Hazel’s little piece of magic
One lucky horse has been given a second chance at life and surprised her owner with a special delivery.
Hazel and her new foal Merlin - named for the lightning strike on his back and the wizard’s hat on his rump - gave their new owner Kerry Love such a fright that she nearly drove into a fence.
After being rescued by Bay of Islands SPCA in a malnourished condition with a gash on her leg so deep it exposed the tendons, Love did not expect her mare to have been carrying a foal.
Hazel was recovered in November after being alerted by a member of the public at a remote location near Te Hapua.
Love had spotted the horse on the SPCA’s TradeMe advertisement and thought she was ‘‘gorgeous’’.
‘‘When I first met her she snuggled her head into me and that was that.
‘‘It has been the best possible experience I’ve ever had in my life. She came to me when I wasn’t well and she wasn’t very well, we have an incredible bond.’’
Hazel had been in light harness work before a vet appointment revealed she was only two years old. So Love put the training on hold.
‘‘My partner and I had both jokingly made comments about her being pregnant, but I thought maybe since she had been malnourished she had just grown like that.
‘‘I was driving up the driveway at about 5.30am a few days ago and saw the foal there and just about crashed into the fence.’’
SPCA Inspector Wendy Locke was also very surprised to hear of Hazel’s foal.
‘‘Who would have thought that after all this little mare has been through that she had been carrying a foal for the past 11 months?’’
A Givealittle page raised around $1400 for Hazel’s care which paid for vet bills and food.
Any funds left over and future donations will be kept for future horse rescues, Locke says.
The leg injury took five months to heal and was treated with manuka honey and bandaged every second day under Locke’s care. Her weight increased from a meagre 190kg to a healthy 290kg in five months.
Hazel’s original owner could not be located but they could have faced charges for her poor condition and for not getting the leg injury treated.