Foaled at 10:45 PM (on Coral's due date)- it's a chestnut colt with a star and one hind sock! Unfortunately Coral retained her placenta so there was a 3 AM emergency vet visit. The next afternoon I went out to feed at 5:30 and Coral was acting colicky and lo and behold there was this obvious piece of placenta in the middle of the stall! And NO manure in the stall all day. So Jim went and retrieved the larger, thought-to-be-complete placenta from the compost pile (fortunately still intact and not scavenged by anything but a few ants) and turns out even after having the vet come last night due to the retained placenta, Coral still had had the tip of one horn of the placenta in her!!! We called the vet again. There was no call back for awhile so we called another vet (who used to be the backup for our vet who retired in February, so we'd seen them before). Dr. Elliot came right out, sedated Coral and gave Banamine, lavaged her uterus, gave her oil and water orally since she was mildly impacted as well, and put her on antibiotics and pain meds for at least the next week. Thankfully no fever. The lavage process was repeated over the next five days.

Thunder is a very people oriented colt, smart and easy to work with. He will almost certainly be over 15 hands at maturity. With three wonderful gaits- including an incredible suspended trot- he will be an excellent CDE and dressage competition horse.

Thunder has no modern outcrosses in his pedigree- he is 100% Foundation. His maternal ancestry features several horses that had great influence in southern breeding programs of fifty years ago, such as the beautiful Adrian Ashmore and Pineland Red Roger, a son of Jolly Roger (Joe Young's foundation stallion) out of the Sonfield daughter Princess Field. He also has two crosses to the great palomino stallion Californio. Thunder has some wonderful Lippitt breeding through Lippitt Miss Nekomia, Lippitt Ashmore, Lippitt Ethan Ash, Lippitt Moro Ash, and Lippitt George; old government through Devan Hawk, Gay Dancer, Linsley and Querido; old midwest with Dude Hudson and Archie O; Western Working from such greats as Headlight Morgan, Red Oak, Will Rogers, and The Admiral; and numerous crosses to such old Brunk greats as Flyhawk, Allen King and Knox Morgan. His sire's side is linebred old midwest through the Sweet's horses, and his tail male line goes to the great National Pairs Driving Champion, Kennebec Count.

Thunder will become long time friend Kate Cabot's future CDE horse. She has placed him in training with Larry Poulin (trainer of Thunder's famous ancestor Kennebec Count) and he is doing wonderfully. We are very excited to see where Thunder and Kate's adventures take them together!

KA Bluestem The Old Guard	Kansas Buffalo Soldier	Kell's In Kirby's Honor
		Burchtree Roxanne
	Sweet's Jada Babe	Sweet's Jet Hawk
		T-Bone Card's Fancy
Coral Forest	World's Edge Goldoak	Californio
		Ponderosa's Miss Quiz
	Kennebec Topaz	Medomak Cavalier
		Kennebec Opal

April 22, 2020- Coral greeting her newborn colt, about 11 PM, and a short while later before we knew anything was wrong with her.


April 24, 2020- Thunder spent his first 48 hours in the stall since Coral needed treatment for her retained placenta and we wanted to keep her relatively quiet lest she run a fever. She was quite vigilant about "protecting" Thunder from neighboring horses and took about a week to fully settle and relax. Thunder enjoyed his first excursion outside even if his Mom was a little worried about him!


Thunder is tuckered out after his first day out!


April 28, 2020- In the bigger pasture for the first time at 6 days old. With more room to run, he is definitely channeling his inner Secretariat!


This is a lovely moving colt. I think his carriage shows a bit of his Hearst Arabian heritage that comes through Coral's sire's side back to the stallion Sabab.


Coral had her 5th and final uterine lavage the night before these pictures were taken. She is acting more herself every day.


Official "6 days old" picture. There is much to like here. Brad Brownlow, a long time Morgan breeder, commented on this picture on Facebook: "Fantastic colt, a Morgan at first glance, so correct, bet he can tip his head right over at the poll, mark of a real saddle horse!"


May 6, 2020- two weeks old.


May 14, 2020- Ariel and Thunder have become great friends through the fence. I'm not sure I'll actually put then in the same field together because they will eventually have to be separated when one or the other goes to a new home, so it is probably better that they are not TOO attached.


May 14, 2020- three weeks old and looking ever so handsome!


"I believe I can fly..."


May 21, 2020- Thunder one day shy of his official one month birthday. He is pictured after his leading lesson of the day, wearing the halter that all of our foals- from the very first one, Willy Remember Me, in 1986- have worn as their first halter.

June 5, 2020- Thunder is now 6 weeks old. Some big rig action at the neighbor's got their attention.


Thunder is getting some stripes on his white hoof.


June 7, 2020- Thunder and Ari got a visit from Jim's friend Lamar and his daughter Mary Grace. Thunder enjoyed the extra scritchies!


June 23, 2020- Thunder is now two months old. His mane and tail have dark roots growing in, and he is shedding out dark on his face- hint that his final shade of chestnut might be more liver than red.


July 1, 2020- The little family taking a snooze on a hot summer day.


July 9, 2020- Why neither Coral or Topaz can wear a fly mask this season!


Thunder is a HUGE, solidly built boy.


Meeting The Big Ball.


