Their relationship might be considered unusual, but a goat and a young orphaned horse in Coldwater are inseparable.
Emily Welsh breeds prize winning Clydesdales at her farm in Coldwater. It's a passion she shares with her parents and now her husband's family too. Welsh says it was a dream come true when a new foal with pedigree bloodlines was born in April, but tragically her prize mare named Ruby didn't pull through.
“We were just staring at our foaling camera thinking, ‘oh my god, we just won the lottery’ but the next day we noticed she was having some contractions. We called the vet and there was nothing we could do, we had to put her down,” Welsh says.
Without the mare, Welsh had no choice but to bottle feed the orphaned foal at regular intervals around the clock. However, young horses need companionship too, so the foal named Legacy was introduced to Buttercup the dairy goat.
The results of this experiment have gone far beyond all barnyard expectations. Not only did Buttercup keep a watchful eye on Legacy, the Goat even nursed the growing Clydesdale despite the difference in size and species.
"Legacy came right over and there was a little bit of holding her head in the right area and she just took off to the races. When Buttercup wants to be milked out she goes up the ramp and when Legacy is hungry she does a head wave and nudges her; she will go up the ramp. They will just do it on their own."
Welsh says Legacy is big enough now that she can be weaned from mothers milk but these two animals share a special bond. Where ever one goes so does the other.
“I doubt any of our horse friends or myself even would think ‘oh, a goat’ if you had the unfortunate event of losing a mare, but Buttercup has been just as good to her as Ruby would have been.”
Welsh is hoping the story about Legacy and Buttercup might help save another orphaned foal one day.
