Konik foal Button fostered by Buttons the Shetland
Staff at World Horse Welfare’s Norfolk base are playing nursemaid to a Konik foal who was rejected by his mother.
Button was found in the early morning of Saturday 18 October at Wicken Fen in Ely where the National Trust grazes a herd of the rare ponies to manage the vegetation.
Carol Laidlaw, conservation grazing warden for the National Trust says: “When we found Button on Saturday morning his mother had no interest in him whatsoever and he was receiving some unwelcome interest from other members of the herd.
“Thankfully World Horse Welfare has agreed to look after him until he is old enough to be reintroduced back onto the fen.”
Button is being hand-reared, with two hourly bottle feeds morning and night but senior groom Adele Edwards has a little help in the shape of unlikely foster father… Buttons the Shetland pony.
“Coincidentally the only suitable foster parent we had has the same name,” says Adele. “He is doing a great job and is a good influence on our new arrival.”
Hall Farm in Snetterton is open to the public every Wednesday and weekend from 10am – 4pm and visitors can watch Button the foal being bottle fed. Entry is free.
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A self-confessed newshound, farmer’s daughter and journalist of many years' experience, Charlotte worked on regional papers before joining H&H in 2007. A regular rider, she visited Ireland in 2010 to investigate the fate of Irish horses through the recession, to much acclaim, and reported from the FEI General Assembly in Rio de Janeiro in 2011. She left Horse & Hound in March 2013.