July 24, 2020- Thunder has a beautiful profile, but he always wants to face me- so working by myself, I can't seem to get a good side view shot of his head. The last picture shows it best, even though it is blurry (cropped down from a full body running shot).


Thunder's foal coat is mostly shed out and it looks like he will indeed be a darker shade of chestnut. The trot picture reminds me of a very expensive warmblood foal- and he moves like one, too!


Thunder hangs out more with his grand dam Topaz than he does his own mother. Sometimes that does not work out so well for Topaz, but she has the patience of a saint.


August 4, 2020- Kate sent Thunder a Jolly Ball in the hopes he would take some energy out on it rather than poor Topaz. I had to hold it for him to get him to bite on the handle. It took a few minutes but he got the hang of it and played a bit with his new toy. It keeps moving around the pasture so I know he's using it even if I don't catch him at it!


August 4, 2020- Watching Ariel and the tarp. Your turn with that tarp is coming, Thunder!


August 27, 2020- Thunder is now four months old. Weaning day is coming up soon.


October 1, 2020- Thunder has been a weanling for 4 days now. Like Ariel, he had a couple of weeks of being apart from Mom during the day (he was in a pasture beside her and she was in our drylot) but back with her at night, so when the time for final separation came, it wasn't a huge deal. He can still touch her over the gate if he wants to. Thankfully this went much more quietly than the Charli-Ariel weaning!


October 13, 2020- Thunder got a new friend a week or so back. It is interesting to compare their colors. Even though they both look chestnut, only one of them actually is. Charli is genetically black with a silver and a cream dilution gene, and Thunder is chestnut. You can see he has more red tones than she does.


November 27, 2020- Thunder met a new "thing"!

 
More pictures taken on November 27. Thunder turned 7 months old a few days ago. He is looking more like a yearling than a foal now.


December 9, 2020-Yesterday was an eventful day in the life of Thunder. He became a gelding. He got his second round of shots too. So far so good but I must be vigilant for another few weeks to ensure there are no complications with the incision. Today he was moving well and seemed content. This was taken this afternoon.


December 25, 2020- Merry Christmas from Thunder! He had outgrown my weanling halter already so Kate bought him a pony sized halter, shown here.


February 25, 2021- Thunder was very curious about my NaMoPaiMo model that I had set up on a fencepost for photos.


March 15, 2021- Thunder and Charli (who takes no sh*t from her underling, ha ha!).



May 16, 2021.


August 6, 2021- Thunder is fascinated by Leelee. I expected him to act silly when he saw her cavorting around, but he has been very calm. Of course Kyrie is right there with him. She is very maternal. Leelee will be her new charge at weaning time, as Thunder will be off to training for driving soon.


August 18, 2021- The friendship between Leelee and Thunder continues.


August 27, 2021- Thunder's owner, Kate Cabot, finally got to meet him! Due to Covid 19 and concerns over travel (she lives in the Boston area), it had not happened before now. We had a fun weekend together and Thunder got a lot more attention than usual. He really enjoyed the grooming gloves that Kate brought. She got him several new toys as well- the rubber chicken was surprisingly not exciting, despite the horrific noise it makes! A fun time was had by all! Thunder heads off to Florida for the start of his basic training for carriage driving with Larry Poulin in October.


March 2022- Thunder was off to Florida (thank you Lucy Ray for transporting him safely and dealing with both of his worried "Moms"!) at the end of October 2021 and trainer Larry Poulin quickly had him ground driving and learning other skills. By the time owner Kate Cabot visited in March 2022 Thunder had been hitched and driving for a couple of months. A tribute to his character and breeding, being not even officially two years old until April. We are SO proud of him! Thank you Larry Poulin for the careful training you are giving Thunder, and to Kate for your leap of faith in purchasing Thunder at just a few weeks old. We are so excited for Thunder's future! (photos courtesy of Kate Cabot).


June 2022- Thunder has now progressed to driving out of the ring and around Larry's farm. Shortly before this was taken he had kept his cool when another horse got loose and came careening towards them. Good Boy, Thunder!


February and March 2023- Kate visited Thunder in Florida and the two had their first drives together under Larry's guidance. Thank you Linda Poulin for the photos of this momentous occasion!


Summer 2023- Kate spent a week in Metamora Michigan- where Larry Poulin and his wife Linda are spending the summer- to work more with Thunder. By all accounts things went very well and my Facebook feed was full of videos of Thunder, Kate and Larry doing their thing on the awesome CDE course. Our baby boy is growing up! Thank you Linda for all the pictures and videos!


January 21, 2024- Thunder went to his first real show, the Stride Schooling Dressage show at the Florida Horse Park in Ocala, where he placed first with a score of 65.833 in Adult Amateur Driven Dressage with Linda Poulin. He is shown here being warmed up by Larry Poulin. We could not be happier with Thunder's progress!


March 10, 2024- Kate's first show with Thunder! They were second in the Driven Dressage Training Level Test A at the Stride Schooling show at the Florida Horse Park. I am so proud of them both and grateful to their training team of Linda and Larry Poulin. When you are a small breeder, it is tough to prove your horses are what you know they are until someone like Kate comes along and proves it. We are so very grateful to you, Kate, for believing in our boy!

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