AN incredible bond has been born out of a double tragedy on a North-East farm.

When just a few hours old, Appaloosa foal Penny Cloud Surprise lost her mother, who suffered serious injuries during birth.

Sharron O'Neil's treasured mare Vasty, a four-year-old leopard spot Appaloosa, died after struggling to deliver the foal.

But now a surrogate mother has been found for the foal, which has been teamed up with a mare which lost its own foals just hours earlier.

"We discovered one of the foal's leg was in an awkward position, so it was a difficult birth," said Mrs O'Neil, who farms in Teesdale, County Durham. My initial joy at seeing the foal was shattered when Vasty died soon after Cloud was able to get her first feed."

Having just become a first-time mother herself, with a three-month-old son, John, it was an impossible task for Mrs O'Neil to raise the foal herself. She said: "I would have to get up every two hours throughout the day and night for at least six months to feed and mother him. I knew I couldn't do it, but had to find a way of rearing him."

Mrs O'Neil, 35, contacted the National Foaling Bank, and she was paired with a Cumbrian farmer. She said: "A man from Kirby Stephen had a 13-year-old mare, Saunders Linda, who lost twins a few hours earlier, so we paired them up.

"Thankfully, the mare is incredibly placid and when the two were introduced, either side of a stable wall at first, she didn't reject Cloud."

To onlookers the horses look like an odd pair - Cloud, white with black and brown spots, and Saunders Linda, a dark bay, or brown.

But the two have become inseparable and Mrs O'Neil feels they believe they are meant to be together, as they will be for about six months.

Mrs O'Neil said: "They were soon nuzzling each other, and have become the perfect surrogate mother and son."

The National Foaling Bank can be contacted on (01952) 811234.