Lucky Luke, miracle foal

A MIRACLE of nature occurred at the Australian Agricultural College Corporation’s (AACC) Longreach campus last week when a mare adopted an abandoned foal and became a proud mother of two.

Lucky Luke was born last Monday night and was given a harsh introduction to the world when his mother, on her maiden birth, refused to suckle him.

Left to fend for himself, fortune then smiled on Luke when super mum Midnight Lady allowed him to share her milk with her own newborn, Ladonna.

Senior horse instructor at the AACC John Arnold said it was very unusual for a mare to naturally adopt a strange foal and continue to suckle her own.

"Sheep and cattle often adopt abandoned newborns without human intervention but I’ve never seen it with horses," Mr Arnold said.

"In the thoroughbred industry foster mothering is pretty common. If a thoroughbred foal is abandoned the horse breeder will get a mother ‘in foal’, such as a draught horse, and replace their foal with the more valuable thoroughbred.
"The smell of the abandoned foal usually needs to be masked by a strong smelling agent such as methylated spirits before the foster mare can be tricked into accepting it.
"We didn’t do any of this with Lucky Luke and that’s why he got his name. Without Midnight Lady he wouldn’t have survived."