Shire horse Sammy adopted two thoroughbred foals after losing her baby

How Sammy the shire horse bounced back from the heartbreak of losing her baby to become proud mum to two thoroughbred foals

• Foals Mouse and Tracey were born to mares who died due to complications
• Sammy had lost her own foal at birth so became a foster mum to the pair 

Cantering in the sunshine with her two foals, Sammy the shire horse looks every inch the proud new mum.

At a month old, Mouse and Tracey are thriving and Sammy struggles to keep up – but that’s hardly surprising. Both foals were bred from thoroughbred racehorses and Sammy is not their biological mother, but their adoptive one.

Mouse and Tracey were born on the same day to different mares who both died because of complications.

Jess Westwood, manager at Molland Ridge Stud in North Devon, had no option but to hand-rear them, bottle-feeding every two hours, round the clock.

With hope of finding two foster mares slim at best, Jess, 31, all but resigned herself to playing equine mum for five months – until she had a call from a friend telling her about Sammy, a shire horse who had lost her foal at birth that day.

Cantering in the sunshine with her two foals Mouse and Tracey, Sammy the shire horse looks every inch the proud new mum 

‘If there’s anyone that could feed and care for two thoroughbred foals it would be a shire horse, so I thought it worth a try,’ said Jess.

‘Sammy’s foal had been 100 kilos at birth and the combined weight of Mouse and Tracey was just under 100 kilos, so I knew she would have enough milk to feed them both.’

So two weeks ago, Jess picked up Sammy from her Leicestershire home and brought her to Molland Ridge, near Chulmleigh – where she took to adoptive motherhood like a natural.

‘She was maternal towards them instantly and while Mouse was a bit cautious about feeding at first, with Tracey’s encouragement she soon got stuck in,’ Jess recalls. ‘It’s a match made in heaven.’

Jess, who gave up her career as a jump jockey after a head injury in a fall at 21, is one of the Britain’s youngest National Hunt trainers, calling her 35 acres ‘like a five star hotel for horses’. She adds: ‘Ten years ago I struggled to pay any bills but I’ve persevered and today I’ve got a massive waiting list for horses to come here.’

Tracey’s mother, a flat-bred filly called Play Street, died from a haemorrhage within six hours of the birth, while Mouse’s mother, a jump-bred filly, was put down after a complex birth.

Sammy’s owner Cath Pegg, a shire horse breeder, prepared her for adoptive motherhood as best she could, travelling down with some of the dirty straw from where she had given birth and placing it on to Mouse and Tracey so that they smelled of Sammy’s foal.

Jess Westwood, manager at Molland Ridge Stud in North Devon, had no option but to hand-rear them

‘We also gave Sammy a slight bit of sedation so that if she was stressed she wasn’t putting the foals at risk. But the moment we took the foals to her she took to them straight away,’ says Jess.

‘Shire and cob-type horses make ideal foster mums. They are calmer and less flighty than thoroughbreds, who are born to race. In fact, the first time Sammy saw Mouse and Tracey running off at a pace she looked a bit taken aback.’

Sammy will remain with Jess in Devon until the foals are six months old, by which point they can be weaned off her milk.

‘By then hopefully Sammy will also be back in foal and Mouse and Tracey will be independently eating and not reliant on her milk,’ says Jess.

Meanwhile, they are continuing to enjoy their unusual bond.

‘It’s lovely that the mare’s tragedy of losing her own foal has helped two foals in need,’ says Jess.

‘I am so grateful Cath offered Sammy for this special opportunity and it’s a massive relief all round to have such a happy ending.’

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