Lisa Willey & VBA Ruby

I am incredibly excited to get VBA Ruby home and begin our journey together. 

Unfortunately we have encountered a few roadblocks with our transport, but in one more week we will be together at last.

In the mean time, Ruby has been paddocked at the Brumby Junction Sanctuary where she will relax until she is picked up towards the end of next week. 

When I met Ruby last weekend at the sanctuary, I could see that she is a feisty and opinionated mare (I adore such traits in a horse) and also bold and curious. 

I think of her constantly and am so excited for our journey of connection and learning to come.  

Ruby has now been home for 1 week. In this time she has watched me from a distance, buddied up with my QH mare Opal, walked with Opal as Opal followed me and slowly learned that I am no threat and not asking anything of her. Only after she acknowledged me, I offered her some hay from my hand which she eventually took, and then we began building connection- her approaches rewarding her with a bit of hay and me moving away. This way, she is only experiencing a positive outcome for approaching me, with no pressure of me moving towards her or asking anything of her. 

Eventually, she would approach me more readily and get excited to see me when I'd walk past the yard, and learned to accept pellet from my hand. 

We are now establishing positive reinforcement training methods, learning to understand the conditioned reinforcer, and walking on together and stopping together at liberty without any form of touch or pressure. 

I have just introduced the halter, letting her get used to it and being able to sniff it while we walk around at liberty.

The past 2 weeks have been peacefully eventful for Ruby and I. Not that we have done a whole lot from an outsider's perspective, but the relationship we have built over the past 3 weeks since her arrival is substantial.

Everything we have done together up until about a week ago has been at liberty. Which has laid the foundations of not only the beginnings of a strong relationship between us, based on trust, connection, holding no expectations and consistently providing safety, but has also laid foundations for her to understand my body language, cues and behaviours that have transferred into our next layer of learning. 

Roughly a week ago, once Ruby was consistently self haltering at liberty and happy having it tied on, I introduced the lead rope. Because of the previous work at liberty, walking, turning and stopping beside me were already established. So introducing light pressure to these movements was accepted easily and the behaviour of responding to halter pressure was established.

Next came tying up, where she was tied to bailing twine and I moved away slightly so that she would reach the end of the rope and feel the pressure. She was quick to give to that pressure and was immediately reinforced when she did so, never being pushed over threshold and choosing to break the bailing twine. I would then move further and further away each time until she was happy standing tied. 

Now that she was consistently giving to pressure from the lead rope, I felt confident taking her exploring out of the large paddocks she has free roamed, and introduced her to some new stimuli such as narrow gateways, different ground, meeting chickens, walking through plants and up stairs. 

With each new stimuli, I held no pressure with the rope, allowing her full ability to tell me if she was not ok with something. However, after sniffing everything, looking intently and ensuring each thing was safe, she confidently followed me through these tasks, once again thanks to the foundations of establishing a bond which I believe holds me as a herd member and a leader to be trusted. 

Only since she has been self haltering have I been touching her, giving her neck scratches so long as she wanted them. Currently, she is learning to be groomed and will continue with more basic handling and exploring new areas together in the coming week.

Over the past two weeks, Ruby and I have continued to strengthen our relationship and trust, and develop new skills. 

Ruby is now comfortable being groomed all over and learned to accept the saddle pad and then the bareback pad and girth at liberty. We have also started working on picking up front hooves which she is quickly figuring out.

Ruby developed a cough and so we spent a couple of days focussing on her learning to have her temperature taken. I wasn't sure whether this would be possible, as she certainly wasn't ready for something so invasive and although her trust in me develops every day, she still has a fine threshold and I knew this would be well out of her comfort zone. But through R+ training, taking tiny baby steps and always listening to her body language and reacting accordingly, she learned to stand at liberty and have her temperature taken every time.

I love her so much and am so proud of her attempts and little wins through each new step of our training together. 

Next, we will be working on float loading and the next steps towards riding- when she is ready.

This past fortnight had been cut short with some time away from the property, however before leaving, Ruby and I achieved the milestone of our first few rides. 

Mentally, accepting a rider is no different to any other behaviour learned. It must be broken down into tiny, achievable steps, and each step accepted before moving onto the next. 

