A vet with a tender heart and the saving of a skeletal, helpless horse called Hope

She was drowning in mud when they found her — lying in a ditch, shivering with cold and waiting to die. The barbed wire that entangled her was cutting into her flesh. She was starving, skeletal and helpless.

By the time a vet reached her, the two-year-old chestnut mare probably had only minutes to live. She was caked in filth and struggling to breathe.

She was so weak she could barely find the strength to lift her nostrils out of the water-filled gully that was about to become her miserable grave. It took a mechanical digger to hoist the young shire to safety — then a desperate, long-running battle to save her life. 

When she stumbled to her feet for the first time after being transported to a sanctuary, the pathetic sight reduced some of her rescuers to tears. All through the night, they nursed her, fed her, even said a prayer for her. 

The name they gave her was Hope. Charity, it transpired, would take far longer to come to her aid.    Read Full