Our horse hero

It can take a tractor and full team of people to get a colicking Shire horse back on their feet, but when Beatrice fell ill it was her handsome long-time companion Beau who pulled her to safety

A Shire who saved his companion

IT WAS 9AM when Donald McIntyre first noticed that his 16-year-old Shire horse Beatrice was struggling to get up. He alerted his partner Jane Lipington, who rushed to the scene to help. “When Shires have colic, they don’t usually thrash about,” says Jane. “Once we realised what we were dealing with, we knew we had to get Beatrice back on her feet immediately. “We attached her to a buggy, but time we managed to get her standing she collapsed again. Our vet arrived at 11am and said we could keep trying, but we’d have to make a call before 4pm about whether we should put her to sleep. “As you can imagine, the whole thing was traumatic. Beatrice was in a lot of pain and it was heartbreaking to watch her suffer. She has given us four foals — including one with our favourite stallion, my riding horse Beau. “Because of all the palaver, it wasn’t until midday that we decided to let Beau out of his stable for a walk. When we did, he marched straight over to Beatrice, took hold of her headcollar and pulled. “Beau kept tugging on Beatrice’s headcollar and then he started to nip her neck. We just thought he was being a typical stallion, but he was actually trying to save her life. It took him 10 minutes, but somehow he managed to haul her whole front end up. We then walked Beatrice around the yard until everything was normal and the vet gave her the all-clear. “Since she colicked, we’ve found out that Beatrice is in foal to Beau and she is due in May. I think it’s safe to say we hugely underestimate the emotional intelligence of these animals.”