Twister's Story

wister was special right from her birth……..the first pinto we had by our NSH stallion, Key Sera Sera and a filly at that!! She was so pretty and exotically marked with an "in your pocket " personality.

Twister went on to prove that she was special. Many times over she was Champion or Reserve in the show ring. Where ever we took her, she caused a stir. People noticed the big, flashy pinto mare.

After showing Twister and having her broke to saddle, it naturally followed that I decided that I would love to have a foal out of her. And so began a search for "just the right" stallion to compliment this beautiful mare.

I finally found the right guy……..a beautiful son of Moonstone Bey V in New York, but it was already July……..do I breed her now or wait until the following year? I chose to go ahead and breed her so Twister was due to foal toward the end of June, 2002.

y the last Saturday in June, I started to have suspicions that something wasn't quite right with Twister. She was making a bag, but it wasn't getting bigger……...she had very small dots of wax, but they didn't progress, either. She spent most of the day standing in her corner and one day looked "stiff" when I let her out for exercise. I was worried that the foal had died and that she was having some problems with that. I had my local vet out……..no temp, still eating, he couldn't find anything wrong. But, I just "knew" something wasn't right so I called the closest veterinary hospital, Fox Run Equine Center, which was about two and a half hours south of us. They recommended that they see her.

Now, I was in a quandary……...should I haul a mare who was this close to foaling that far?…..was I just being neurotic? ……...was there really something terrible wrong with her?

On July 1, we took Twister to Fox Run and "Thank God", we did. With just one look at her, they told me that she was foundering…...in all four feet. An examination revealed a severe placental infection. The prognosis for Twister and her foal was POOR.

My heart was breaking when we left her there.