Random question - twins

[melv1lle]

Have just had lunch with some work colleagues who are endlessly fascinated with how much time and effort I put into my horse (see string on Travel time to yard? !). Anyway, at lunch they were asking about cloning and whether it had been done for horses - I was telling them it had but that the interesting thing was that the clones were not identical. So then someone asked me if horses ever produced identical twins and I have to say I have no idea! So my question to all you knowledgable people is - do horses ever produce identical twins??

 

[AmyMay]

Yep. Very rare though - and even rarer for them to both survive.

 

[johnsongreyhorse]

I do know of one pair of twins that is very hard to tell apart, but it extremely rare for twins to be carried full term, it can be really dangerous for the mare, I also know of another set of twins one of which was stillborn and the other had to be pts at around 6 months (i think) due to deformed front legs.

 

[Maesfen]

I was once given a TB twin filly by Double Eclipse, much smaller than her brother who was lost on the operating table to peritonitis at six months. Up until then he had been a perfectly normal sized healthy foal while she had been a shrimp who they fought long and hard for but once she was able to suckle herself was able to come on in leaps and bounds. She is now in training as a mounted games pony, incredibly quick, just don't want her to grow anymore!
A friend had twins that both grew on to full size and are competing dressage; but they can't get the filly in foal which I think is normal with twins though I stand to be corrected on that.

 

[suestowford]

I used to ride at a yard that owned a pair of twins - Highlands ponies they were, and the same colour. They were not exactly identical as one has two whorls on his forehead, the other only had the one whorl.

MFH there is a name for that (infertile filly from twins) but can't think of it for the moment. It happens in cattle too if calves are mixed sex in a multiple birth and is to do with male hormones being present in the female calf/foal.

 

[AmyMay]

[ QUOTE ]
but they can't get the filly in foal which I think is normal with twins

[/ QUOTE ]
Oh that's intersting - I never new that.

 

[maestro]

We had a mare that was a twin which we successfully bred from. She was TB and only 14.2hh. Her foal was a cracking 16hh.

 

[Macha]

In cattle they are called freemartins, its something to do with with the way they share a placenta I think

 

[pixie]

Yes, but they very rarely survive. If a mare is scanned and found to have twins then one of the embryos is "pinched"...

 

[melv1lle]

How interesting - it shows how little I know. I had no idea that twins were such an issue. I shall have to get my BHS Veterinary Manual out this evening and have a read (I am a bit sad I find it endlessly fascinating

)