Parkland County farm welcomes rare twin foals to the fold

CTV Edmonton: Parkland County welcomes twin foals A farm west of Edmonton is celebrating the arrival of twin foals, something only one in 10,000 mares can boast.

A farm in Parkland County has welcomed twin foals, something that a mare has a one-in-a-10,000 chance of boasting.

Due to the rarity of equine twins, Ray Frank said he was very surprised when he woke up one morning to see them with a mare on his farm.

“I looked right away to see if there were bad legs or something and they were all nice and straight so I figured well I guess I got lucky.

“It was amazing. I couldn’t believe it.”

Frank said that the mare, 10-year-old Sonaitas Peponita, had four previous births and they did not expect her to have twins this time.

“I was hoping I'd never end up with any but since they're healthy I'm glad.”

He also said the statistics of a mare delivering healthy twins is very small and may put her and her babies at risk.

“Usually there's one dead or one with real bad legs or things like that you know because there's not enough room for them to grow inside a mare, they're not big enough.”

The colt and filly were born about a month ago and Frank said they have stayed close to their mom ever since.

“The mare she really looks after them. They are always with her.”

Although he raises horses to sell he said he expected this time would be different.

“My wife is really attached to them.”

With files from Amanda Anderson