It is with deep sadness we have to report the loss of a mare and foal

On Saturday afternoon an embryo transfer mare who was carrying one of the embryo transfer twins out of Future Genie, by Future Illusion was seen showing signs of stage 1 labour in the field. We were not expecting this particular mare to foal as she wasn’t a maiden and had not yet developed much of an udder. We brought her in and she was dripping milk. We called the vet as her udder was still not developed and suspected there was a problem. Her milk test reading was 500ppm which is extremely high and indicates imminent foaling.

Our vet diagnosed a uterine torsion and advised us to take her to Rossdales in Newmarket immediately. We went straight there where they gave the mare a general anesthetic and tried to get the foal out. Unfortunately the foal had already died and couldn’t be revived. Due the the damage to her uterus and poor prognosis, the decision was taken to euthanise the mare to prevent any further suffering.

We are devastated at the loss of a very special foal and deeply saddened that the mare that was carrying this foal for us has also been lost. We would like to thank Emma Thomlinson and her team at Beaufort Embryo Transfer Centre for their help and support through this awful tragedy.