“One in a million” twin horses born on Mother’s Day

COLLINSTON, Utah — It was a Mother’s Day miracle for a mare on a northern Utah ranch.  The mare, Cadillac, was expecting a foal.  No one knew she was expecting twins.  It wasn’t until ranchers went to check on Cadillac and her newborn, that they noticed something.

“There was something kind of in the grass and I said, I think there’s a skunk over there.  Then I got looking a little more and saw another little head popping up and said, we got twins!” said Clay Earl, second generation rancher at Upper Creek Ranch. 

The set of twins shocked the whole ranch, since horses’ reproductive systems are not designed to carry twins. Very rarely can they carry two foals to term.  It’s even more rare for all three horses to be alive and healthy after the fact.

“It’s very dangerous for the mother to do it.  There’s a lot of complications.” said Earl

Most often if a horse is carrying two fetuses, one will die early on.  Or the horse owner will employ veterinary intervention to eliminate one of the fetuses because the risk to the mother is too great.  The crew at Upper Creek Ranch didn’t intervene, because they had no idea Cadillac was carrying twins. Because a mare’s uterus doesn’t typically have the capacity for two foals, often one foal will have deformed limbs and is very small.  But Smokie and The Bandit are normal size and able to walk right away.

“The veterinarian came over and looked at them and was just amazed at how healthy they were,” said Earl.

Earl said the fact that all three horses are thriving is a “one-in-a-million” scenario.

“It was on Mother’s Day and my wife said you couldn’t have given me a better Mother’s Day present,” Earl said.