Our new Angels, in the pens at the Gympie sales
We have two beautiful new Angels in our care. We went to the Gympie sales on the weekend with a specific purpose, to look for a mare and foal and were exceptionally lucky to find this pair, who are yet to be officially named.
Our orphan foal, Bojangles, has been struggling to make connections with people (other than his foster mum, Jo M) or other horses. His vet recommended we try to find him another foal. (Not uncommon for orphan, bottle-fed foals.) We wanted one that was old enough to eat by itself (our bank balance really couldn’t handle formula feeding another foal!), a bit older than Bojangles (so it had more life experience and was a little bigger than him), and was preferably a colt, so that its behaviours were similar to Bo’s.
When we got to the sales, we discovered there were no mare and foal pairings in the dogger pens. There were two young horses on their own, but they were too much older than Bo. Our scout, Adam, was there early enough to see the ridden horses go through the auction and in came this mare (being ridden) with her foal following behind. However, they didn’t make the owner’s reserve and were passed in. So Adam went to meet the owner to see what could be done.
Arriving into foster care
The mare and foal’s owners were moving house and were on a deadline, something we hear frequently when people try to re-home horses, at situation that often puts horses ‘at risk’ of ending up in the wrong hands. Adam offered to take the mare and foal and all went smoothly for us from there.
The mare is 12 years old and the foal is a seven-month-old colt, the perfect combination for what we were hoping to find. Luck was most definitely on our side.
The mare and foal have been moved to Jo M’s place in Samford, where they will stay together until they are integrated in with Bojangles and the foal feels confident. Once his weaning is complete (which had already been started by the owners), the mare will move to another foster care location on the Sunshine Coast to follow her own rehabilitation process.
Although both horses were in the ridden section of the sales, they both clearly need some help, being underweight, with hooves unattended and likely teeth and worming in need of attention too. We will attend to all of this as soon as possible.
How You Can Help
If you would like to help support our new additions, please consider making a regular donation to help sponsor their needs. You can set up a direct, regular transfer easily by following the instructions on our donations page. You might also like to take the $2.50 pledge, donating just $2.50 a WEEK (less than a cup of coffee, chocolate block or bus fare). It’s small change to you but it means the world to us and to our horses. Thank you 