Ruby was most uncomfortable with the behaviour of me bouncing near her. So I broke that down by standing a little further away at liberty and making the movement minimal, then reinforcing her when she was comfortable with that before moving away to 'reset' and repeating the behaviour, eventually increasing the energy in my movement and standing closer to her. Once she was comfortable with me jumping beside her, I started to lean over her, then lean over and bounce and so on until she was comfortable with me laying over her for gradually increasing periods of time, and eventually swinging a leg over and sitting on her back.

After which it is a matter of repetition, practice and shaping behaviour until it is readily accepted while remaining relaxed. Only after this did I introduce the cue to move forward from a 'click', halt on a "woah" cue and be repeatedly reinforced for correct answers, though these were easily learned as those vocal cues have been consistent while moving with me at liberty on the ground.

This was done at liberty with no halter, to show to those watching how constriction is not necessary in the starting process, so long as the horse is mentally able to accept each new behaviour.

The sessions have been very short, sitting on her back for only a few minutes. Next, flexion and yeilding undersaddle will be introduced.

Ruby has now begun learning to float load, which is what we will continue practising over the coming days. 

She has also learned to pick up her hooves and will continue to learn to hold them for longer periods to allow for her first trim, which hasn't been particularly urgent as they are not too overgrown. 

I look forward to taking her on some new adventures off property once she is comfortably float loading, and continue to develop her muscles to more comfortably carry a rider and improve her skills undersaddle at a walk. 

Over the past fortnight, Ruby and I have been practicing and improving on things she knows already, such as increasing pressure while grooming until she was comfortable being massaged all over. She has always been very touchy around her ears, so I have slowly been getting her used to feeling touch closer and closer around her head, though I always stop when she tells me to, so it is a slow process but important to respect her boundaries. 

Her coat remains stained as the red dirt up here loves white hair and Ruby loves a roll. No matter how much she is groomed, the red stain remains, but we will begin to learn to accept the hose water soon. 

She is float loading well and almost ready to travel for the first time. She will walk in and stand relaxed, and on cue will stay standing while I move out of the float. She is now comfortable with the barrier being closed but I have yet to combine those two steps.

She is picking up both front hooves and holding them up comfortably now, and we have begun working on her picking up her rear hooves.

And she is doing very well undersaddle, only being ridden for 5-10 minutes a few times a week. She is taking to it very well and her beautiful personality continues to shine through. 

Next we will continue to practise everything we have learnt already and once she is completely comfortable float loading, we will adventure off the property.

Ruby and I have had an eventful fortnight, with her continued easy rides undersaddle every few days, introduction to new obstacles, learning to accept the hose and have a bath, and loading into the float and being closed in. 

As I have no one to close the barrier, I made sure before we left the property that Ruby was comfortable walking in then standing relaxed while I left her side and closed the barrier before tying her.

Once she had learned that, we ventured out to the beach for her first off-property adventure. 

Unsurprisingly, she absolutely loved it and was confident walking into the waves with me in the lead.

We went back to the beach solo to watch the harvest supermoon and go for a long walk along the dunes.

Our bond grows every day and I adore every moment we spend together.

I look forward to taking Ruby on more adventures out and about.

The past fortnight has been less eventful than planned as I have had other commitments. But still seeing her daily and doing a little bit with her as often as I can. 

We haven't been off the property again however have had a couple of rides up the driveway and in the arena and have worked a little bit on developing cues.

She had her first dental which went well, and her teeth were in good shape.

Over the next couple of weeks I plan on taking Ruby out and about as much as possible and continuing to improve her skills undersaddle.

Ruby and I have had a few off-property adventures over the past fortnight, going to the forest, through town and to a waterfall. Ruby has also been introduced to obstacles undersaddle, now that we have established so much trust and confidence on the ground. She follows my lead and takes to the new tasks so well. 

I am now dedicating time every day to training Ruby in the lead up to Equitana, hoping that we can make the ideas in my head come to life. She has a long way to go, but whether she is able to do what I plan or whether we have to change the whole idea into something easier for her, it will be a wonderful adventure regardless. 

Awaiting update