New Foal Film for Schools
As a Sanctuary dedicated to equine welfare, we’re passionate about educating young people. We work with more than 50 schools in the Southwest sharing key messages about the importance of the natural world and animal care.
Recently we invited these schools to learn more about an important Sanctuary story by sharing our unique short documentary film about the tumultuous first month of a newborn foal’s life.
Beautiful chestnut moorland colt foal, later named ‘Little Nev’, was born at The Mare and Foal Sanctuary at the end of August. His birth was captured perfectly on a webcam in a paddock at our Newton Abbot site.
The high quality film, produced by former ITV Westcountry journalist Claire Manning and equine videographer Phil Jones shows the challenges our Sanctuary care team faced to help the new foal survive after he was born to rescued Welsh moorland mare ‘Nia’. It documents the difficulty the foal had in feeding from his dam and how the team monitored and supported his development around the clock in a special ‘foal-watch’ operation.
Dawn Neil, Head of Education and Equine Assisted Services says: ‘Education underpins all that we do at the Sanctuary. We offer equine assisted sessions in partnership with our rescued ponies for children, outdoor learning activities and we visit local schools to give talks helping young people understand more about animals and nature. We find that children relate to our horses’ and ponies’ life stories of overcoming difficult experiences. This can bring hope, a renewed sense of meaning and future direction to their lives.
‘Little Nev’s story is one we wanted to share with the local schools we work with. The story is beautifully filmed and shows how we rescued his dam Nia from the Welsh commons and brought her to the safety of our Newton Abbot sanctuary with her foal-at-foot Netty. We learned later that Nia was in foal at the time of her rescue. We knew that the tough challenges she had faced to survive on the moor could affect the successful outcome of her pregnancy. The film shows live field webcam footage of Little Nev’s birth and then follows the difficult first month of his life. Nia’s reluctance to allow him to feed led to serious concerns from our Sanctuary Care team that he may not survive.
‘Fortunately Little Nev’s story has a happy ending, but we think it’s a valuable insight into the fragility of new life and the importance of caring for animals. With a duration of around 12 minutes, the mini-documentary is a perfect length for teachers to share with primary school age children, so we hope the film will prompt thought and discussion in classes.’
The film is free for anyone to access on The Mare and Sanctuary’s YouTube channel or here.