question on twins

Postby **Roguelet** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 8:52 pm

Hi, FOS!

Honestly... no, I hadn't given that any thought. However, it only makes sense to consider both parents when looking for an answer! :shock:

The stallion in question is none other than our very own boy, Indy Mood. This happened the first season that we owned him, although we had bred to him in the past (to other mares, not this one... this was a maiden mare) and hadn't come across this before.

However, he is a VERY FERTILE boy... I'll spare you the details, but he excells in every aspect of his job! :wink:

He always gets an A+++ for settling his mares, and his fertility is awesome, but I had never considered that this might lead to an increased probability of twins. However, none of our other mares have had this problem when bred to him, and this particular mare had it happen twice in one season.

I don't know... sure gives one a lot to think about.

mary syers · Postby **mary syers** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 9:28 pm

In my Human Genetics class at Michigan State, they taught us that the incident of twins in humans was more corelated to the incidence of twins in the fathers family than in the mothers. It seemed an unlikely fact, but that's what they taught us. Mary

Postby **Roguelet** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 9:35 pm

Interesting...

Have there been any studies done to evaluate the incidences of twinning in different stallion families? I would be intrested in reading up on something like that.

mary syers · Postby **mary syers** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 9:45 pm

I think there have been no studies and the incident rate would be hidden from the public. No stallion owner wants it to be known that his stallion has a higher incident of twinning. This is impossible information to gather. Mary

Postby **Roguelet** » Mon Jan 10, 2005 10:44 pm

True... but maybe there are studies showing the correlation or lack thereof between fertility level and twinning probability? I mean, if it was as simple as "stallion X has twice the twinning probability of stallion Y because stallion X is twice as fertile as stallion Y" then I would think there might be some research done on that, or at least some theories floating around out there?

I'm interested because my stallion is very fertile. However, we've bred many mares to him for several years, even way before we owned him, and this particular mare is the first one that we've had this twinning problem with... and it happened twice in one season with her!

The mare wasn't bred back last year for obvious reasons (complete recto-vaginal tear) but we plan to breed her to him again this year, and I will be interested to see if she once again plays the twinning game with us...