Blazin’ Saddles Twins

Blazin’ Saddles was blessed with twin foals on April 27, 2025!

BSR Docs Steel Colt and BSR Shady Lil Secret

Docs Shady Lady x Buenos Steel Jaz

The journey of our little miracles:

I am just amazed when I think back to the first couple of days with our twin foals and am still in awe of the miracle they are.  Looking back, there are so many things that I believe God orchestrated to take care of the twins.  He cares so much about the animals he created!  Matthew 6:26 says, “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.  Are you not much more valuable than they?”  As much as he loves the birds that he feeds and our twins that He has taken care of, think about how much more He loves you and me!  I have been reminded of how much God loves us as I’ve cared for these twins the past four months.  I have seen His hand in so many things on their journey and wanted to share the goodness of God that I’ve seen through it.

Here is their story…

It was Sunday, April 27^th, Shady was overdue and we knew she was close to foaling because of the wax on her teats.  We were watching Shady and Tyla’s goat Sassy very closely because they were both close to giving birth.  I asked Tyla to go out and check on them and she came running back in the house yelling, “Shady had her baby!”

We all went out to see it and it seemed like the delivery had gone smoothly.  Horses are so sneaky!  They seriously seem to wait until the second after you check on them to have the foal before you check again.  The colt came first and we had no idea there was another foal still inside.  Shady had been ultra sounded last August when she was about three months along.  Because of the size of the embryo at three months gestation, the smaller one was hidden, so we had no idea there were twins.

First Born

I am thankful that we didn’t know there were twins so I didn’t worry her entire pregnancy.  The vet may have suggested pinching one off so she would only carry one of the foals, but I would not have felt right about that.  God had a plan for them and He took care of them throughout the pregnancy and after their birth.

As I’ve said before, it is so rare to even have a mare that gets pregnant with twins – one in 10,000.  It’s even more rare to have them born alive.  Many mares will lose both twins during the pregnancy and if they make it full term, they often die during foaling because of complications.  In the rare case they are born alive, both rarely survive the first two weeks.  They are truly a miracle!

After Colt (we later named him) was born, we expected Shady to go through the normal routine after foaling.  We noticed her placenta didn’t look right and I was worried that she was prolapsing her uterus.  I took a picture and sent to a vet and he thought it also looked like a uterus prolapsing and told me to clean it up and hold it in place until we could find a vet that could come take care of it.  I went to the house to get some clean water while Josh held the contents in place.  I came back a couple of minutes later and Josh said, “I think she is having another baby!”

I thought, NO WAY!  Sure enough, when I got back to Shady, I could see a foot.  We knew baby #2 had to come quickly and Shady was exhausted and didn’t want to push very hard.  I told Josh we needed to pull it out and so he waited for a small contraction and it slid out easily when he pulled because it was so tiny. Secret (we later named her because she was a little secret) was only about 40 lbs when she was born and Colt was probably around 60lbs.  Most quarter horse foals are 100 to 125 lbs at birth.

So, here we were with live twins on the ground – dumbfounded and wondering where we were going to put them.  Our foaling stall is larger than normal, but isn’t big enough for two babies to safely live with mama.

It still amazes me how God orchestrated the birth of these twins for the perfect time.  Josh is generally gone trucking during the cold months and is only home Friday evening through Sunday afternoon.  Normally, he would have been gone by the time Shady foaled on that Sunday, but that week, he wasn’t going to leave until Monday.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that God let her foal when Josh would be home to help with the foals.

We needed to quickly make our goat shed into a foal nursery, so while I tried to get the foals up and nursing, Josh moved things around, cleaned it and put clean bedding down.  Then he carried the babies one at a time to the shed.  I am still so thankful he was there to do all of that and truly believe God had a hand in it.  It was no coincidence that Josh was home that evening.

Shady was a first-time mama and she wasn’t as careful as most mares are around their foals.  Most mares, even first-time mamas, are so careful where they put their feet, but Shady didn’t seem to pay attention at all.  So, we knew right away, they were going to need 24-hour supervision to help keep them from getting stepped on.

I had never spent a night in the barn prior to the twins, but that first week, I spent most of the week in the shed with the babies.  I home school our kids, so we took most of the week off school so I could stay with the babies.  We had friends that came and sat with the babies for a couple hours at a time so I could take a nap or do things that needed to get done around the ranch.  We had a teen camp coming up the following weekend, so I had a lot of preparations to make.  I still don’t know how it all got done when I was so sleep deprived and spending so much time with the foals – only God!

