Twins have been born at the Clyde Connelly farm just north of Ava. Mother and offspring are doing well.
The twins were born to a 7-year-old Missouri Fox Trotting mare and although very small, both are doing well this week.
The birth of equine twins is rare in itself – about 1 in 10,000 – and in over 80 percent of the cases one or both is lost, according to information Connelly picked up from Oklahoma State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital.
What’s even more astounding is that the twins born at the Connelly farm last Thursday were born naturally out in the pasture.
Connelly said he found the filly first, and because she was so tiny, no bigger than a fawn, he just had a hunch there might be another.
Because the foal was in tall weeds, Connelly said he was afraid to drive his pickup, so he went in search of the second foal on foot, “like looking for a needle in a haystack.”
A nicker from the second – a male – helped track him down, and both foals were taken to the barn for nursery care.
“I stayed up with them all night and held them up so they could nurse,” Connelly said. Now they have gained enough strength that they are nursing on their own, and both are doing well.
Connelly said he was told if they made it through the first 48 hours they would probably make it.
Connelly, whose farm joins the property of the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association, currently serves as president of MFTHBA which is hosting its 3-Year-Old Futurity and Spring Show this week.
The mare that produced the twin foals is a full sister to Southern Playboy, the 2006 World Grand Champion Missouri Fox Trotter.
