Horse gives rare birth to twin foals
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By Chris Steinbach | Monday, March 31, 2008 |
Nancy Preston of Illinois City, Ill., grabs hold of the male foal, born with its twin sister to Nu Bar Getsya There, an 8-year-old American paint mare. It is rare for twin foals to be born and for the pair and its mother to survive. (Chris Steinbach/Muscatine Journal) Buy this Photo
ILLINOIS CITY, Ill. — Something miraculous happened in Frank and Nancy Preston’s horse barn as the minutes ticked down this year to Easter Sunday.
Nu Bar Getsya There — an 8-year-old American paint mare, called Luna by the Prestons — gave birth to twin foals about 11:30 p.m. March 22.
After more than a week, the young stallion and filly, who have not yet been named, and their mother are all doing well. By doing so, they are defying odds estimated by animal scientists at 1 in 10,000. They are also attracting up to 20 visitors a day to the Preston farm 2¼ miles southeast of Illinois City, Ill.
“We were totally shocked,” Nancy Preston said. “You could have knocked us over with a feather. We had no idea.”
The Prestons, who have about 40 horses, also raise corn and soybeans and Angus cattle on about 400 acres. The horses — mostly paints and few quarter horses — have been a part of the farm since 1990. For more than a dozen years each spring, a new batch of six or seven foals has been taking their wobbly first steps on the Preston farm.
Luna, so nicknamed because of a small crescent moon marking on her forehead, had successfully delivered four previous foals. She was artificially bred in April 2007 with semen from Delta Bunnys Cat, a 6-year-old stallion at stud in Texas. Because the mare, which is registered with the Fort Worth, Texas-based American Paint Horse Association, was bred by a registered stallion, the Prestons had an ultrasound done to make sure she was pregnant.
“The ultrasound didn’t show two,” Nancy Preston said. “It only showed one.”
If it had shown two, the Prestons, like most horse breeders, likely would have had their veterinarian abort one of the fetuses. It is considered dangerous to do otherwise because it is difficult for a mare to eat enough to gestate two healthy foals. There can also be many complications when trying to deliver twin foals.
And this wasn’t an easy delivery. The male foal, which has paint markings, was born first. He was small at around 45 pounds. That wasn’t the only thing that seemed amiss to Frank Preston, who didn’t think the mare seemed right after delivering the first foal.
“We were out here, and Frank helped her a little bit with the girl,” Nancy Preston said. “He thought there was something wrong, so he helped.”
The filly, which weighed about 30 pounds at birth, didn’t stand up and nurse for about 12 hours — about twice the amount of time usually needed for a newborn foal. Her twin didn’t stand and nurse for about 24 hours.
“You could see every bone in her body,” Nancy Preston said of the filly.
To help them grow, Frank Preston said he is feeding the mare “all the hay she wants.” She is also eating a special feed that is high in calories and vitamins to pass on as much nutrition as possible to the foals, which have to split the five gallons of milk their mother produces each day.
As the foals grow, so, too, does interest in them with 13 visitors passing through the horse barn a day or two after news started to spread and 20 more stopping by on Saturday.
The Prestons — who are used to raising, showing and selling horses — aren’t sure what they will ultimately do with the twins.
“They’ll probably be around here for a long time,” Nancy Preston said.
Chris Steinbach can be contacted at (563) 262-0535 or Chris.steinbach@muscatinejournal.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com.
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