Polka Dot gave birth to a black and white filly. She has one blue eye, which is common genetically for Pintos. Jacqueline McAbery named her Otumwa, which means rippling waters or place of moving waters. Here is Otumwa with her mother.

Jacqueline wrote, "Thunder is the proud papa and only stallion left in the herd. Because Thunder kicked out all the stallions (now geldings), we have had to keep most of the herd on our property. Thunder, mares and new babies still live on the property next door. We are doing our best at birth control but since Thunder is too old, he cannot be gelded. So the two brooding mares live with him as he would be very upset if we took them away and left him alone. All the geldings and the younger mares live on our property.

"When I adopted the herd, it never occurred to me that they would not graze down by the highway anymore. I have heard that people are upset that they don't see the pintos very often. Because we feed them daily on higher ground and the two herds visit over the fence between the two properties, the hoses don't roam near the highway frequently anymore. I am also disappointed that the locals don't see them. We have come up with the idea of holding an event here so people can see them.

"The other challenge we have is the expense of taking care of so many horses. I must admit, we were rather naive about this when we adopted them! So we have decided to have an event here next May. Our wonderful trainer, Kathe Smothers, will demonstrate on how she is gentling the horses for halters and we will be selling and raffling off pinto t-shirts, calendars, their book, etc. to help support the two herds. I will keep you posted about the event. The 2013 Point Arena Pinto calendar will be for sale at the Four-eyed Frog Bookstore around the middle of November. I have been waiting for this new foal to be born so she could included!"

Thanks to Jacqueline for allowing me to share her photo and for telling us what has been going on with the herds.

To learn more about these beautiful horses, here's their website: http://pointarenapintos.blogspot.com/ And to order a calendar, here's the link to the Four-eyed Frog: http://www.foureyedfrog.com/