Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
The birth of twin foals has caused excitement in the kingdom’s equine community and attracted hordes of animal lovers to the Dilmun Stables.
Dhofar and Hema have trotted into the hearts of every visitor and none more so than proud owner Hassan Salman, 33, and his brother Ahmed, 36, who both volunteer at the stables as coaches.
The fabulous fillies were a surprise package when three-year-old Dana, a Spanish / Anglo-Arab dressage competitor, gave birth on February 17 in what veterinarians and horse-breeders consider to be a rare event.
“We are so happy for their arrival and thrilled that they are doing well as it was touch and go for a while,” said Ahmed, a security supervisor at Arabian Gulf University, who lives in Karanah and has more than 25 years of equestrian experience. “We had no idea that our dear Dana was pregnant with twins so it was a complete surprise. We had been tending to her as though she was pregnant with one. Hassan was especially excited about Dana’s pregnancy because she is his first horse.”
Dana is the daughter of Anglo-Arab Blue Moon, Ahmed’s eight-year-old show jumping horse that also lives at the stable. Ahmed took ownership of Blue Moon for just BD1,200 when she was a struggling filly herself. People used to laugh at him for taking her under his wing and even said she ‘looked like a donkey’, but she proved all the ‘neigh-sayers’ wrong when she flourished into a majestic mare that won several accolades for her show jumping skills.
When she produced Dana, Ahmed gave her to Hassan. Together, they have been caring for her and tended to her day and night throughout her pregnancy.
“We made sure she had enough exercise, had plenty of high-protein feed – lots of quality grass, supplements, calcium and vitamins too,” said Ahmed. “During her sixth month, I noticed her stomach appeared unnatural and worried that maybe she wasn’t getting enough food so we upped her routine and feeding schedule.”
He says ultrasound tests did not reveal she was having twins. “Had we known it would have been a different story because it’s quite dangerous for a horse to have twins, for both her and her foals,” he said.
Apparently, only around one in 10,000 horse births are twins and the anomaly usually isn’t a happy event. Mares simply aren’t typically able to support two foals. Most often, one or both die in the womb or at birth. A doubly-strained labour often kills the mother too.
A few weeks before the twins’ arrival, Ahmed installed a camera to watch Dana in her pen to ensure she was well taken care of. He was on duty at the night of the surprise.
“I was watching her using the camera and I saw she was behaving nervously, pacing around as though she didn’t know what to do,” explained Ahmed. “I contacted the groomsmen to give her more shaving and hay. I then left work and contacted my friend to rush over there and be by her side because I knew she was going to deliver.
“By the time I reached there, she has already given birth to Dhofar at around 11.30pm. I was so happy but soon realised she didn’t want to get up. Mares usually do after having the baby but she didn’t move and that’s when I realised something was different.
“Suddenly Hema arrived and I simply put my hands on my head and started crying. I was pleased for Dana but scared at the same time because usually they do not survive and to lose them would break our hearts.
“Thankfully, they seemed fine and we knew we still had a way to go before they were fully in the clear. My brother and I stayed with them for three days to help raise the babies until they were strong enough. We fed them too. I am not a breeder so I wasn’t completely sure what steps to take. Fortunately I learned how to care for horses from my Uncle Jaffar who loves horses.”
There was a similar situation recorded by US horse breeder Byron Lindaman from Minnesota, who had just finished helping his mare, Coosa’s Angel, give birth. Gently pulling on the new filly’s emerging front hooves, he coaxed her out into the world. Then he noticed something that stopped him cold – another pair of hooves.
‘No, not again’, he thought. ‘Please, not again’. For the fourth time during foaling season at Lindaman Thoroughbreds, a mare was having twins. All he could do was pray that this one would work out better than the previous three.
Lindaman, who has 55 horses pastured at his farm, had already lost three sets of twins and two mares.
He has no explanation for the highly unusual coincidence – no new super-feed, nothing in the water. In four decades of breeding, he’d seen only half a dozen sets of twins before this year, and they had all died. If he lost Angel, too, it would break his granddaughter Talia’s heart.
Fortunately, eight weeks later, both sisters and their mother were healthy and cavorting around a paddock … just like their counterparts in Bahrain who have survived against the odds.
“They had complications with their bones as they were both frail and Hema is a bit skinner than her sister, but they both appear healthy now,” said Ahmed. “Dhofar weighs around 60kg and Hema weighs between 50kg and 55kg. They are both two months old now and Hassan named them after areas in Oman as he loves the country and visits it often.”
Hassan, a driver with Gulf Cooperation Council, said: “They will be dressage horses as they are 75 per cent Spanish and renowned for their natural dressage technique. This is our ‘forever family’. We are so blessed.”