Most mares pass their placenta within one to three hours after foaling.  Shady still hadn’t passed hers late Sunday night.  One of our vets was on vacation and I called another one who comes from about two hours away.  He is always booked solid and I normally need to schedule with him well in advance.  He just happened to be going to a neighboring town the next morning and said he could stop on his way back.  Another non-coincidence!  So, he came and cleaned Shady and checked the foals.  Both foals were up and getting around well, but Colt had not figured out how to nurse and we were milking Shady to feed him.  Other than that, he seemed fine and the vet thought they were doing very well.

Monday night was supposed to drop down to below freezing temps and I was out of clean barn blankets.  We had a small heater in the shed, but the building is not insulated, so it couldn’t do a whole lot to heat it.  I posted on Facebook to see if anyone had old blankets we could use to try and keep the foals warm when it was going to be so cold. Within an hour, one of the moms of a lesson student came with a bunch of nice, warm blankets for the babies.  How thankful we were and I know the babies were too!

Around 9 pm on Monday evening, our goat, Sassy, kidded to add more to the chaos.  She also had twins, but thankfully twins are not uncommon in goats and they didn’t need much assistance.  It got very cold that night and I had a hard time sleeping at all in the shed not only because I was worried about the twins, but because it was so cold.  They made it through the cold night and were warmer in the morning.

Another thing I am so thankful for is how good natured Shady is and what a great mare she was to handle through all of it.  Being Colt couldn’t nurse and Shady had so much milk, I wanted to use mama’s milk for him.  Shady was so patient with us the first week and let us milk her without even a halter on.  She is just the sweetest mare.  I also don’t consider it a coincidence that Shady is the mother of the twins.  The spring before, Shady’s full sister, Shine, had her first foal and was the crabbiest mama mare I have ever had.  Anytime someone other than me would walk by her stall, she would pin her ears and act like she was going to bite if she could reach them.  She did try to bite Jace when he was in the stall with me one day.  I believe God hand-picked Shady to be the mama of these twins so that we could easily help care for them.

Tuesday afternoon – 48 hours after they were born, Colt went down and couldn’t stand back up.  He started showing “dummy foal” like symptoms and would thrash around on the ground.  He would thrash so hard that he would work his way to the cement under the straw and scrape his eyes on the cement.

We were very disheartened at this point.  Although tiny little Secret seemed to be thriving, it seemed like Colt might not make it.  He would still drink his bottle, but he couldn’t get up.  We had to put bales around him to keep him from getting stepped on by mama and his sister.  She was starting to get playful and would just about walk right on top of him.

We had many people praying from the moment these twins were born.  I asked for more prayer for Colt when he was down and we prayed over him.  My friend who was on foal duty one day listened to praise music and sang over him.  Tuesday night, as I laid on the straw bales I had made into my bed, I cried.  I had been trying to keep my heart out of the situation as I knew the chances of the foals surviving was slim, but as much as I tried not to get attached, it wasn’t working.  I was getting very attached to the little sweethearts and as I cried on my bale bed that evening, I asked God why He would send these little miracles if He was going to take one away.  During the night, as I watched Colt thrash around unable to stand, I felt like God was asking me to trust Him.  I couldn’t see the big picture, but He could and no matter the outcome, He was still God and He was still good.

Our horse chiropractor was coming the next day (Wednesday) to work on a horse with a sore back.  I told him about the twins and asked if he would look at Colt before he left because I know how much chiropractic can help humans and horses, and thought maybe Colt needed an adjustment.

Colt needed one of his vertebrae adjusted right below his head.  When the chiropractor put pressure on that spot, it made the thrashing start.  He said that normally when he can recreate the issue with pressure, that’s where it’s coming from.  He worked on it a long time until it finally loosened, and we hoped for the best after his adjustment.

Later that day, McKenzie was foal sitting so I could get some things ready for camp that was starting on Friday.  I was cleaning in one of the camp buildings and got a call from her.  She said, “He is standing up!”  I couldn’t believe it!  I told her I would be right over there and sure enough, he was standing with assistance from Kenzie.

After that, he would get up every couple of hours with assistance when he got hungry and drink his bottle standing.  I still cannot believe that he rallied and give all the credit to God.  Another non-coincidence that the horse chiropractor happened to be coming that day and could adjust him.

