births. We were trying to  do Moose’s first time going out. We were trying to   do Katching Up With Katie. We had the vet come out  for the goats. There were other things going on.
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So we had to go home, find extra random  hard drives, and figure out how to clear
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some of those off. We were scrambling. This has  been one of the most chaotic weeks of my life.
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It’s been crazy sleep-wise because it would have  been chaotic anyway if social media wasn’t my job
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and I foaled out this many mares. That alone would  have been chaotic, especially with multiple babies   and one needing leg wraps and things like that. But on top of that, my job is the content
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surrounding it. So not only is your  crisis happening, which becomes my
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crisis because we’re trying to problem solve  and make it work since it’s our business,
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I’m also having to post constantly. Someone counted. The day one baby was
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born at 10:00 p.m. and the other was born at 3:00  a.m., in that 30-hour period I posted 48 videos on
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TikTok between regular content and subscriber  content. Forty-eight videos in one day. And
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then we’re doing Snapchat. It’s just been chaos. It feels like every stick is in every fire. That’s
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not the phrase, but that’s what it feels like. And I didn’t even make videos about everything. I   think I put it on Snapchat, but we also had a sick  cow. I had to make a vet call for the cow. Other
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things don’t stop because we’re foaling.  All the craziness is in addition to normal.
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So that’s been what’s happening the past few  days. We still have to post the birth videos.
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Y’all are going to see those after this,  so we don’t want to give away too much.  But I’m going to ask you some questions because  this is your first foaling season, and I have not
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looked at these until now. The first one is:
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have you learned any self-preservation skills? Yes. Katie found out today. Elena and I were in
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the field with the weanlings. At first they were  really far away, so I called Katie and said, “Is
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it okay if we go in the pasture, or do you want me  to stay out? Because I have no self-preservation.”
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She was like, “You didn’t even say no.  You just asked if it was okay to go in.”  I was like, “Self-preservation?”  That’s all she said.
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We went in. They weren’t moving. They were  far away from us. Eventually they came over,   and the main thing I’ve learned is  if they start to crowd around you,
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get out of the situation. If they put you  between two of them, get out of the situation.  I’m slowly learning. I’m now looking  back at situations through your eyes.
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Sometimes you learn best by teaching. We  were safe. If they started coming toward me,
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I’d push them aside and create space. Have you been in a stressful situation like
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this before? And if not, how have you been coping  with lack of sleep and stressful situations?
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Last night was stressful. This week has been a little
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harder than most. The first round of Foal Watch,  I was still excited. I’m still excited for foaling
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season, but that first round I was amped up  and prepared. We were playing more Dungeons and
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Dragons. We were having a lot of fun. This week we had crisis.
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It’s definitely taken a toll on my mental health  a little bit. I’m working on it. I’m relaxing,
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talking myself down, my mom’s keeping me sane.  I cope with stressful things by sleeping.
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I sleep on my lunch break. Last night we had a rough
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birth. Y’all will see that with Coco. We  had to have the vet out. It was scary.
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Are you good now after everything’s  said and done? Or did it bring to
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light how quickly things can go south? It definitely reminded me how quickly things
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can go south. I was getting out of the shower  when Katie called me. I ran in a tank top, towel
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on my head, no shoes. I was like, “What can I do?” I was ready but still tired and stressed. I paused
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for a second and kind of freaked out. I didn’t  know what to do. Then Katie handed me her phone,
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and I was like, okay, I need to get  myself together, calm down, and be here.  I kind of had to be the one  making calls and coordinating
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things. Not a call girl. You know what I meant. It definitely reminded me how quickly things can
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go south compared to the ones that went well. We’re tired. She slept. You got good sleep
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last night. Yes, I did.  Going into the weekend, people are asking  if you’re traumatized yet. You’re not.
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I’m not. Some people caught   what I said in the video when I said if that had  happened at another time in my personal life,
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I wouldn’t have been able to handle it. But  in that moment, it was a little traumatizing   because it set in that something could  go very wrong very quickly, and it was.  Some people did catch what I said in the video  when you were like, “It’s okay.” I literally said,
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“If this were to happen right now, I wouldn’t be  able to handle it simply because of everything   that’s been going on in my personal life.” It was a little traumatizing in that moment
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because it kind of set in that something could go  very wrong very quickly, and it was. I was like,
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we need to call someone. We need help. Love my vet. Love Dr. Matthew. He just was
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not in a hurry enough for me in that moment. Okay. Let me take a second. What’s been
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your biggest foaling season  ick? What’s grossed you out?
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There was one thing that icked me  out and I don’t remember what it was.  The hippo? No. I don’t like
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the placentas falling out. Ricky’s came out all  together, and eventually the baby pulled it off,
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but watching it slide out while still connected  was interesting. That doesn’t happen very often.
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I know it’s normal for babies  to be connected after birth,   but with humans there’s a lot of intervention,  so it’s different. I don’t think I’ve seen a
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placenta come out attached to the baby like that. Luckily she wiggled around and pulled it off. But
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I don’t like the placentas. Especially when Dr.  Matthew was pulling it apart and explaining it.
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He’s like, “This is the horn and this  is that,” and I’m like, all of that?
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With Indie, her baby was so big, so her placenta  was gigantic. While she was laying there,
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I was like, okay, I’m going to tie it up.  I was deep in that placenta for a second.
