“However motherhood comes to you, it’s a miracle.”  – Valerie Harper

As anyone with experience will tell you, breeding horses is not for the faint of heart. There are heartbreaks and there are miracles. And even after decades of experience ushering new life into the world, there can be surprises. Just ask Karen Boxell, breeding manager at Richland Ranch in Auburn, Illinois, home of the late, great AQHA stallion Zippos Mr Good Bar.

In her position at Richland for the last 25 years, Boxell has pretty much seen it all, but even she was amazed at what an unlikely recipient mare known on the farm as White 10 would do in the name of motherhood.

The story unfolded on Sunday, a day that started off busier than most for Boxell.

“I had to be at the airport at 6:30 a.m. to ship semen then had to come back to the ranch and meet my vet at 8:30 a.m. to do some embryo transfers.” 

A stall cleaner at the farm noticed Boxell’s retired show horse and “special broodmare” This Misters Awesome (Hummer) was sweating and acting anxious. Hummer, the dam of such decorated show horses as Good Going Danica (earner of four AQHA Superior awards), YouNeverLookedSoGood and Good Like Jagger, was due to deliver a Batt Man foal on April 10 at the age of 20.

Hummer had already been moved into a foaling stall, equipped with her own camera, but there were no signs of impending labor.

“After checking on her, I noticed her bag wasn’t nearly ready,” Boxell explained. “She had lots of manure in the stall, but she was showing signs of a belly ache.  We immediately gave her Banamine and took turns hand walking her.”

IV fluids were started, medications were administered and the hand walking continued all day. But by Monday morning when Boxell’s veterinarian, Dr. Kyle Schroeder, checked Hummer’s heart rate it was 80 bpm (normal is 40-60 bpm). After consulting with several colleagues, Dr. Schroeder and Boxell agreed that it would be unlikely Hummer could recover from an emergency caesarean section and colic surgery so Boxell had to make the difficult decision to give her foal a chance to survive and let Hummer go.

Veterinarians worked quickly to perform the C-section shortly before noon and as soon as the umbilical cord was cut, Karen’s beloved mare was euthanized. 

“I had to turn my attention to the newborn colt, who was very sedated due to the anesthesia passing from mom to baby,” she said. “I started to stimulate him by rubbing him dry with towels.  We moved him into his foaling stall and I remember he looked so small in that giant stall by himself. That’s when it hit me that I needed to find him a nurse mare fast.”

After some texts and phone calls, Boxell posted a request for a nurse mare on Facebook and responses poured in.

 “I couldn’t believe the number of responses I got and the support the horse community gave me,” she said.

A mare was located in Shelbyville, Illinois, just two hours away and a driver was sent to pick her up. Meanwhile, Boxell filled a bottle with thawed colostrum around 3 p.m. and offered it to the new colt (named Mario), who by then was wide awake and ready to eat.  

“He had a great suck reflex and drained the first bottle,” Boxell said. “I bottle feed him every hour and he had an IGG pulled, which was a solid 800. Plasma was given to him, just like all our newborns, to boost their immune systems.”

That’s when something magical happened.

“Our foaling stalls have spaces between the boards so the horses can see each other through them,” Karen recalled. “I was in with Mario and I heard the recipient mare named White 10, who just had a filly earlier in the morning, start to softly talk to us.  She paced a little until her filly fell asleep, and then stood calmly and peered through the slats and we heard her low nickers.”

Karen’s heart melted.

“I looked at her and it was as if she was saying ‘this little guy doesn’t have a mom and I can help.’”

Boxell tiptoed around White 10’s sleeping filly, slipped on a halter and led her over to Mario’s stall.

“She immediately loved him,” Boxell said. “She nosed him and then licked every inch of him.  I then moved White 10 back in with her filly and brought in Mario as well.  I hung a bucket of Buckeye Milk in their stall just in case either baby wanted more milk.”

And now Mario has a new momma and a new step-sister. White 10 accepted Mario as her own and has never looked back. 

“I guess she always wanted a boy!” Boxell said.

White 10 is taking her new role as mother of twins quite seriously and is acting like one proud mother.

“She wasn’t one of my favorite recipient mares before this,” Boxell admitted. “She was hard to catch out in the broodmare field and could be a little stand-offish.  It’s now safe to say she has officially climbed the ladder and now sits on a higher rung with me.”

Note: Hummer was buried beside Zippo Mr Good Bar. She was the very first mare at Richland Ranch to have undergone a C-section.