Shire comes to rescue of orphaned foal

A LUSITANA colt foal at a Loxwood stud faced a bleak future when his mother died after he was born. But thanks to the National Foaling Bank, which specialises in pairing '˜bereaved '˜ mares and foals, a foster mother was found- in Scunthorpe.
By The Newsroom
Published 24th Mar 2011, 12:14 BST
Updated 8th Jun 2018, 03:20 BST

The colt’s owners, Roger Barnett and Sherene Rahmatallah of Songhurst Farm, Loxwood, were on a race against time to help the foal, which they have named Generoso. His mother had died just 12 hours after he was born.

Sherene owns a stud which breeds Sussex Lusitanos. She explained:”Everything seemed fine at first after Generoso was born.”

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“We checked on the mother, Jaca, at 3am and all was fine - but when we checked again at 5am and she was dead on the ground.”

Vets say Jaca died of internal problems after foaling. Sherene and Roger had to act quickly to save the young foal and were in luck when they contacted the National Foaling Bank, for on their books was a six-year-old Shire mare called Lady, owned by Tony Perkins from Scunthorpe. Her day- old Shire foal died the day before Generoso was born. Debbie Dunger, who runs DD Horse Transport at Pulborough, was called in to help and drove through the night to collect Lady and bring her back to Loxwood.

For full story and more equestrian news, see Sussex Horse World, West Sussex Gazette, March 23

Related topics:LoxwoodScunthorpe