Iberian Warmbloods
“Pancho needs your prayers, it’s true. But save a few for Lefty too.” – Willie Nelson
Welcome to our page that follows the two little miracles we call Pancho and Lefty. Our friends have been so supportive and interested during this time that our information updates outgrew the Myspace page! Please check back often for updates on their progress and photos as they grow. I’ve never really taken the time to sit down and write the account of how they came to be or to formally introduce them. This is their story.
About seven years ago, I found a very nice Thoroughbred mare for my daughter, Katie. She belonged to my very good friend Faye, whose horse population had outgrown her zoning. She wanted a good home for the mare and the connection was made. I was initially impressed with her size, bone, and depth of heart-girth. She looked like a warmblood which, it turned out, was the result of her old-world breeding. She was a deep blood bay and stood seventeen hands and change. She also had a beautiful foal at her side, proving her worth as a brood mare. Her registered name was Molokini which we immediately shortened to “Mollie.” She was very sweet, kind, and genuinely seemed to enjoy the company of people. She became a family member immediately. Her back story was one of neglect and abuse. Mollie had raced successfully during her two-year-old year, paying her bills and then some. She suffered a devastating trailer accident while returning to the track for her three-year-old season. The owners apparently decided she was no longer of any use to them and failed to care for her injury properly. By the time Faye found her a few years later, she was starving and in very poor shape. Faye rescued her and nursed her back to health. Mollie right after she recovered from sand colic In the ensuing years, we managed to convince Mollie that she would never be hungry again and she settled into a happy life in the pasture. Her old injury made it uncomfortable for her to be ridden so, since she had been such a good mama in the past, we decided to begin looking for a suitable stallion for her. We weren’t in a big hurry and no stallion really jumped out at us. Mollie’s pedigree was filled with thoroughbred royalty. She was not only a granddaughter of Alydar, the only horse to ever run second in all three races of the Triple Crown (in 1978 to Affirmed), but in the first five generations she had Swaps, Man-O-War, Khaled, Polynesian, and Native Dancer, as well as many other notable horses. These are the old world bloodlines that are rarely seen anymore. They are the bloodlines of durable horses that raced hard and retired sound, as well as passing their soundness on to their progeny. Due to the changes in the racing format, they have fallen out of favor with the racing world, but the fact remains that they were exceptional horses with great minds and we were honored to have one of our own. After all the abuse, neglect, and injury Mollie suffered, she was still sound and still trusted people. She did her best to please and had the best ground manners I have ever seen. We were very excited to reproduce her. My friend Carolyn of Windance Lusitanos in The breeding was completely natural and did not involve any drugs to bring her into a breedable heat. She was bred by natural cover and caught on the first breeding. Her gestation was uneventful with no signs or symptoms that anything was out of the ordinary. We were very excited to be expecting our first Iberian Warmblood! She was due on August 24th but there was a full moon due on the 16th. I knew from my years at a breeding farm that a full moon brings delivery on and we were completely prepared for her to foal that night. As expected, she began dripping milk that morning and by 11:00 that night, her udder was streaming. I checked her every half hour until then and decided delivery was imminent. I went into the house to put on some long pants, got my phone and flashlight, and went back out to the barn. In that short amount of time, Mollie was down, pushing, and in trouble. Katie called the vet and Carolyn while I did my best to help the mare. Dr. Eric De Vos of Los Padres Equine in In just a matter of minutes our vet, Dr. Eric De Vos arrived and set to work. He made the mare as comfortable as humanly possible before determining that the foal was stuck, presenting in a sideways manner. It took him 45 minutes to untangle the mess before we were able to pull the foal. He said to us, “I haven’t felt any life in the foal so I want you prepared for a dead baby.” It took both of us to pull and a beautiful buckskin colt landed in my lap. I felt so bad because Katie had spent the better part of the mare’s pregnancy whispering “buckskin filly, buckskin filly” into the mare’s belly and now I had a dead buckskin in my lap. I looked down at him and saw that his eyes were blinking! All that passed through my mind was “OhmyGod OhmyGod OhmyGod…he’s alive! …I’ve gotta name him before he dies… He’s a Spanish warmblood. What’s the first Spanish name I can think of??? Pancho! Well hello, Pancho! Welcome to the family!” As I was frantically trying to get the sack off his head and wipe out his nostrils, the mare pushed again. By then we were reasonably certain we were going to lose the mare and Katie, although holding it together like the trooper she is, was really upset. She said, “Mom, why is she pushing again?” Just as I told her that it was probably the afterbirth Katie yelled, “Mom, the afterbirth has legs!”, and out shot another foal! He slipped out like a noodle and landed right on top of me and his brother! I told Katie that there was nothing she could do for the mare but the second baby was kicking to get free of the sack and needed help. She jumped right in and took care of the second colt. I hollered to the vet who was getting supplies from his truck, “Eric, we’ve got another one!” he yelled, “Another problem?” I said, “No, another baby and they’re both alive!” I looked up in time to see him literally fly the corral fence. The doc’s got some mad Spidey-skills for sure! Being the Willie Nelson fan that I am, I figured that if the first one was Pancho, his brother must be Lefty. Katie agreed because, as she said, “We almost leftied him behind!” Eric saw we were tending to the foals that were both active and aware so he tended to the mare. If you open the dictionary and look up the word “humane”, you will see a picture of Dr. Eric De Vos. He kept the mare as comfortable as possible throughout the ordeal and just as sympathetically, humanely euthanized her. I will not spend time describing the complications that were the reason for the euthanasia. That is not important. What is important is that she was a gallant mare, successfully carried twins to full term, and valiantly delivered two healthy babies. We will always miss her but will also be forever grateful for the twins she left us and the ability to continue her magnificent bloodlines. Pancho (R) and Lefty (L) the night they were born
Once Mollie was gone, Dr.De Vos directed his attention to the foals. He tubed them with the colostrum he milked from the mare and, although both were as active as jack rabbits, determined that both had some “issues”. Due to reduced room in utero, Pancho had contracted tendons in his front legs that would not allow him to straighten his feet out enough to stand. It didn’t keep him from trying though. Lefty, the smaller of the two, had immature joints that were not fully calcified, causing his lower legs to bend outward from the hocks under his weight. With his bark bay coat and funky hocks, he looked like a harbor seal. What to do? On the advice of the vet, we loaded them up and transported them to Katie and Pancho Lefty Pancho (L) and Lefty (R) in the hospital at Alamo Pintado Over the next two weeks, the boys met all their challenges and exceeded everyone’s expectations. The vets called them the “statistics-breakers” and the twins had become the favorites of the hospital. Lefty began to let everyone know that he may be smaller, but he is a force to be reckoned with, earning him the nickname “The Chihuahua”. He refused to be kept down and insisted on standing sooner than the doctors would have liked. To put a fine point on it, he threw in some unauthorized bucks and wall-kicking when he could! “The Pancho needed specialized attention to straighten his legs. They were gradually relaxing and the braces and bandages helped support his physical therapy. The poor little guy walked like an old, bow-legged cowboy for the first few weeks. When he got tired, they tended to bow out and buckle at the knees. But, once he started getting up, his progress dramatically improved. His hind legs were a little windswept so he was outfitted with little rubber baby shoes to support the angles.
A few weeks after we brought her home, she suffered a severe case of sand colic. She had been so hungry for so long that she vacuumed up every morsel she could find and filled her belly with sand in the process. She spent a week at the veterinary hospital and just about the time we were going to have to make a lethal decision, she passed the sand. She filled five 5-gallon buckets with nothing but sand. The vet said he had never seen a horse evacuate so much sand without surgical intervention in his entire career. We got back a healthy horse and he got a beach he didn’t have before!
Uirapuru
Over the next few days, there were many challenges to overcome. Rarely do both twins survive. Dr. Erin told us that even twins who appear very viable at first frequently slip into “dummy foal” syndrome and slip away. Pancho’s legs were wrapped to support his contracted tendons and both were kept laying down to prevent damage to their separate leg issues. They had to be turned every so often to prevent other problems as well. Pancho had moderate pneumonia from aspirating amniotic fluid. She said that once his kidney values were normal they were going to give Pancho a medication to help his tendons stretch and would outfit him with braces. Lefty had a touch of pneumonia as well. Both nursed from a bottle but ran out of energy and the rest was administered by tube. Pancho needed some oxygen to support his pneumonia recovery. They had IV drips of fluids and medications. They knocked the stump of their navel cords off earlier than they should have and, as a result, both leaked urine out their umbilical stump. The list was endless. The first milestone to meet was 48 hours without slipping into “dummy”.
