Pony breeder Hennie Verstappen calls it a miracle: one of his ponies, a six-day-old foal, survived an attack by a wolf this week. The group of ponies walked in a meadow near the Peel in Neerkant. “If the foal had been older, it would have turned out much worse.”
While snorting and kicking, the white mare keeps a close eye on her waddling foal. Large areas around the tail and groin of the foal have been shaved. Deep wounds that have been neatly sutured are covered with a white bandage. “You should have seen her then, really horrible images,” says Verstappen
The ponies walked in the adjacent nature reserve on Wednesday. “I was told the night before that a wolf had been spotted. Unfortunately it was too late to go get the ponies then. The next morning I went to get them early. You don’t want to experience what I found there.”
“The vet had three hours of work with it.”
The pony breeder has already recovered from the shock. “The foal was completely open. The meat was hanging loose from the body. I immediately took it to the vet.”
The animal was put under anesthesia at the vet. “It had to be stitched up and cleaned up. They had three hours of work with it.” Verstappen is full of praise for how the foal has been refurbished. “Really perfect.”
Verstappen even speaks of a guardian angel: the mother pony. “I think the wolf grabbed the foal from behind with the claws and all, then the mare gave the wolf an optater. The luck is that the foal is less than three meters from the mother, especially in the first days. If had the foal been a month old, it would have turned out much worse.”
“That wolf doesn’t fit here.”
The animal is now happily hopping around the mother. Verstappen looks out over his pasture where a number of ponies still roam. “That wolf doesn’t fit here. Something really needs to be done,” he says firmly. “The hobbyists are completely destroyed. A pony like that is also your pride.”
Caring for the pony is still important. “I have to clean the wounds twice a day and give him antibiotics.” But despite the injuries, the foal is doing very well. “She drinks well. She plays a lot. We just hope she doesn’t lose anything.”
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