Marnie’s “forced cycle of pregnancy” ended at 1:43am on Wednesday. Eight days late. This will come as disappointing news to anyone under the impression the Thoroughbred breeding industry has complete control over these things. Marnie had spent the previous few weeks being checked, watched, discussed, written on the night-watch board and generally surrounded by people attempting to predict when she would foal. Marnie declined to participate. Then, at 1:32am, she changed her mind. She became restless, walked, lay down, got back up and looked at her flank. Mikey made the call, the on-call staff came in and Marnie was quietly moved into a small outdoor foaling yard. Thoroughbred mares in Australia generally foal outside. The yard is deliberately small, clean and well-drained: enough room for Marnie to move and foal safely, with people close enough to help if things stop going to plan. Her waters broke. Two front feet appeared, one slightly ahead of the other, then a nose. The Superman pose - exactly what everyone wanted to see. So everyone did something humans occasionally find quite difficult… Nothing. If there had been one foot and no nose, a leg or head in the wrong position, strong contractions without progress, or the red membrane that can signal the placenta has separated too early, that would have changed very quickly. But Marnie knew her part. Eleven minutes after her waters broke, a wet bay filly landed on the ground. Meet Nellie. The cord was left to break naturally when Marnie moved. Marnie stayed down for a moment, turned towards her, nickered, then got up and began licking her clean. Her mate Pippa watched from the adjoining paddock. A wild mare does exactly the same job without Mikey, the night watch, the on-call staff, the foaling kit or a vet if something goes wrong. When everything goes right, those people mostly stand there and watch. The difference is what happens when it doesn’t. Marnie, however, demonstrated that she required none of them. Nellie was breathing. Pippa went back to eating. Marnie remained unavailable for social media comment.