Pancho standing for the first time without his braces.
They were kept separate but within hearing range of each other to prevent them from pulling each others’ IV lines and NG tubes. We went to visit regularly and after the first week, we took Katie’s two-year-old twin daughters to meet the twin boys. There sure were a lot of twins in the same stall! Hailee gravitated toward Pancho and all his bells and whistles. She is fascinated by engineering! Paige, the smaller and most dramatic of the twins, bonded with Lefty. When he got rambunctious waiting for his formula, Paige pulled her pacifier out of her pocket and offered it to Lefty, who took her up on the offer! They officially “Binky-bonded”! I guess it takes a twin to understand a twin! Hailee peeking over the top of Pancho’s enclosure and trying to reach the IV drip machine that makes such an attractive noise! Finally, finally the day came when we could take them home. They would be required to remain confined in the stall until Lefty’s X-rays showed enough calcification in his joints to support his rambunctious antics, but the important thing was that they were coming home! Pancho would still need the regular treatment with the leg braces and both had to finish up another 10 days of medications and have their umbilical stumps treated daily as they were still leaking occasionally. Dr. Erin seemed to have faith in me that I could do the necessary treatments so off we went to bring them home. Once at Alamo Pintado, we were given a huge box with all the meds and supplies we would need and very specific discharge instructions. I got a little nervous right about then but I knew it was just a case of getting used to the schedule. They brought the boys out one at a time to the trailer. It brought tears to everyone’s eyes to see the boys meet each other again. They had been kept separate due to all the IV lines and other ‘accessories’ but now they got to reacquaint and be brothers again. Pancho and Lefty get reacquainted. Dr. Erin Byrne (R) and her team help the boys to the trailer. Shortly after they got home, our farrier Darby Holden came out to put some different shoes on Pancho and begin the treatment to help Lefty’s front right knee straighten out. All the vets agree that with some conservative trimming and building, Lefty stands a good chance of overcoming his issue. Pancho still needed some support for the windswept hind ankles. Darby custom made some aluminum ‘shoes’ that she applied with a fiberglass-like material. They actually look like little sleds but they can be placed in a variety of ways and angles to provide the best support. We are so very fortunate to have found Darby. She brings great skill, dedication, interest, and compassion to the mix. She has great rapport with the boys and understands so much about the nature of things and the bigger picture. She pays close attention to the task at hand but always with an eye toward the eventual goal. At this writing, Pancho is remarkably straight and is just about over the need for anything except regular trimming! The boys had been home about ten days and we let them out in a small open area in front of their stall. We were still waiting for Lefty’s X-rays to say he was good to go. They got to take their first sunbath and they so enjoyed it! Shortly after, Dr. De Vos gave the green light to give them the whole pen to play in. What a joyful day! Since then, they have just gotten bigger and stronger. I am still feeding them every three hours round-the-clock but they are eating a lot of grown-up food too, including formula pellets, Equine Junior, and alfalfa flakes. They are drinking plenty of water too. The boys have been home since Labor Day weekend (2008) and just keep getting stronger and stronger. I can hardly believe they were five weeks old last weekend! They are both so handsome! Lefty looks so much like Mollie, but a bit more refined, and Pancho has Spanish blood written all over him. Lefty is still the mischievous one and Pancho is just a calm spirit who loves to play with the toys. Their corral looks like a day-care center! The twins (the girls) visit the twins (the boys) often and have stuck to their favorites. Life is good, if a little sleep-deprived. Pancho the soccer star Lefty prefers the shavings bag! Our deepest thanks goes out to the following veterinarians who saved the lives of our little guys. Should you ever need the services of some very talented and deeply compassionate veterinary professionals, we encourage you to call them! Los Padres Equine Veterinary Services Telephone: (805)-688-6510
Paige and Lefty share a Binky
Dr. Erin Byrne (L), members of her acute care team, and Katie the day the boys went home.
Our farrier, Darby Holden, with the boys
The boys tag-team the body ball.
Lefty and Hailee play twin soccer.
Thanks for your interest, good wishes, prayers, and encouragement. We have felt so fortunate to have great friends and the best team of professionals anyone could ask for to help us on our journey. The Pancho and Lefty story is one of hope and gladness and we are happy to share it!
Dr. Eric De Vos
P.O. Box 1608
Nipomo, CA 93444
Telephone (805) 929-0911
Dr.
P.O. Box 249
