Twin Horses that Survived

This is a list of equine twin births that I have been able to find recorded online.Twin foals are a relatively rare event and I find the stories of healthy twin births to be varied and fascinating. It is widely considered that the chances of a mare's pregnancy producing viable twins is about 10,000/1.

Horses have difficulty carrying twins and they rarely both born alive and even less likely to survive into adulthood. If twins are detected early in pregnancy, one is usually terminated to greatly increased the chances of the other foal being born healthy.

Here are some examples that beat the odds. The foals have the best chance with older mares who seem better able to make room for the twins during pregnancy.

• Shire horse twins (United Kingdom). Both are fillies.
• A Colt and a filly (Indiana, USA).

• Quarterhorses Sunny and Angel (California, USA)

• One filly and one colt (Tennessee, USA)
• One filly and one colt New Forest ponies, Bess and Royal, at St Leonards Farm.
• Thoroughbreds Rio and Holly (New Zealand)
• Twin fillies

• Twin filly Clydesdales, Midge and Murtle, Teahen Farm (Michigan, USA)--Last confirmed alive at age 3 years.

• Twin thoroughbreds, Magic and Razz.
• Shire/Thoroughbred colts (Texas, USA)

• Twin Percheron fillies, Faith and Hope, (Minnesota USA)--Last confirmed alive at age 1 year.

• Twin foals, but only one survived long after birth.

• A colt and a filly, Cody and Jenny (Minnesota, USA).

• Twin Cremello colts, Bill and Ben (Wales, UK)--Last confirmed alive at age 24 years.

• Twin Belgian foals, Patrick and Cornelia (California, USA)--Shown above.

For obvious reasons, triplet foals are even less common. Most genetically triplet foals are the product of embryo transfer and actually carried by different mares.

A live birth of triplets was recorded in 2010 but only one of the foals survived.