Anyone who knows me well will tell you that I must have dormouse genes somewhere in my makeup! I am not known for keeping late nights or early mornings. However, when the call came out for volunteers to feed Ashley, our orphaned foal I jumped at the chance. How could I resist the honour of helping this lovely little chap?

So last night about 10pm I started to wear a hole in the carpet in anticipation of feeding Ashley at midnight. My husband was getting very fed up of me pacing up and down, checking the clock and asking if it was too early to make my way up to the Sanctuary.

Eventually 11.30pm arrived and I could phone security to let them know I was on my way. We met at the gate and drove up to the stable where little Ashley was waiting. As we looked through the glass the dearest little fluffy face peered back at us as if to say, "Do you think you could hurry up I am hungry!".

I quickly set about preparing his feed, mixing the special foal milk carefully in his sterilised bottle and made my way back to the stable door. As soon as the stable door was opened I was met by the most delightful sight of a tiny nose and two very long ears.

Ashley, despite being hungry was perfectly behaved and followed me into the middle of his stable, where I proceeded to offer him his bottle. Without any hesitation he latched on immediately and in what seemed like seconds the bottle was empty. I was delighted that he had fed so well and not a little disappointed that it was all over so quickly.

He is such a strong fit lad and a joy to have a cuddle with in the middle of the night! I can console myself that I get to do this all over again when it's my turn on the rota.

One of my friends said to me, "He must be very special to get you out of bed in the middle of the night", well I can happily confirm that he is!