Even though she could have gone into labor at any minute, a very pregnant Dr. Cara Erwin-Oliver spent Aug. 15 with her Marion Bloodstock consignment in the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s barn area. She is scheduled to offer more than 30 horses during the four-day August yearling sale, which begins Aug. 18 in Central Florida.
Erwin-Oliver’s official due date was Aug. 14, but she was still waiting for something to happen as she walked up and down the shed row, sometimes talking on her cell phone.
“I’m here working; we’ve got some good horses, and I’ve got to find homes for them,” said Erwin-Oilver, who has a veterinary degree. “The doctor said just to do everything normally. In fact, I was told to make sure I walked and moved around, and that’s what I’m doing. I figured I might as well be moving around out here than cleaning my house.”
Erwin-Oliver is the wife of yearling-to-juvenile pinhooker Terry Oliver. They have a 5-year-old daughter, Casey, and their soon-to-be-born baby is a boy, who already has been named Carson.
“Hopefully, it will happen soon,” said Erwin-Oliver, glancing down at her bulging stomach. “I hope to get through Tuesday (Aug. 20), and then I’ll be set. He (the baby) has dropped down pretty good, and I’m having mild contractions. I keep saying he doesn’t want to come out and join this crazy family.”
Because her feet were swollen, Erwin-Oliver was wearing flip flops. She was trying to avoid handling horses so her unprotected toes wouldn’t get stepped on.
“I tell everybody that I can’t help with anything because I’m in flip flops,” she said. “I say, ‘Sorry, I can’t take that colt. I’m in flip flops.’ It has nothing to do with being pregnant. It’s because I’m in flip flops.”
If her baby starts to come before the sale is over, Erwin-Oliver has a plan to keep her consignment running while she is in the hospital.
“I’ve got Dawn Coffman, who has always helped me since 2004 when we started the consignment,” Erwin-Oliver said. “She’s been my right-hand ‘man’ in the whole thing, and she’ll just go on with it if I have to leave.”
Marion Bloodstock sold six horses for $286,000 during the select session of last year’s August yearling sale.