CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Amber~
At least Calvin had stopped looking so damned superior when she had pointed out that Bluefield’s was plagiarizing their own records. It was such a stupid thing to do. The mystery was that considering how all the mares travelled around from stud to stud, no one else had ever noticed.
Of course if all the mares now at the Bascom Stud had been bred at Bluefield’s last year, the deception would have been caught lickety-split. But when the repetitions were buried at random depths in several separate records, they would not get read by the same person. Not unless a novice like her was set to studying them. But it was hard to believe that those inaccurate records had never been spotted anywhere.
A horse’s labor is a fairly quick event, but it is still not instantaneous. Carlos poked his head in to make sure Sissy was doing okay.
“Not long now,” Calvin said easily. He stroked the mare’s sweating neck and shook his head at Amber. She understood that this was not the moment for revelations about Bluefield’s.
Carlos held up a small brown hand for silence and listened to Sissy’s breathing. “Hear that?” he asked Amber.
“Yes, sir. Sounds heavier than usual but not – if you’ll pardon the pun – labored.”
“That’s right. Cal, you call me if that changes. Don’t forget that there’s Vitamin K in the barrow. And Dr. Freddie is at the cow clinic.” The cow clinic was their nickname for the dispensary and veterinary office attached to the ranch.
Cal didn’t take his eyes off Sissy, but he nodded. Carlos left.
Sometime later Calvin said. “Take her bridle, Amber, I want to check her hind end.”
“I can see hooves,” she reported. This was really exciting.
Calvin moved to the rear and stayed there. Sissy’s foal was born just after lunch. Not that Amber got lunch. She was too busy watching while Calvin used those big hands of his to gently tug the foal out of the birth canal by its spindly legs.
After that things happened fast. The wobbly colt looked surprised to be standing on his four feet. Sissy spent a long time butting him gently towards her udder and licking his wet coat until he was revealed as several shades paler than he had been born. Tears sprang to Amber’s eyes as mother and baby bonded.
“Now the afterbirth,” Calvin said calmly. But it wasn’t. It was another foal. Calvin took this surprise in stride. His voice was just as level as before as he gave his instructions. “I want both Carlos and Freddie on the double.”
She whipped out her phone and sent out the special text. Calvin continued to monitor Sissy. He was patient and gentle with the mare as she struggled with this second birth. Fortunately, this foal was also presenting correctly.
“Get ready to give me that hypodermic with the K,” he ordered. “She may need it.”
Calvin might not have been the patronizing jerk who set her teeth on edge. He crooned unselfconsciously to the horse and comforted her. Sissy strained and a little filly slipped into his big hands just as Carlos rounded the corner.
Amber was sent out to stand in the aisle while Carlos listened to Sissy’s heart and Calvin dealt with the afterbirth. Dr. Freddie showed up soon after to check out all three horses. Despite the unusual labor and undetected twins, Sissy and her foals were fine.
“That’s a bullet dodged.” Freddie came out of her stall beaming. “So what do you think of horse births now, Amber?”
“I hope they’re not all this exciting.” Twins were wonderful, but dangerous and a little too much of a thrill.
“Mostly they’re not,” Dr. Freddie reassured her. “But we certainly got lucky this time. Neither foal is sickly, but naturally they’re not as heavy as I’d like. All three need to be kept warm. And if Sissy is nursing two, she needs her water bucket checked twice as often. We may have to supplement her milk too. Carlos will know.”
“I’ll make sure to check her water, sir.”
“I’ll keep an eye on them,” Carlos said briskly. “I’ll assign someone to stay with them tonight.” The two men left conferring in low voices.
“This is why we need an extra vet.” Calvin summoned Amber back to help clean up. She had to agree that Dr. Freddie was spread awfully thin.
Sissy didn’t mind when Calvin shifted her and her infants closer to the wall, so the bloodstained straw could be removed. But she nipped at Amber as she swabbed down the floor.
