A pair of “identical” twin colts who were born at full term, in the field, are thriving and of good size – and their mother is “as happy as Larry”.
Caroline Holland told H&H that her daughter Abbie’s Irish mare Charlie, who has previously given birth successfully, carried the foals to term, was no bigger than expected for a single foetus – and had repeatedly been scanned early in her pregnancy.
“We always scan and would never continue with twins but the second one was undetected,” she said. “She went to 324 days, it’s amazing she went so long, but there were no signs whatsoever.”
Charlie arrived at the Hollands’ Central Horse Retirement Livery in Bedfordshire as a six-year-old, and was eventually given to them as a broodmare. She had one foal, and was this time pregnant by the family’s own stallion.
“My daughter was away when it happened; she’d gone as there were no signs of anything happening,” Caroline said. “The mare was out in the field as normal, I went to walk the dogs – and lo and behold! I was with our farm maintenance guy, and he spotted one; he said ‘Why has it walked away from its mum?’ I said ‘It hasn’t, it’s by its mum’, and he said ‘What about the other one?’ It was a very strange moment.”
One of the colts was a “dummy foal”, suffering from neonatal maladjustment syndrome, which often means the foal is slow to follow the expected patterns of behaviour, such as standing and drinking. Caroline performed the Madigan squeeze technique, twice, and “the second time, he was up and away”.
“He’s been the stronger one since,” she said. “We’ve called him Loreto, which means ‘miraculous’, and the other one is Darko, which means ‘gift’.”
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Once she knew the colts were well, Caroline called Abbie, who had just arrived at the airport to fly home.
“She hates video calls, but I sent her a message saying I was going to video-call her, and she needed to answer,” she said. “I showed her the mare, managing to crop out the other foal asleep, and she was saying ‘Why does this always happen?’ and I said ‘It’s a bit complicated’, and showed her the other foal – and she went white!”
Caroline said both colts are a good size and their antibody levels were very good. One may need a foreleg splint for a while but the vet thinks both will be fine. She said vets also believe they are identical, which is very rare in horses, the result of one embryo splitting rather than two fertilised eggs.
The Hollands are keeping a close eye on all three, and ensuring all have the nutrition they need without overtaxing Charlie.
“She’s happy as Larry,” Caroline said. “She looks incredible.”
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Eleanor is an experienced journalist who spent over eight years working for local and national newspapers before joining H&H as news editor in March 2016. Passionate about equine welfare and exposing the truth, Eleanor has reported on all aspects of the industry, from Brexit to anti-bullying campaigns, and from dressage rules to mules. Her sport of choice is showjumping, in which she competes her own horses, and she also enjoys reporting at local jumping shows through to international championships.
