Shire stallion who saved mare’s life named animal hero of the year
A Shire stallion who saved a mare’s life after she became stuck in a six-hour ordeal has been named animal hero of the year.
Beau was given the title at the national Animal Hero Awards 2018, which took place on Thursday evening (6 September) in London.
Beau came to the aid of Shire mare Beatrice who had become cast in a stable and owners Donald MacIntyre and Jane Lipington were unable to pull her to her feet.
Donald found Beatrice stuck on the stable floor at 8.30am on 19 January at their farm in Bath and immediately called the vet.
Jane told H&H: “Beau and Beatrice had been on the yard together and had access to stables overnight. When Donald found Beatrice on the floor she had obviously been down a while – we could see she wasn’t in a good spot.
“We tried everything and used machinery to try and pull her across the stable but we couldn’t get her up, she gave up more and more. The vet said we could put her out of her misery or give her a few more hours with painkillers and steroids and leave it up to Beatrice.”
Beatrice’s temperature dropped and her heartbeat increased as the owners spent four hours trying to get the mare to her feet while Beau, who was in the next stable, had been “quietly watching” the situation.
Never miss out on the latest happenings in the equestrian world
“We went to let Beau out for some haylage and instead of going to eat which would be his normal reaction, he marched straight over to Beatrice, put his head over the partition between them and started nibbling her neck and ears,” said Jane.
“As we were watching he then got hold of her headcollar and lifted her head. We began to realise something a bit special was happening. He kept nipping her mane and got hold of her neck and pulled her whole front end off the floor. Everyone got in and pushed and pulled and got her up.
“The vet couldn’t believe it – she really didn’t think Beatrice was going to survive, everything was closing down. We couldn’t have got her out alive without Beau. For whatever reason Beau just knew she had to get off the floor.”
A month after the incident Jane and Donald discovered Beatrice was in foal and welcomed a healthy colt, Angus on 30 March.
“We knew nothing about the awards – they rang up and we were told he had been nominated and the panel had chosen him as the animal hero of the year. Unfortunately we couldn’t take him – he would have loved all the attention.”
Shire horse takes part in gymnastic display
Olympic gymnast uses Scott the shire as a pommel horse
18hh Shire joins brewery team
Wadworth Brewery has welcomed a new youngster to its team
Twin Shire foals slideshow
Jane and Donald attended the awards ceremony, which was hosted by Amanda Holden.
“It was just an amazing night about compassion to animals,” said Jane “People need to realise how intelligent these animals are – they just speak a different language and we need to learn their language. They have emotions, they feel compassion and all these things that we feel.”
For all the latest news analysis, competition reports, interviews, features and much more, don’t miss Horse & Hound magazine, on sale every Thursday.
Stay in touch with all the news in the run-up to and throughout the major shows and events during 2026 and beyond with a Horse & Hound subscription. Subscribe today for all you need to know ahead of these major events, plus online reports on the action as it happens from our expert team of reporters and in-depth analysis in our special commemorative magazines. Have a subscription already? Set up your unlimited website access now
Since joining H&H in 2018, Becky has covered a broad range of equestrian news including welfare matters, veterinary studies, FEI Tribunal hearings and road safety campaigns. She has also interviewed top riders including Scott Brash, John Whitaker and Ian Stark, to name just a few. Becky’s reporting has taken her to Canada for Spruce Meadows and France for Pau five-star, as well as the Royal Highland and Blair Castle International Horse Trials closer to home. She was also a key part of the remote reporting team for the Tokyo Olympics and the Europeans.