Foal stolen from mother found 300 miles from home

A two-month-old Shetland pony foal which was stolen from its mother has been found five weeks later, more than 300 miles (483km) away.

Lucy was taken from farmland near Allet between 11 and 12 July, leaving owner Jean Curd extremely concerned about the foal’s health since she had been reliant on her mother’s milk. She added Lucy’s mother Nancy had been “really distraught”.

Devon and Cornwall Police confirmed officers had found Lucy at a caravan park in Hertfordshire on 21 August after receiving information from a member of the public.

The chestnut skewbald foal was reunited with her mother the same day and investigations of the theft were still under way, the force added.

Sgt Alex Winning, of Hertfordshire Police’s rural operational support team, was among the officers that found Lucy.

He said: “We were lucky enough to have a piece of anonymous intelligence come to us via Devon and Cornwall Police.

“We acted on it immediately, got a few officers and myself out to the site that had been identified and put a drone up above it to see if we could find Lucy.

“Very quickly we found her and identified her by her markings and size.

“She was in an OK condition, ever so slightly skinny and a little bit of a cough but I was pleasantly surprised bearing in mind she had been away from her mother for a month and wouldn’t have had milk and those nutrients.”

He said police thought she had been taken to Hertfordshire in a van which would have been “very traumatic” for the young foal.

Ms Curd said: “It does shake you to the core… I have no idea why anybody would’ve taken her.

“I was desperately worried about Lucy because she was so young – I never thought she was going to live.

“She was so small, obviously young, [there was] a strong chance that she wasn’t going to live.”

When she was found, Ms Curd said: “I couldn’t believe it – there was still that feeling of it can’t really be her when I saw the pictures, but it was.

“She trotted in, started feeding and I thought ‘she’s going to do it, she’ll be OK’.”