Michael was rescued by us when we learnt that his mum, Faith, who we had previously rescued, had a son that had been taken away from her.

Faith was taken from Dartmoor and sold to a university and experimented on.  She was bred with a much larger horse and was fortunate to survive giving birth to Michael, who was a very large baby.

We learnt that Michael had been taken onto a lorry and Faith followed.  She was then barricaded in to be sold, and Michael was taken off the lorry.  We were told that they both screamed when this happened, and Michael collapsed in the road due to extreme upset and stress.

We wanted to heal this awful situation and help Michael and Faith, so we miraculously tracked down where Michael had been sold to.  Our founder, Susie, rallied around to raise the £350 needed to buy him back and reunite him with his mum Faith.

He was only 3 months old when we collected him.  He was so frightened and alone.  Susie knew he would be too scared to make the 3-hour journey alone, so she sat in the trailer with him for the whole journey, chatting to him and stroking him and reassuring him that things were going to be all right.

When Michael and Faith were reunited, Michael squealed so loudly, we all started to cry!

Michael grew into a magnificent boy and even though he loves having adventures with his friends, he would never be too far away from his mum, Faith.

Faith crossed over rainbow bridge in May 2022, and it took him a long time to navigate through his grief.  He would often take himself off, away from the herd to be alone.  We do wonder if he was being visited by his Mom, in the quiet moments, as we feel she is never too far away from him and still watches over him, and all of us at the sanctuary.

Michael is a lovely boy who has grown massively in confidence and knows his own mind.  He can be stubborn at times.  He can also be triggered if he needs to see the vet, but we have done so much positive reinforcement training with him that he is nowhere near as terrified as he used to be, and we do think this all stems from his traumatic start in life.

Everyone at the sanctuary adores and respects Michael and his history and we continue to support him and cuddle him loads. We love this chunky boy.