Dog comforts orphaned 9-day-old foal and take horse under his wing

Dogs are such caring, compassionate animals. They have excellent protective instincts and will often take an animal under their wing if they feel they need a helping hand.

This was the case with one rescue dog who became the guardian and best friend of an orphaned foal.

Carla is the owner of Quarter Horses. A few years ago, one of her horses, a 22-year-old mare named Sandy, had to be euthanized due to deteriorating health.

The death was especially heartbreaking for Sandy’s foal, Ty, who was orphaned at just 9 days old.

But an unexpected friend quickly began to comfort the orphaned horse: Carla’s dog, Zip.

“Zip stayed with me all night in the alley of the barn – the foal was lying in the alley and he was just lying next to the foal,” Carla said.

Sensing Ty’s grief, Carla says that the dog stayed with the foal all night, comforting him with a sympathetic paw.

Although Ty lost his mother that night, he gained a best friend: Zip quickly assumed the role of the foal’s friend and guardian.

“I think he adopted him as his child,” Carla said. «He lets him know, ‘You’re not alone.’

Dogs are emotionally intelligent animals that seem to be able to sense when someone has passed away, and it seemed like Zip understood the situation and reached out to help this particular lost foal.

“Every year we raise foals and he would kind of look in the door and just look at them,” she said. “You could tell Zip knew something was wrong that night.

«This is the first time he’s just licked one, pushed one, put another down,» she told Tribune.

Zip continued to watch over Ty every day for several weeks and was eager to see his friend every morning.

“Every time I ran to the barn, Zip ran to the stall, stood in front of the stall, and waited for me to get there,” Carla told. «He kicked me in the barn every time.»

“As soon as I opened the door, he almost knocked me down before I could get in there. If the foal lay down, he would go there and put his head on it.”

Since then, Ty has grown into a happy and healthy horse, no doubt thanks to Zip’s care and friendship during his early years.

Ty now spends most of his time with his fellow horses and has had to «leave the nest» so to speak to become more independent from his canine dad.

“You could tell that when the foal needed Zip, Zip was there for him,” Carla said. “And now Zip knows the foal is fine, so they sort of parted ways.”

While they no longer rely on each other, we know that these two will always be friends and hold a special place in each other’s hearts.

What a beautiful story.