Feeding Foals: posted by Cheryl Burfield

Last week end we had a huge panic when someone, not realising that foals, just like human babies, start life drinking milk, fed the Shetland foal. He started to choke and one of my colleagues ran to the rescue. Luckily he was none the worse for his ordeal and the vet was called to give him a check up. Since then we’ve pulled wood shavings and straw out of his mouth. Once you ask a visitor ‘Would you like to eat your duvet and pillow’? they quickly learn the first steps of animal care!

The Shetland and Shire foals both seem destined to be ‘horses with no names’. Our visitors have been great in coming up with suggestions, and have provided us with plenty of food for thought, from a selection of coffee types inspired by the café culture, i.e mocha and latte, to flapjack, toffee and fudge. We’ve had everything from historical figureheads down to good solid ‘Sid’. Hula Hoop is fine until we split them up and need to call them in. This will not be an easy decision. Lets hope we feel more inspired by next week, and the foals start to characterise one of the suggested names.

Cheryl Burfield, The Chatsworth Farmyard & Adventure Playground