NEWS AND OPINION: This is the story of an abandoned skewbald foal. A not unusual story in the UK. My quick research indicates that abandoning horses of all types happens too frequency and charities such as the RSPCA and Redwings pick up the pieces. Without wishing to lecture, the person who abandoned the foal should have been prosecuted in the criminal courts but they could not find them.
Redwings named the foal Barney. At the beginning of December 2022, he was found lying down in a pile of rubbish when he was five months old. You can see in the photograph that he was upside down among old tyres, a dirt-ridden mattress, bricks and gas cylinders in Essex, UK. He appears to have given up and he must have been going through a kind of horse hell.
Clearly, he had been badly neglected and his rescuers, initially the RSPCA, feared that he wouldn’t make it.
Barney spent two weeks at the RSPCA being cared for and treated by a veterinarian. When he arrived, he was unable to stand unaided and his body was covered in sores. He had very itchy legs because of mites and he was badly emaciated.
After his two-week stay at the RSPCA, he was transferred to Redwings, the UK’s largest horse charity. They have stables in Essex.
Nicola Berryman, Redwings’ welfare veterinary surgeon said:
“Barney was able to stand up and lie down himself by the time he came to us, but he was very quiet and weak. Clinically he was doing better, but he was a very sad, emaciated little pony. The poor boy also had very itchy legs and has been treated for mites”.
He had to wear a rug for several weeks while he gained weight because he was just too skinny to deal with the cold weather.
But now, two months after arriving at Redwings his wounds have healed and the mites have been eradicated.
Berryman added:
“It’s wonderful to see him now – he’s bright and has a character, skipping and bucking around his stable and going out for a daily turnout on the wood chips. He is doing so well. This is why we all do this.”
The RSPCA have been unsuccessful in tracing the former owner to find out why he was abandoned and left in such a terrible state. Because the owner has not been traced Barney will spend the rest of his life at the sanctuary.
