Meet Buddy the Orphan foal

Buddy is only a few weeks old and sadly his mum passed away last week.

This is a truly devastating and sad situation, for the mare, the foal and everyone involved.

The bond between mother and foal is so magical and so strong, when the bond is broken it’s truly heartbreaking.

Luckily for Buddy, his owners found an amazing rescuer who was prepared to take him into their safe hands in an emergency and supply him with a gentle companion, a safe warm bed and some special milk and foal feed. Just the beginning of his journey to a safer future, he was blessed to find his way to his rescuer the night he was orphaned.

Buddy is a very vulnerable foal as he is at an important time in life. He needs special care continually for several weeks if not months, so when we were asked to help we didn’t hesitate to get into action and collect Buddy.

Buddy settled in well at Hope Pastures and we collected supplies from Burnhills feeds at short notice of mares milk replacement and foal creep pellets to ensure he has the best nutrition we could find. Our nutritionist Nikki Meggison BSc Hons – Independent Equine Nutritionist also gave us great advice.

Chip and Thomas made little Buddy feel not so alone and we are sure it’s helped him adapt to so much change.

Our vets have checked on Buddy and are pleased with his health, we have had blood tests taken to make sure he is also healthy on the inside.

We have developments happening with Buddy right now and are doing everything we can possibly do to make sure he’s got the very best second chance.

All of this is a huge strain on our resources but we are blessed to have such an amazing team who are fully committed to managing Buddy’s rehabilitation, no matter how many extra hours, worry, planning and sleepless nights it may take.

Our vet’s fees are worrying high so far this year (over £21,000) due to many complex equines and special cases plus many more intakes in the past few months.

Testing for transmittable diseases, microchipping, scans & x-rays, lameness assessments, vaccines and hospitalisation have regularly been on the list throughout the year and although it’s very much needed it comes at a huge cost to us.

If anyone can donate even a small amount we would be so grateful. Every penny does count and ponies like Buddy rely on public donations.

There are many ways you can help: