Little miss Willows Jul Noel came on a cold winter's night, unbeknown to anyone that momma was even in foal! Wednesday morning, December 23, Scott went out to do his normal morning feeding of the horses and low and behold, got quite the shock as he went to feed Mina. Standing there looking at him, a newborn foal. Throwing the hay in her feeder, he ran back to the house, stomping down the hall, yelling at me [Corinne] to get out to the barn, "Santa came early and left us a present out at the barn. While not impressed, my reply was, "WHAT?" figuring something out of the ordinary had happened, but not concerned as I was getting ready for Christmas. Realizing that I wasn't going to "jump ship" and come running, he yells out, "SANTA CAME EARLY AND THERE IS A BABY IN MINA'S STALL!"
You can now imagine the surprise that came over me, having been raised on farms and understanding of the breeding process, that there was a foal in the barn. Just yesterday, Amy, one of our students, rode Mina for her lesson - and did impressively well.That was all it took to get me moving as quickly as I could out the door. And at the same time, I couldn't help but ask, "Is it a Fjord?" being a little on the cynical side and knowing of people dumping unwanted horses on other farms.
But sure enough, a gorgeous, slender, and very alert filly greeted us as we came out to the barn. Chelsea, instantly said, "we have to name her something Christmas" and thus came Willows Jul Noel... Jul & Noel are the translations for Christmas in both Norwegian and French.
Mina and Noel have already had visits from grandma, Shauna and our wonderful vet and is highly social and up visiting with the "new people". But with the temperament combination of Mina as well as our stallion, Fair Acres Ole, should we have expected any less?
UPDATE, SPRING, 2010 Wanted to let everyone know that Miss Jul Noel is doing amazing. She is highly socialized and working on her ground skills and manners. We also wanted to comment on the story as a whole ... we truly understand how this can really seem "inappropriate" or "irresponsible". As a horsewoman from a very young age, I cringe as I tell the story understanding how it must sound and we feel we should clarify. December, 2008, we had almost 30 inches of snow and the heat tape on the water lines just could not keep single digit temperatures from still freezing our pipes. In an effort maximize farm chore efficiencies, we opened up all our gates (our farm is set up so if all the gates were opened properly, the horses would have very big pastures), and allowed them to do what they would naturally do in the middle of winter - gather together to keep body heat loss minimal. Here's the interesting part: Horses do not typically cycle during the winter. That is why we normally have foals in the spring. As the daylight increases, it causes the horses to come into their natural cycle. Mina, was obviously the exception, not the rule. Her body obviously went through changes and while we were unaware of her pregnancy, we had our vet (one of the top Equine vets in the area) come out numerous times and did many tests on her ... "All but one," as he said when he saw that foal standing looking at him. Let us mention nutrition for a moment. Our Norwegian Fjord horses are well fed; given high quality, horse hay along with a grain supplement and free choice salt blocks of both white salt as well as trace minerals. Our horses are loved and well cared for and while we understand some folks can't imagine not knowing a horse is pregnant for, yes, an entire year, we want to let those know that this is not the norm for our farm. We appreciate that many wonderful notes we've received about how Noel's story was touching for you personally. We also wanted to make sure that we try to re-assure those who were concerned.
Friday, December 25, 2009. Christmas day.
KOMO TV 4 heard about our amazing Noel story and came out to our farm, interviewed us and aired the story for the evening news as well as the morning segments on December 26th as well.
KOMO TV 4 heard about our amazing Noel story and came out to our farm, interviewed us and aired the story for the evening news as well as the morning segments on December 26th as well. 
foal. Throwing the hay in her feeder, he ran back to the house, stomping down the hall, yelling at me [Corinne] to get out to the barn, "Santa came early and left us a present out at the barn. While not impressed, my reply was, "WHAT?" figuring something out of the ordinary had happened, but not concerned as I was getting ready for Christmas. Realizing that I wasn't going to "jump ship" and come running, he yells out, "SANTA CAME EARLY AND THERE IS A BABY IN MINA'S STALL!" 
But sure enough, a gorgeous, slender, and very alert filly greeted us as we came out to the barn. Chelsea, instantly said, "we have to name her something Christmas" and thus came Willows Jul Noel... Jul & Noel are the translations for Christmas in both Norwegian and French. 
