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BORN TO RUN |
Weblog: The story of a racehorse
Fingers crossed: vet John Campbell checks out Lady Rebecca
PICTURE: Laurence SquireYou couldn't make it up - Lady R scans to twins
SO what are the odds? Lady Rebecca is pregnant again – good news. And once more she conceived to twins again – not such good news. “It’s just bad luck to have that two pregnancies running,” says David Redvers, the owner of Tweenhills Stud.
As happened the last time Lady Rebecca was scanned in foal to Kayf Tara, which was barely a month ago, one of the two embryos has been ‘popped’ to ensure that she does nothave to carry two foals. This is a routine procedure for thoroughbred mares for two main reasons: it is very unusual for them to give birth to twins, one or both foals are usually aborted; and even if a mare did produce twins both would be weedy and, frankly, not much use as racehorses.
Cats do it, dogs do it, pigs do it – so why can’t thoroughbred mares carry more than one pregnancy to full-term? A clue to that lies in the video elsewhere on this site ofour adopted filly, Born To Run, entering the world. Just listen to her mum, Maid For Running, huff and push and see how strenuous it is for the Tweenhills foaling manager Julie May to help with the delivery. Foals are proportionately far bigger, and ganglier, at birth than kittens, puppies, and piglets.
Having witnessed and filmed the foaling of Born To Run, it was surprising to see just how ‘ready made’ a foal is, much more than the family cats I used towatch being born. Even my beloved Barney The Dog, when I first saw him at 10 days old, was a cute, silky amorphous blob. He had barely any canine form or shape. In comparison, Born To Run was a pocket-sized bundle of ambition, thrashing around trying to stand on her own feet within minutes of being born. It would have been hard for Maid For Running to carry two of them.
So, it’s fingers crossed for Lady Rebecca. She will be scanned again in a couple of days to ensure that one of the embryos – which unlike four weeks ago were of the same size - is still there. She will be given a course of synthetic projesterone, which is often used to prepare the uterus for pregnancy but also to help prevent abortion.
Then there is the 25-day scan, at which, all being well, a heartbeat can be measured.
“A pivotal moment,” says Redvers. He’s not kidding.
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