Frolicking free, the laboratory ponies saved by animal rescue teams hours before they were due to be slaughtered By Paul Harris They were confused, frightened, and hours from slaughter. When the animal rescue team first saw these young foals they were cowering in a corner of their stable under sentence of death, after spending half their lives as research laboratory guinea-pigs. Yesterday, after a remarkable deal with the organisation that used them for medical experiments, the ten little ponies were roaming free. The foals, aged between six and eight months, were given their liberty not by animal rights activists storming the lab, but by quiet negotiation with the research centre The foals were sold to the laboratory by a breeder in Wales when they were around three months old For the first time in their previously miserable lives they were enjoying the open air, regaining their strength â€" and slowly beginning to trust humans again. The only signs of their ordeal were the patches of bare skin where they had been shaved before injections. The foals, aged between six and eight months, were given their liberty not by animal rights activists storming the lab, but by quiet negotiation with the research centre. Instead of sending them to the knackerâ€™s yard when they reached the end of their useful laboratory lives, it handed them over to the Unite To Care group, which campaigns to end all animal testing. The only condition was to keep the labâ€™s name and location secret. And so, in a field near Manchester, ten Welsh ponies were finally able to swap their laboratory numbers for pet-names â€" and were yesterday looking forward to a life with new owners. They are understood to have been injected and analysed as part of an undisclosed medical research programme The foals were sold to the laboratory by a breeder in Wales when they were around three months old. They are understood to have been injected and analysed as part of an undisclosed medical research programme. â€˜Theyâ€™re all only six to eight months old now but they have never been loved,â€™ said campaigner Vicky Fraser, who is caring for the ten before new homes are found. â€˜For the last three months they had been living in a test tube. They were kept indoors in artificial light, four to a stable. When we first got them, they were totally terrified. â€˜If anyone approached them they would group together and hide their heads in a corner â€" I think they thought if they couldnâ€™t see us, we couldnâ€™t see them. They were in total fear. If you went near them they became panic-stricken. The only signs of their ordeal were the patches of bare skin where they had been shaved before injections â€˜But gradually, they are beginning to understand now that no one is going to hurt them again. â€˜Some are coming round quicker than others but itâ€™s a question of taking very small steps to build up trust. They were very weak at first but their muscles are coming back. You can see a change in them every day. â€˜They are slowly showing their individual characters now â€" in fact a couple of them are becoming quite cheeky.â€™ The foals were given names with initial letters that spell â€˜will to liveâ€™. Had they not been rescued they would have been sent for slaughter the next day. Many of them took days to lose their wide-eyed look of terror. â€˜Weâ€™re not animal rights activists but we care passionately about animals.â€™ said Vicky, a 37-year-old property manager from Lymm, Cheshire. â€˜We take a professional, business approach. If you storm a building and take 30 animals, the only thing that happens is that they are replaced with 30 more. â€˜Ours is a longer term solution that can be repeated.â€™ Now the group, supported by the like-minded Beagle Freedom Project, is gradually finding new owners for the foals and two have already been allocated. â€˜They have all got very good bloodlines and have very good breeding,â€™ said Vicky. â€˜Theyâ€™re going to make very good ponies â€" someone is going to adore them.â€™