After he could stand again, he still had a lot of issues.  When he was down, Shady seemed to lose interest in him.  It’s natural for an animal to leave the weaker young and take care of the stronger and that seems to be what Shady did.  She stopped coming over to even sniff Colt after he had been down for 24 hours.  After he could stand again, she decided she didn’t want him near his sister and would pin her ears at him.  So, unfortunately, for his safety, we had to separate him from his mama and sister.  It was heartbreaking.

Another issue with Colt were his eyes.  They got infected from scraping on the cement when he was thrashing and needed daily drops.  I was very worried that he would end up blind in the eye that was the worst.  He also had severe tendon laxity causing weak flexor tendons on his hind legs, which is common with twins when they don’t have a lot of room in the womb.  The vet wasn’t concerned about them and said to give it time, but after a few weeks, I didn’t want to wait to see what would happen.

I was told our Amish farrier had helped another foal with the same issue.  So, I hauled Colt to our friend and he put some little booties on his back feet to help support the tendons and it worked wonders!  Right away, there was a noticeable difference and within two weeks, he was walking upright on his hind feet and legs without his little rump sagging.

The foals were two weeks old on Mother’s Day.  The weather was nice and warm and I had Shady and Secret in a corral so they would have more room.  Shady still wasn’t being very careful about where she would step, so I thought having more room would be safer for Secret.  She was so tiny and her little legs were so fragile.  I went to feed Shady that morning and found Secret with a crooked back leg that she couldn’t step on.  Even in a bigger area where we though she would be safer, it seemed that mama still managed to step on her and break her leg.

Thankfully, we were able to get in with an emergency vet call and hauled Secret an hour away to the vet.  We brought Colt with for company, but left Shady home because we knew it would be dangerous to have them in the trailer together and she would end up stepped on again.  It was very stressful on both Shady and Secret, but we were able to get Secret’s leg casted and hoped for the best.  Thankfully the prognosis for a foal with a broken leg is much better than an adult horse with a broken leg.

Our local vet came and changed her cast a couple of times and after five weeks, she was able to be cast free with a completely healed leg.  And again, we thank God for healing little Secret’s leg.

I am so thankful for all the people who helped in different ways with the babies.  From foal watch to bringing blankets.  From praying to sending Chewy.com coupons for help with Colt’s milk replacer – I am so thankful for everyone who supported us during those critical first weeks with the twins.  We are so thankful for all of you!

We finally named the foals after two weeks.  I just couldn’t name them when I wasn’t sure they would live but after two weeks, we needed to call them something other than “colt and filly.”  Josh had always wanted to name a horse, Colt, and he wanted to make sure it was one that I wouldn’t sell.  So, the colt became “Colt” (registered name BSR Docs Steel Colt) and the filly was named Secret (BSR Shady Lil Secret) because that’s what she was!

Colt was our yard foal for a couple of months.  He was stalled, but we would let him run around the barn and yard for several hours a day.  He loved to play with our huge Great Bernese puppy and would give him scratches.  He started to follow me in the tractor when I would clean barn and follow me when I would drive the ranger.  He started following lesson students to their vehicles and even followed me when I drove to the mailbox one day to get the mail.  I looked in my rearview mirror and there was Colt, running behind me, whinnying, thinking I was leaving him behind.  After that, I knew we needed to do something differently because I was afraid he would try to follow to UPS truck or another vehicle and get run over.

When Secret’s leg was completely healed, we decided to see if Colt could live with his mama and sister in their corral.  What an awesome reunion there was that day!  I let Colt out with Shady and Secret and I watched him run and play with his sister and mama.  Although he has never nursed from Shady, she accepted him into her herd and the three of them lived together until it was time to wean Secret.  It makes my heart so happy to watch the twins run, play and sleep in the grass together.  They are thriving and have the sweetest temperaments.  Secret is a tiny little fireball and Colt is very laid back.  They are filling out nicely and are beautiful foals.  Their legs still aren’t perfectly straight, but with corrective trimming, they should straighten out.

As I look back at all the obstacles these foals have overcome and how they survived against the odds, I am so very thankful for them.  They are truly little miracles!  I believe God has a plan for the twins at Blazin’ Saddles and am looking forward to see how He will use them for the ministry.

Secret, Shady and Colt ~ 4 Months

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