A Lafond area family celebrated an unusual equestrian event when a 15-year-old retired barrel racing mare named Pretty gave birth to two healthy foals on May 7.
“This mare has never done anything by the book her whole life, so why would she do this by the book either?" quipped mare owner and barrel racer Shelley Hawthorne.
Family members had gathered on the night of the births and were taking note of one foal trying to stand. Hawthorne's oldest son noticed the mare cleaning what they thought was afterbirth but turned out to be the second surprise foal.
Hawthorne's son nicknamed the foals Tiny, the girl, and Tall, the boy, reflecting the different statures.
The occurrence was even more unusual because Hawthorne, on the advice of a veterinarian, aborted what was believed to be a second fetus in July, a practice commonly used to help the one fetus survive in twin conceptions.
“It's very uncommon," said local veterinarian Dr. Craig Hellquist. Statistics show 0.5 to one per cent of conceptions to be twins, and of those 65 per cent are normally aborted naturally, usually in the third trimester, and 21 per cent of the time one of the two is born alive. Only 14 per cent of the time are two healthy twin foals delivered of the 0.5 to one per cent of twin conceptions, he said.
“Unlike cattle where twins are actually fairly common, two live twins to term is quite uncommon in horses."
Hawthorne suspects three fetuses could have been present and that one remained undetected at the time of the ultrasound. To breed Pretty, the Hawthorne had used the seed of a Manitoban stallion, the reason an ultrasound was conducted. Hawthorne suspects one fetus could have been implanted behind the other, causing the ultrasound to miss seeing it.
Although a surprise, Hawthorne and the family is happy the retired mare had two healthy foals. Had three unborn foals been left in the womb, likely none could have survived, she said.
Sacrificing the second in a twin foal situation aims to deter the risk of losing both, Hellquist noted. The mare provides a limited blood supply to foals in the womb and two or three foals means less nutrients reach each.
