"Tears of joy" as Hayling Island Donkey Sanctuary welcomes wonderful Christmas gift as baby foal is born

Following a stressful few weeks at the Hayling Island Donkey Sanctuary the team has celebrated the ‘unexpected’ birth of a new foal.

The donkey sanctuary took to social media, saying: “We all like surprises at Christmas but look what we found early yesterday morning (Saturday, December 20).

“April had given birth to an absolutely gorgeous foal, literally an hour before we arrived OMG.

“After all the difficulties of late we have been having at the sanctuary this really lifted our spirits with lots of tears of joy shed and feelings of hope that a new life brings.

“We had suspicions that she may be in foal as she was getting rounder, hadn’t had a season and recently changes in her mood.”

The exciting announcement comes after the sanctuary had to launch a fundraiser earlier this month to keep afloat during the winter after losing its main source of income.

A previous post said: “Caring for donkeys that originate from dry arid conditions is hard enough in this country but with the recent extreme weather conditions it has given us greater challenges.

“Flooded areas and waterlogged fields has made opening to visitors impossible which has impacted on the sanctuary’s Christmas season and preparation for the real winter.

“Rising costs of feed stuff and no income from open days we decided to set up a GoFund me campaign to try and help give the donkeys what they need.”

The newest addition, a 13kg boy, has already stolen the hearts of the team at the rescue centre but after closely monitoring the pair, the foals progress was not as it should be, resulting in them both being admitted to hospital.

The post added: “They both traveled very well and after a long late day we left them in the safe hands of the Liphook Equine Hospital team our fingers are crossed and desperately hope we have some good news.”

More updates to follow.

For more information about the fundraiser for the donkey sanctuary, click here.