Da Vinci, Fyling Hall’s foal, has been propelled into the media spotlight recently, thanks to its unique markings which show the outline of a horse.
Wendy Bulmer, our riding instructor, went to a local horse sale in September looking to purchase a placid and good-natured pony for the children to ride. A pretty chestnut mare called Katie caught her eye, so she was purchased and taken to the school.
Katie started her new life well and settled in quickly. Most of the ponies are native and live outdoors for most of the year but are covered with rugs when it gets cold. At the end of this winter, when the rugs came off, all the other ponies were sleek but Katie was rather fat. Wendy kept watching her and soon realised that she was in fact in foal.
At 5am on Wednesday 27th May Katie produced a lovely little colt (boy) foal.
“There is no way to identify who the father is but he must have had a lot of quality because Da Vinci is such a fine boy. He is the most adorable coloured foal with exceptional markings. He has a perfect little ghost horse on his left shoulder: his mane becomes the ghost’s mane then it appears to have a chest and a leg which runs down his front leg. He also has a perfect little heart on his bottom. The children have been very excited and come to visit and play with him at every possible opportunity. This is good for them and also good for the foal as it is making him into a very kind and sociable animal.” Wendy Bulmer.
The arrival of the foal has proved to be a fantastic opportunity for the children, as have been able to follow the progress of the mare through to foaling and they have learnt all about how to handle and look after a young horse.
The foal has since been featured in national newspapers, including the Daily Mail and The Mirror and has even featured internationally on social media, websites and news channels. Just type in ‘DaVinci the foal’ on Google to see for yourselves how famous our little foal has become!
