Foster foal: Rare wild Asian horse foal finds new mom in a grieving domestic mare

Name: Foster foal: Rare wild Asian horse foal finds new mom in a grieving domestic mare
Uploaded: 2025-07-27T11:32:07.000Z
Duration: 2 min 12 s
Description: There's some good news about a mother-son pair at the Minnesota Zoo, proving that a mother's love can come from all sorts of places.

There's some good news about a mother-son pair at the Minnesota Zoo, proving that a mother's love can come from all sorts of places.

Posted 7/27/2025, 11:32:07 AM Updated 7/27/2025, 11:34:07 AM

Most of us they look like any mother-son pair of

horses frolicking in a pasture

Merritt an Asian wild horse was born back in May

but immediately the staff knew something wasn't quite right

Doctor Annie Rivas is the chief veterinarian for the Minnesota

Zoo

He was having trouble walking and keeping up with mom

so we knew by the time he was about 3

days old he was not going to fix this on

his own and we were going to have to intervene

Decision to separate Merritt from his birth mom and put

him in a horse hospital but when he returned after

treatment his birth mom no longer recognized him

His mom was a first time mom and she was

not sure what he was at that point

And so she told us pretty quickly she didn't want

anything to do with him when he came back

For a while the zoo staff rotated shifts all day

and night to care for Merritt but what he really

needed was an equine mom and then they Happen to

see a Facebook post about a horse named Alice who'd

recently lost her own foal and would love to nurse

another

Horses are very social and this mom was bringing her

little one and this opportunity to be a foster mom

would give her you know still that experience to be

a mom help her fill this need that she feels

And on the flip side Merritt really needs a mom

in that moment

He definitely does

How did it go when Alice met Merritt It was

like they've known each other their whole lives

Um she didn't look back she you know nickered at

him recognized that he was a baby called him and

he went right up to her

It was like instantaneous

Yeah

Animal instincts kicked in

It didn't matter that they're from different species

Merritt is an Asian wild horse and Alice is an

American pony

Alice has been teaching Merritt how to be a horse

and how to respond to his herd a lesson there

for all of us

You know this little baby different species not the baby

she knew and she didn't worry about all the differences

she just worried about the things that were the same

between them

And I think that's a good reminder for us anytime

we have it

Kate Snow NBC News