Guy Fawkes fireworks have cost long-time Wairarapa horse breeder Louise Wilsden a $3000 foal, she says.
Mrs Wilsden and husband Nick have lived for the past 12 years at Rangitumau, northwest of Masterton, where they operate Talisman Farm Sport Horses.
The two had about 15 horses at their property overGuy Fawkes weekend, including two in-foal mares that had become spooked after nightfall on that Saturday when fireworks shot into the sky.
"In the 12 years we've been here we'd not heard so much as a cracker before, but there were some very bright and loud fireworks going off that night - and there had been no warning given," Mrs Wilsden said.
She said the noise and light had distressed one of her in-foal mares, Hooty, which was in a paddock close to their house.
"I was in bed and had to get up and calm her down. My husband went and asked them to stop and they promised not to let off the brighter, louder fireworks. It wasn't for four or five days until I noticed another of our in-foal mares had lost her foal. We found her dead in another paddock that is further away from the house."
Mrs Wilsden said the lost foal was a rare purebred Connemara worth about $3000 and the mare had been due next month. The loss of the foal was not covered by insurance and she said the mare she had comforted, Hooty, was due "any day now".
"The Connemara was still in foal on Guy Fawkes and if the foal had been a filly it would have been worth even more - but I couldn't bear to look what it was. I was too upset."
