A26—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, May 9,1981
BY SHEILA MILLER
SPRING MILLS - Just a little
over a month before Mother’s Day,
a Percheron mare beat the odds in
the draft horse motherhood world.
At 9:30 p.m. on Thursday, April
2, Duke’s Miss Patsy, a 13-year-old
mare in the stable of Abe Allebach,
Centre County, gave birth to two
healthy foals.
The twins, a filly and a colt with
a combined weight of 135 pounds
(one draft horse foal normally
weighs about that), overcame the
tremendous odds stacked against
them and are frisking around their
attentive mother, today.
According to the'Allebachs, who
raise the massive drafts along with
milking 65 grade Holstems and
operating a 442 acre farm, the
chances of the twins both surviving
were slim. They said the
University of Pennsylvania’s
veterinary school told them the
chances for even one of the foals
surviving was 1:20,000.
But, with the Allebach’s round
the-clock concern, Windermere's
Prince and Princess have made
draft horse history.
Remembering the all-night vigil
when the twins were born, Abe
smiled and said:
“My wife, Mary, babied those
foals to get them started. We
stayed up with them all night,
taking turns catching some sleep.
As Princess sneaks a mid-morning snack, Prince realizes
he's missing out on some of Mom's ‘home-cooking’.
With grace and speed that belie his 2100 pounds.
Remington proudly gallops across the pasture at his Centre
County home.
Prince and Princess, twin foals are Percheron royalty
“The foals were so small they
didn’t stand up for almost two
hours after they were born.
“We tried to get them to nurse,
but they just couldn’t. Because we
wanted them to get the mare’s
colostrum right away, we decided
to milk her and feed them with a
stomach tube.
“It was vital for the foals to get
the antibody-rich colostrum im
mediately we’ve found if they
don’t get it into their systems, they
just don’t make it.
“We make it a practice to milk
some of the colostrum from our
mares for emergencies we
freeze it m plastic containers. That
way we always have some on hand
to feed the foals, no matter what
happens.
“In the case of the twins, we
tubed them three tunes. By 3
o’clock the next day, the one foal
decided to nurse, and it wasn’t long
before the other one did too.”
Being a loving mother, the mare
accepted both foals without any
upset. And, said Allebach, the 2000-
pound mare painstakingly sets
each hoof as if she’s tredding on
egg cartons to be sure she doesn’t
step on her babies’ ‘toes’ as they
lay sleeping in the straw..
Needless to say, the AUebachs
are quite proud of their first
Percheron twins.
(Turn to Page A 27)
A FAMILY PORTRAIT Posing with Duke’s at halter, Mary, Monica, Abe, and Rodney are
Miss Patsy, the 13-year-old Percheroa mare rightfully proud of their draft horse’s identical
and her adorable twins, the Allebiachs, Gerald, miracles.
Half-brother to the twins is Windermere’s the Pennsylvania Farm Show for three con-
Remington, a 5-year-old Percheron stallion secutive years,
that has taken the grand championship title at
the Allebach’s new horse barn was designed makes manuring out a job that can be done by
by Abe to make hitching and caring for the machine instead of forking by hand. A center
family’s 19 head of draft horses a simpler task, aisle with cross-ties lets two people safely
The barn features heated water cups and 1 hitch six horses to a wagon and drive straight
stalls with sliding doors to the outside. This out the center doors on either end of the barn.