Rare Twin Foals Born In Graham

PIERCE COUNTY - Twin horses don't happen often. And it's even more unusual when both survive. So a Pierce County breeding farm is "ga-ga" over its twin bundles of joy.

One's named Scandalous Surprise. Her older twin brother is Scandalous Trouble. Their names tell the tale of their birth.

His took forever, starting the trouble. Then she showed up, startling MiKael Caillier and her husband.

"He's grinning ear to ear, ' there's two of 'em!' "

The two foals were a complete surprise, and it could have been a deadly surprise, as twins rarely survive.

"He doesn't know enough to know this is not a good thing," Callier describes her husband's reaction, but she knew, "and the terror goes up a notch."

Caillier's been breeding show Arabians for 16 years as Rising Rainbow Arabians. She's midwifed a lot of births. But she wasn't ready for twins, especially with no vet at her Graham breeding farm yet.

"I knew I had a vet coming and I knew I was in huge trouble I was just panicked until he could get here," she said.

Horses rarely conceive twins. Only one in every 10,000 horse conceptions are twins. If they are conceived, the twins usually spontaneously abort. If they make it full term, one or both of the foals, sometimes even the mare, die during birth.

Only 20 percent of the few live births survive. These guys aren't racehorses, but they faced incredibly long odds.

Scandalous Surprise is particularly rambunctious and is always searching for a way to get out of their stall.

But for all her spirit and spunk, she almost didn't make it when she was born as she wasn't breathing. That's when the vet got there.

"He flipped her like you'd crack a big towel only straight up and down," says Caillier. The vet had to do that several times to start the filly's heart and then breathe into her nostrils to get her breathing -- in essence, horse CPR.

Finally, both foals were breathing. But too weak to stand, they had to be bottle fed every two hours.

So Callier and her husband would milk the mare, then put the milk in baby bottles and feed the foals. Cailler slept in the stall with all three horses.

The vet didn't think the filly would survive the night. But Caillier never doubted it after the foal got sassy with her.

"If they're gonna get lippy with you when they're that sick you know you're in good shape," she said. "There's a lot of heart there and that's what it takes to survive stuff is heart."

The twin foals are small, skinny and still face long odds. But just watching them, you know they're survivors.