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Watching you tie Coco’s, I had to look away. By the way, I get asked why I tie it in a
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knot. They step on it. It gets long and  they step on it. If they step on it,
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they could pull it when you don’t want it  pulled. You want it to come out naturally.
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Also, if they tear it and there’s no weight on  it anymore, they can retain it. So we tie it in
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a knot if we can. If the mom is still laying  down, I’ll do it right away because if you
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wait too long and they get spicy or they’re  hurting, it’s hard to get back there and tie it.
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It adds weight and keeps them from stepping on it.  Sometimes I tie towels in it. With Raven, she tore
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hers, so I tied a towel in it to add weight. The worst thing ever is when everything goes
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perfect and then you have to sit  there and wait on that placenta.   That can be trouble in and of itself. The last retained placenta I had was
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Daphne. The vet had to come flush her multiple  times. That was with Trudy having Daphne.
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Okay, so that’s your ick. Nate, what’s your ick? Honesty hour. My ick is an early bedtime.
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Oh my gosh. Everybody has decided to
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go to bed early at some point, which is fine.  Get your sleep. But it always seems to happen
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when I’m trying to make a plan to play a game. We need to do another live Dungeons and Dragons.
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We’re primed where we are in the storyline.  We could catch everyone up and do it.
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So I guess my ick is people who  don’t want to play games with me.  Okay, but what’s your actual foaling ick? I don’t think I have one. I thrive in the
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chaos. I have to look at it, film it, and all my  senses are in it except touch, which is probably
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the ickiest sense. But I don’t think I have one. I realized my ick is eating food around
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it while we’re doing it. Also the cat laid a mole   she caught on everyone’s food boxes one night. With Raven’s, we ordered dinner because we thought
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it was going to happen that night. We were pulling  out of the driveway to head to the barn and our
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food was pulling in behind us. I cracked my window  just to smell it one last time before it got cold.
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Jonathan fed me one bite and  then wouldn’t give me another.
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Okay. What’s been the biggest surprise for you? When I got hired and they were preparing me for
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foaling season, they brought up Foal Alert.  I didn’t know what that was. Watching it get
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put in was surprising. It’s a genius invention,  but seeing something get stitched in is a little
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jarring, even if it’s just two stitches. Coco’s baby shocked me the most. Everything
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happened so quickly and you were like, “I  need help,” and I was like, what do I do?
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She’s a mini, so everything is smaller and  tighter. She was bound and determined to
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push him out. There was no repositioning  or pushing back in. It was difficult.
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People asked if you were shocked by  how tiny Coco’s baby was. This isn’t
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her first mini baby. She found Jack before.  But it’s still shocking how small they are.
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We remember trying to push Jack out of the pen  and struggling to pick him up. This one, you just
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pick him up lightly. He feels like nothing. Someone said Lindsay would probably rather
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be on Foal Watch than deleting  comments from last night’s live.
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That’s wrong. She thrives in that chat. I  kept telling her to get out of the chat and
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go eat. She takes that job very seriously. When we play Dungeons and Dragons live,
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we’re like, “Cassia, it’s your turn,”  because she’s focused on the chat.
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Renee said thank you for the great job  on Snapchat. She really does try to get
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the fun stuff that I’m not filming,  especially with Rachel. That’s what
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you’re missing if you’re not on Snapchat. What’s been your favorite foal so far?
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Bobby. Her pink nose  immediately captured my heart.
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My favorite is Moose. He  already has so much spice.
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We don’t really know Coco’s baby  yet. He’s just a little peanut.
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Other than the chance of something  going wrong, what’s been your least
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favorite part of foaling season? The 2 a.m. wake-up call for Ricky.
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We had fallen asleep about an hour earlier and  were in deep sleep when the Foal Alert went off.
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Everyone thinks I pay people to watch  the cameras. I don’t. That’s me.
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Buck was sleeping on the landing. Nate and Matt  were in a room. When the Foal Alert went off, I
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started yelling as I was putting clothes on  because I didn’t have time to knock on doors.
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I will say, in an emergency, I can jump up  and run. I wake up ready to move. There’s no
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sense of urgency with some of these men.  Me and Lindsay were already down there
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helping and then they mosey in. We had to gather equipment.
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It should have already been loaded. Women wake up in the middle of the
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night ready for action. It’s not  peaceful. It’s like emergency mode.
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My ick with Jonathan is that he will not wake  up from a nap. If the condition of the nap is
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that we’re getting up and doing something  before it gets dark, that is not a one-time
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issue. That is every nap. We’re hanging in there. We
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have one more foal. Charlotte is one day  overdue. That just means she’s over her due date,
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not that it’s an emergency. She could  go another week and a half and be fine.
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We have Charlotte, then a little break, then  Lexi, then a little break, then four more,   then a little break, then the minis.  Then breeding starts again and calving.
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We’ve kind of committed to full watch for  Charlotte until she foals. If we take a night
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off and she has it, that would be a letdown. We’ve been live pretty much every night.
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Sometimes we’re talking. Sometimes it’s just  cameras checking on everyone. It’s fun now
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that there are babies up and moving around. It hasn’t been the easiest foaling season,
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but everyone is safe and alive. Matt did not quit. He’s fine.
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There are just other jobs that have to get done  during the day, so everyone is stretched thin.
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Hope y’all enjoyed today’s catch up. We didn’t  give too much away about each of the births   because they’re not posted yet. Watch those as  they come out, and we’ll see you in the next one.