About 1 minute into the video about Nano, the tiniest horse, we were whimpering like babies and aching to play with the poor, lonely little guy.
Alwyn Wils is an animal handler and YouTube star from Haarlem, Netherlands. His channel A Chick Called Albert was born in 2016, after he bought a batch of quail eggs at the grocery store and, shockingly, one of them hatched!
While Wils raises and rescues mostly birds, amongst his vast menagerie is Nano, a very tiny miniature horse that he came across at a horse market.
Nano was sad, weak, and sick in just about every way when the first two met. He was also miserable after being paraded around as an attraction.
But despite his issues and the market vet’s prediction that the creature wouldn’t last long, Wils took him in to give him the best life possible.
He had always wanted a horse but didn’t have the space. And Nano…well, he’s smaller than the family dogs, so it’s not really a problem.
But the issue for Nano was loneliness. He might be small enough to play with the dogs, but they showed no interest in him.
The poor little guy had no friends at all – and that was starting to take its toll on his well-being.
But one day Wils heard about a neglected female miniature horse.
She was being kept cooped up in a pen with hardly any room to move around.
He got her out of the situation immediately and named her Iris for her beautiful eyes.
Then he took her home to meet Nano, hoping they would hit it off.
The two tiny horses hit it off immediately – in fact, it was love at first sight!
But there was still the question of how they would be cared for and where two horses could stay – so Wils found a space for them nearby while he figured things out.
One day Wils discovered Iris was walking funny – and he was concerned when it didn’t get better.
He had her checked out by a vet immediately. But it turns out she just needed more space – and he had to train her to walk around after being cooped up for so long.
So Wils took the pair on lovely walks each day.
Imagine seeing this in your neighborhood!
Not long after, the best thing of all happened – Wils, his 3 daughters, and his band of pets found an estate where they could live for a year that included lots of space and beautiful green trails and gardens to wander around.
Things were perfect – but the couple’s bond was getting stronger and they were ready to breed.
That’s when Wils called in the original vet who had seen Nano at the market to come in and take a look – he was concerned that Iris would be too small to birth a foal.
In that case, the pair would have to be separated.
When the vet arrived, she was stunned to see how the once puny horse had grown strong (but not any bigger, of course).
Of course, Iris was now healthy and active too – her foot all better after incorporating some exercise into her days.
The vet examined Iris, but Wils has kept the results a secret and teased about the possibility of offspring.
He said we’ll have to wait and see in the coming months if there’s a growing belly amongst his crew.
Many people encouraged Wils to simply have Nano gelded and rescue a third mini if he felt he could care for another horse.
As of now, we don’t know what’s going to happen. The latest video was posted on August 1st, so we’ll have to wait for an update.
What do you think will come of this relationship?
Be sure to scroll down below to see the emotional video of Nano’s journey and his introduction to Iris.
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