Twin foals make for a full house

March 20, 2025 10:07 AM

In an unusual event, a Thoroughbred mare gave birth to healthy twin foals. I saw this and just wanted to share it for the cute picture. And for the fact that it, temporarily, sent me down a rabbit hole I haven't revisited for a while: horse colour genetics, since (I'll admit), I was a bit surprised that one foal was chestnut and one was bay.
posted by sardonyx (14 comments total)

I initially read the title as "make for a full horse". :D
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:19 AM on March 20 [4 favorites]

Well, that's not entirely incorrect. From the article: ""As a maiden mare last year, she was big, and she was big this year," Hendrickson said. "Maybe the only difference was that her belly was lower to the ground this time."
posted by sardonyx at 10:26 AM on March 20 [1 favorite]

When I was pregnant with my human twins, a dove made a classic shitty dove nest of a few sticks on our balcony. She laid two eggs, which is very normal for doves, I learned.
That dove and I had some serious talks about twins, omens, etc. Luckily, she had two healthy baby birds and so did I!
posted by atomicstone at 10:33 AM on March 20 [25 favorites]

TIL that atomicstone is actually a bird
posted by cooker girl at 10:36 AM on March 20 [12 favorites]

I wish
posted by atomicstone at 10:51 AM on March 20 [4 favorites]

So endearing!

Ahem, however I give you an even rarer, and extremely cute picture of a mule foal.

Mules have always been considered to be sterile animals because they are a cross between a horse and a donkey. The two species are similar enough to breed and produce offspring, but different enough that they don't produce offspring together because a horse has 64 chromosomes and a donkey has 62.

A mule inherits 32 horse chromosomes from the mare mom and 31 donkey chromosomes from the donkey dad, for a total of 63 chromosomes. That odd number *should never* normally produce a viable gamete.

Just to make things weirder--because 'life finds a way' isn't just a line in a movie--I present to you TWIN mules. Here's a video of the ornery little cuties napping, getting skritches, and just generally doing teh adorables on camera.

Between twin horse foals and twin mule foals, MetaFilter has now exceeded your daily recommended dose of cuteness.
posted by BlueHorse at 11:30 AM on March 20 [16 favorites]

brb googling shitty dove nests
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:50 AM on March 20 [2 favorites]

Doves! They’re just like us

Favorite Pull quote: "It's the loosest concept of a nest,"

And Complete with twitter account @BadNests
posted by St. Peepsburg at 11:52 AM on March 20 [6 favorites]

In case anyone else was confused and thought they were calling the event an "Oscar Performance", nope, that is the sire's name. Good name!
posted by Glinn at 12:10 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]

Those twin mules are cute as foretold.
posted by Windopaene at 12:25 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]

"It's the loosest concept of a nest"

Pigeon
-Rejects the extravagances and hypocrisy of late-stage capitalism
-Doesn't care what you think anyways
-The only god is chaos
posted by Greg_Ace at 12:54 PM on March 20 [6 favorites]

“Looking at a pigeon nest, you might even feel embarrassed for the pigeon—you live like this?”
posted by St. Peepsburg at 1:49 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]

I've worked some years on a horsey farm in my time, and helped with many foaling, but twin foals is pretty rare and I've never seen it.
posted by ovvl at 5:52 PM on March 20 [2 favorites]

"It's the loosest concept of a nest"
I laughed out loud at the top picture where the pigeon had laid one egg on a memory foam mattress, placed one spindly little stick beside it, and called it a day. It feels like an art installation. N E S T

The twin foals are so cute, as are the twin baby mules in BlueHorse’s linked video! I’m glad they all survived because it sounds like the twin babies and mom are all at quite a lot of risk in a pregnancy like that.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:04 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]