A foal whose mother died as she gave birth to him has defied the odds after being adopted by another mare.

The chances of a mare taking to a foal other than her own are so remote that the future for the colt looked extremely bleak after his mother, a mare owned by John James, of Mellaston Park, Hundleton, died during a very difficult birth.

The colt, aptly nicknamed Tag-a-Long, was being hand-reared when Sue Scourfield, of the Pembrokeshire Riding Centre at Hundleton, stepped in with a solution.

One of her Highland mares, called Missie, was due to foal and with advice from the National Foaling Bank, Sue managed to convince Missie that Tag-a-Long was her own.

"We doused Tag-a-Long with Missie's amniotic fluid and encouraged her to lick him before she had contact with her own foal,'' she said.

It worked and Missie allowed the orphan colt to suckle for milk, but a blindfold was necessary in the early stages to support the bonding process.

"Smell is very important at this stage,'' said Sue. "After the pair had bonded we gradually removed the blindfold.''

The team at the riding centre now operate a two hour shift system to support the mare and to make certain that the foals are getting enough milk.

Although the colt would probably have survived without a mother, its future would have been uncertain.

"A horse that is reared by people can't accept that it is not human, they never really mix with the crowd,'' said Sue.