Winnie, The Orphaned Foal

We are all familiar with the new beginnings that come with spring. The snow melts, temperatures rise, flowers bloom, and new life begins. This was just the case on the early spring morning of April. 7, 2013, as the Forward Stable introduced its newest edition, a Brandons Cowboy filly, Winnie.

The next couple of days were bonding, as normal, for Winnie and her mother, Even Winds Obey. A new foal in the barn brings lots of visitors because everyone wants to see how cute the ‘little one’ is. And cute is just what Winnie is, looking just like her mom wearing the same white star on her forehead. Checking on Winnie and ‘Obey’ was frequent to make sure everything was going okay. And everything was going perfectly until the morning of April 10, just three days after Winnie was born – Obey had passed away.

Nothing like this had ever happened before in Newfoundland. So, we asked ourselves ‘what do we do?’ After speaking to out-of-province veterinarians, Winnie’s future was uncertain. The vet had told Scott Forward, owner of The Forward Stables, that if Winnie should be okay if she could pull through the first couple of weeks. Winnie had to get accustomed to a bottle, and although she got accustomed to it easily, the milk was hard to come by.

Being on ‘The Rock’ presented many challenges, since no one had ever experienced the situation before. And, for those that had, they would just simply try to get another mare to attach to a foal and vice versa. Although, resources were not easily accessible for Scott and Joanne Forward. With much research and many phone calls, Joanne found Foal Lac and had to get it shipped, most times being by the gallons at one time. This led to many challenges and not to mention a lot of money since Winnie would need this milk supplement until she was six months old. Winnie started feeding every hour, which left people doing shifts at the barn. Scott would always make his shift an overnight shift. Scott operates his own paving/construction company during the summer and snow removal in the winter, so he would work all day and then return home long enough to eat supper. After supper Scott would head to the barn to rest on a futon while watching over his little foal. He would be up every hour for feeding.

Winnie’s milk had to be a perfect temperature, not cold but not too warm with the exact amount of Foal Lac powder to the correct milliliters of water – precision was key! Winnie’s feedings shortly increased from every hour to every two hours, then on to every three, but she always had to have someone watch over her. The heat lamp that stood outside her stall had to be stationed a certain distance from her gate to make sure she wasn’t too warm nor too cold.

After two weeks, Winnie overcome her first obstacle, and then battled onward as her feeding spread every two hours, then every three hours, and so on. Winnie was soon drinking from a bowl and eating softened pellets. Within time she graduated to hard pellets. She is now on sweet feed.

Winnie now stands proud in her stall where she was placed after suddenly being taken from her mother. She still drinks warm water and loves human interaction. It was a tough battle, but with love, dedication and much determination Winnie now celebrates her first birthday. She won’t ever leave the Forward stable, only to go as far as the paddock. And although we are saddened by the loss of a great horse, Even Winds Obey, Winnie has brought many smiles and lots of love to us all and put truth behind the fact that miracles do happen!

(Jacqueline Smith)