Rosco would have suffered a slow and cruel death all alone in the field he was born in, because he was abaondoned right after his birth by his band. It was March 2, 2016 at Butcher Jones on the Lower Salt River, Tonto National Forest in Mesa, AZ. The new stallion who had just taken over his band made his mother abandoned him, we had never witnessed this behavior before and it was hard to watch.
So after waiting a few hours to see if his band would come back, the SRWHMG carefully surrounded him and loaded him on a blanket in an SUV. Our field team drove around late at night to find him the important colostrum he needed, which is the vital first mare’s milk that contains antibodies that a foal needs start up his immune system. In addition to the colostrum, he needed plasma which was administered by our vet. From that point on SRWHMG volunteers stayed with him around the clock, he was never alone and was fed milk replacers every 2 hours. He has a new family, the SRWHMG family.
We knew that a real horse mom would be ideal for him, so after a long search on the internet and placing ads, we came across April who had lost her own foal at birth, she was so distraught about it that she had stopped eating or drinking and the owner wanted us to bring the foal to her. However, being responsible for his health we could not approve the property for the safe raising of Rosco. We tried to buy her but the owner did not want to sell. So we negotiated a lease and April was able to come to Rosco. At first the two did not take to each other. But after three days of patiently trying to pair up the two, finally April decided to adopt Rosco as her own. It has been amazing, they love each other and really saved each other.