Mini's having twins

[hrselady]

I am not posting this to start anything.. I have not personally heard of mini's having twins but came across a website that claims to have a reg. twin pair for sale..... http://www.ac4h.com/brokerownedhorses.htm .. they are listed toward the center of the page. How often does this happen and has anyone ever had a set of twins? Just curious.

thanks,

Mendy

 

[jjnov]

Yes they can have twins, in fact I swear that one of mine is prego with twins right now, she is 3 times bigger than my mare due in April, and my mare who I think is carrying twins, is due in late summer. I will have to take pics and show you. Do you know of any vets who ultrasound in Southern Mississippi?

 

[novachick]

I'm not sure about the twins thing...but has anyone gotten minis from "brokers" and what have been your experiences? I have been keeping any eye on this rescue, because it is very close to me and has had minis in the past, but I've been very leary about contacting them, for one...because they usually have videos of very large people riding the minis and because I don't want to feed into people buying minis from auction and then turning around and selling them for a profit. Am I right to think this way? Opinions please and also, not looking to start anything!

 

[Riverdance]

Twins in any horse breed is VERY rare. Most horses who conceive twins reabsorb or abort them. Those that do not, usually have dead twins at birth or they will die shortly after birth. If they do survive one or both are usually very weak and it requires lots of care and vet care to keep them alive. It is alse very hard on the mare and can cause her death too.

In the large horses we always had our mares ultrasounded to make sure that there were no twins. If there were, we would have one pinched off. Sometimes that would cause an abortion of both, but it was safer that way then to let twins continue.

 

[Lucky-C-Acres-Minis]

Twinning in horses occurs more often than most people think, BUT most of the time one or both embryos/fetuses are lost in the very early stages of pregnancy (typically before you know she's pregnant)..

On rare occasions there have been twin embryos that have succeeded in maintaining development of both embryos to fetuses and some rare cases of maintaining both successful developed foals.. Most of the time in the large horses, the mares are ultrasounded and if showing twinning one will be pinched off to allow the mare to maintain the pregnancy with just one fetus..

In 2002 (I think that's the correct year) Lil Paint Miniatures had a set of twin fillies born.. Here is the link to their story:

Twins

An internet friend of mine who raises APHA paint horses, has a stallion who sired a healthy set of twin colts last year out of an outside mare.. She was ultrasounded throughout her pregnancy and the twins were never detected because of the way the smaller colt laid with the bigger colt, so they had quite the surprise when the mare delivered twin baby boys!

 

[novachick]

They give registration numbers, I'm assuming someone could look up if they are from the same parents, right?

Mare - AMA class A - Appache's Little Darling #286296T foaled 4-15-07 Dam - Knugson Appache's rocking reeba Sire - Bar G Bucky D

Stud colt - AMA class A - Appache's Little Super Sparky #286295T foaled 4-15-07 - twins

 

[MiniPants]

I'm not sure about the twins thing...but has anyone gotten minis from "brokers" and what have been your experiences? I have been keeping any eye on this rescue, because it is very close to me and has had minis in the past, but I've been very leary about contacting them, for one...because they usually have videos of very large people riding the minis and because I don't want to feed into people buying minis from auction and then turning around and selling them for a profit. Am I right to think this way? Opinions please and also, not looking to start anything!

I'd be wary "adopting" a horse from these people.