Debbie Blank
On their 70-acre farm in eastern Batesville, Bill and Ginger Flannery have witnessed one of those animal miracles TV shows are built around.
Their 12-year-old Quarterhorse mare, Sydney, gave birth April 25 to twin colts.
"It's such a rarity," he reports. The incidence of twins in Standardbreds is around 5 percent, according to Dr. Katherine Naughton, Purdue University clinical assistant professor in equine theriogenology. “Only 5 percent of them will go to term,” with one or both usually dying during the pregnancy, says Bill Flannery, quoting from Naughton’s research. The mother and both twins survive less than 0.5 percent of the time, the professor estimates.
In the United States, less than two dozen twin foals are born annually, according to the American Quarter Horse Association.
When the Flannerys decided it was time for another young horse, Sydney went to visit Zips, a stud owned by Greg and Valerie Caudill, Batesville, for three days, then began an 11-month pregnancy. But the experienced mother of three acted differently this time. “The last two weeks she could hardly walk,” Ginger recalls. “She was miserable. She was huge.” The thought of twins never occurred to them because it is so unusual.
On the fateful birth day, farm caretaker Dale Niese went to the barn, spotted Sydney lying down, odd for her, and called Ginger at 10:30 a.m. The sorrel-colored mare had her rear against a wall. “She looked terrible, moaning and groaning, sweaty.” With Bill out of town and the horse needing to move, the owner called Dr. Susan Kochert of Tri-County Veterinary Clinic to come ASAP.
Soon the baby was almost out with the placenta wrapped around its head. There were anxious moments until the foal broke through. Ginger Flannery, a Monroe, La., native, called the vet and said, “Everything's fine, don’t come.”
When she returned to the stall, Sydney had turned around and, the owner remembers, “I see two hooves and a nose and this head, a lot bigger" than the first one, emerging.
Frantically, she called the veterinarian back, telling Kochert to hurry. “There's another one coming!” The horse pushed, moaned and rolled over on her firstborn. The second one was almost out when Sydney just stopped. “She had no energy.” The vet arrived and pulled the second twin to the ground.
The creamola (cream-colored) fraternal twins were easy to tell apart. The first foal, with more white on his face and white socks, weighed about 50 pounds and was short enough to walk under the mare. His brother, with a smaller amount of white markings on his face only, weighed almost twice as much.
Kochert was worried about the twins surviving, especially after conferring with other vets. The situation was dire. “The mother ... was totally exhausted,” Bill says, and wasn’t producing colostrum, the vital first milk that contains much protein and antibodies to boost the colts’ immune systems. Even if Sydney could have nursed, her foals were too weak and did not have the sucking and swallowing reflex yet.
The vet had one unit of colostrum and found another in Westport. Friend Tom Ertel and Flannery held the foals still while Kochert administered colostrum through tubes down their noses. They had nothing else to drink that day, but on the next, the larger one got a little milk. The wobbly little one “had a very, very difficult time.”
Farmer Maurice Volk, somewhat of a “horse whisperer,” was called in. “Without his help, they probably wouldn't have lived,” figures Bill Flannery, who is the Batesville Area Chamber of Commerce president.
Because the mare only produced enough milk for one, that had to be supplemented. When the twins refused goats' milk provided by the Caudills, the couple bought powdered milk at a feed store and bottle-fed them five times a day. “It was such a struggle. They did not want to do bottles.”
The couple didn’t name them until the colts were 2 weeks old and looked like they would live. To do that honor, they called in twins who also had a rocky start, Will and Grant Story, sons of Tom and Betsy Ertel. The larger colt is called Bolt after the movie with the same name. His little brother is Bob, which comes from the TV show “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
Soon solid pellet feed containing protein, minerals and vitamins was added to the twins’ diet. “They are eating a lot of grain, grass and hay now,” he reports.
What’s in store for Bob and Bolt? “In year two, we will break them for riding,” then they will join the six older Quarterhorses on trail rides with the couple and their friends.
"That's how I met Ginger – on horseback in Missouri," says Bill, 57, a Batesville native and hospital marketing salesman who just licensed Shoreline Products, which he founded with two others, to an Indianapolis firm.
“The nine-hour ride turned into a 10-year marriage and 14-year romance,” laughs Ginger, 50, a flight attendant who was one of the four out of 10,000 to earn the 2008 Southwest Airlines President's Award.
Now the Flannerys enjoy short trail rides on their property and longer ones at Versailles and Brown County state parks.
For her, the allure of the almost lifelong pastime is the chance to see nature breathtakingly close.
“It’s very relaxing,” Bill adds. He heads with her to remote forests that only horses can get to, calling the time “serene and wonderful. You become one with the horse.”
Debbie Blank can be contacted at 812-934-4343, Ext. 113; or debbie.blank@ batesvilleheraldtribune.com.
