I know I am a couple of days late with this update, but Miss Ruffi completed her first week of training on Saturday. She got a pretty glowing progress report from Shelby when my friend Alexa and I went and visited on Sunday.
The week started on not such a great note when I got a message Sunday morning that Ruffi had tried to get out of work by cosplaying Cinderella and losing a shoe. I contacted the farrier and got her on the books for later in the week. Little did Ruffi know that losing a shoe would NOT get her out of work this week. On Sunday, she was pulled out to do a bit of groundwork just to get her to settle her little anxious brain. She was able to settle down pretty well and begin to focus.
Tuesday was another groundwork day where Ruffi struggled a bit more with focusing and not being stressed. Wednesday she was moved across the barn to a stall with a run with the hopes that maybe not being next to the arena would help her destress and bring her anxiety down. This did WONDERS for her demeanor going forward the rest of the week.
Saturday afternoon was farrier day, but not before I got a great update from Shelby that she was able to get mare to stand quietly at the mounting block and get on her with just a halter and her saddle. I was super excited to see this. Ruffi was also pretty good for the farrier, not needing any sedatives to have a shoe put back on so she could go back to work.
Sunday I was able to go out and observe her being worked. Shelby did some groundwork with mare and then brought her into the round pen. They spent some time being quiet at the mounting block and then Shelby got on her. Only asked for a walk and mare was a little iffy about whether she wanted to comply, but eventually settled down and quietly walked a little before Shelby got off. It was a good easy work session ending on a super positive note.
Overall comments from her first week from Shelby were that she has settled down immensely. She stands quietly while tied and can go into the arena and stand quietly. However, she does like to spook when she sees something she isn’t sure about, like the chickens outside of the arena.
The next steps for this week are to get her going under saddle more and working more on being POLITE about snacks. Ruffi is under the impression that she gets snacks just for existing, however, she is starting to learn that she might actually need to EARN them instead of them being a perk of living.
Overall, a good first week for mare and we will see how she does over the next 3 and evaluate from there.
Happy Riding Y’all!
A+R