“Hey,” Calvin said softly. “None of that, my girl.” He grasped the mare’s bridle so that Amber could throw down fresh straw unmolested.
Then while Calvin handled the foals, Sissy merely watched him benignly. But as soon he gave Amber the colt to rub down, Sissy glared at her. Considering that Amber had been caring for the mare for weeks, this seemed like the basest ingratitude.
“I’m just getting your baby warm,” she assured Sissy.
The horse nibbled at Amber’s braid by way of warning. Calvin’s big hand removed her hair from the horse’s mouth. “She’s slobbered a bit,” he said. He was grinning. He looked younger and happier.
Suddenly she too was filled with euphoria. No wonder everyone had kept telling her that playing equine midwife was not to be missed. It was a total rush. She forgot about being hungry and tired. The colt leaned trustingly into the rough towel that was blotting the last of the amniotic fluid from his coat.
“Should I comb out his tail and mane?” she asked. They were both just soft stubby bristles.
Calvin laughed. “Nope. Let Sissy have the little fellow back as soon as he’s dry. She’ll want to lick him all over to get the smell of antiseptic off. And he needs to nurse some more. His sister needs toweling off too.”
He was right. As soon as she let the foal go, Sissy used her head to support him to her teat. He suckled and then his knees buckled and he collapsed exhausted under his mom. Sissy carefully knelt beside him and snuggled him into her big warm body. The foal was instantly asleep, even as his mother’s big tongue continued to groom him.
As soon as the filly was dry, Sissy squirmed around until she could get to her feet and allow the other foal to nurse too. The tiny female was even less steady on her feet than her brother, but she found the teat easily enough and had her first meal.
Calvin sighed with evident relief. “She’s accepted them both,” he said thankfully.
Amber had not known that was an issue. “She seems to be a good mom.”
“Yeah. But we’ll watch to make sure she has enough milk for two. Let’s get the walls swabbed down, and leave them in peace. We still have to tell Carlos what Bluefield’s is up to. Assuming you can show me a duplicate chart.”
Amber was ready. “Nessy and Lady were at Bluefield three and six years ago.”
“Okay, we’ll put this stuff back, get cleaned up and you show me.” The clipboards were chained to the stall walls to prevent mix-ups in record keeping. It took no time at all to find the Bluefield records for Nessy and Lady.
“Someone’s head is going to roll,” Calvin said grimly. “Well spotted, Amber. I don’t know if you realize how dangerous such a sloppy practice could be.”
“Carlos wouldn’t have wanted me to be familiar with the charts if he didn’t think it was important.” She wondered if he was patronizing her again. “And I guess seeing an unexpected twin birth is the sort of thing that makes you realize that record keeping is crucial.”
“Hmm.” Calvin was re-reading the records on the clipboards. “Any others?”
“Two or three,” she confessed. “But offhand I can’t remember. Of course, I might have missed some.”
“Maybe. Most of these mares will have been to Bluefield’s – including Laura’s.” His voice was grim. “Tell you what. You go have some lunch, I’ll call Steve and see what’s happening with Laura, and we’ll make photocopies of the files that are corrupted.”
“Okay. But first I have to sterilize the wheelbarrow and restock it in case it’s needed.” Which it would be in stables brimming with pregnant mares. She hoisted the handles of the one containing the midwifery kit.
“Yup. That’s the rule.” Calvin grinned. “I’ll give you a hand.”
He was as good as his word, mixing up the bleach solution himself and swabbing down the wheelbarrow and the equipment they had used. “Put the rags in the machine to soak – we’ll run it with bleach and three rinses when there’s a full load.”
Together they went through the checklist in the supply cupboard and made sure everything was in the barrow ready for the next birth. Calvin gave her a hand with the big roll of plastic wrap that was used to keep the barrow sterile.
“You go eat. Meet me here in ninety minutes. We’ll go over those records together after lunch. With Carlos, if I can track him down.”