With the help of veterinary medicine, Queen Freckles Too, a Quarter Horse belonging to Sandy and John Glynn of Arboga, Yuba County, overcame a series of life-threatening difficulties as she carried her foal to term.
On January 4, rescue volunteers Dr. John Madigan and Butch Littrell of UC Davis found Freckles hopping on three legs where she was stranded in neck-deep water during the New Year's flooding in Northern California. Dr. Madigan says, "I could feel a big hole in her leg, but couldn't even get the leg out of the water." Freckles had fallen victim to injury from objects such as hidden barbed wire fences, lawn mowers, tractors, propane tanks or other equipment that had become dislodged and obscured by the high water. The two rescuers led Freckles to higher ground on a nearby levee.
The next day, UC Davis faculty member Dr. Robin Kelly treated Freckles and other rescued horses that had cuts and puncture wounds. When the water at the levee receded enough to load injured animals into trailers, they were brought to the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital (VMTH). Upon arrival, Freckles required immediate surgery to repair the gaping laceration, from knee to fetlock, in her left leg. At the time, she had completed almost eight months of gestation.
The Glynns' barn had been devastated and their pastures reduced to mud, so Freckles was invited to stay at O'Sullivan Farms in Browns Valley, home of the stallion (Gold Coast Approval) to whom Freckles had been bred. When Freckles developed severe colic symptoms April 2, Shayla Sullivan called Browns Valley veterinarian Dr. Wayne Wulf, who diagnosed Freckles with uterine torsion and referred her to the VMTH.
The horse was brought immediately to the Large Animal Clinic where Dr. Rodrigo Vasquez performed surgery to reposition the fetus. All went well, and Freckles returned to the farm in Brown's Valley. She gave birth to her foal May 7.
Shayla Sullivan says, "The Glynns haven't decided on an appropriate name for the colt yet, but I call him 'Miracle.' "

Queen Freckles Too and foal