I know this post may be a little untimely, things have been crazy with starting a new job and life and working with the ponies. As of today, 7/26/2024 Ruffi has been home for 377 days. It has been quite a roller coaster this last year.
7/10/2023 – Day -5 – I get the message that Ruffi needs a new home because they are “getting rid of her” because she “didn’t take she is open so not gonna fee her through winter”. I am also informed that if she doesn’t sell in two weeks, she will go to an auction. I started working all my angles to come up with the $2000 she wants for Ruffi (the 1k she paid for the mare and the $1k for the stud fee for the failed breeding).
7/13/2023 – Day -2 – I advise the seller I cannot come up with the money she wants. The seller says she only wanted Ruffi for breeding and that she failed at that. I am told at 10 pm that if she is gone by the weekend she will take basically a refund for my horse. I start working the rest of my contacts to go and pick her up. At 10:30 pm I start reaching out about a place to board Ruffi until the end of summer; somewhere safe we can put her until we figure things out.
7/14/2023 – Day -1 – I am able to work a bunch of my contacts and friends of friends and local people are able to get in contact with each other. I have someone who lives near where she is being kept who can pick her up, keep her overnight, and bring her home on 7/15/2023 when she comes to the west side of the mountains for a clinic. We are able to secure board. Preston and I drive 2 + hrs to Yakima to meet the seller to give her money and meet the transport to pick her up. Ruffi seems THRILLED to see us, we hang out for a while til the transport gets there. We get Ruffi loaded on the trailer and tell her we will see her tomorrow.
7/15/2023 – Day 1 – I wake up to a call from the new barn owner advising our hauler is on her way. I was dead asleep after not getting home until late the night before and being told she was being dropped off in the afternoon/evening. We rush to the barn to pay board and meet the hauler. She comes off the trailer. Hauler said she hauled AMAZING but had to run because she was on a time crunch. The barn owner wanted the mare in a stall for a few days to help ration food appropriately before putting her out on pasture to eat to her heart’s content and gain back her weight. She looks like garbage. So thin, and so undernourished. I hug Ruffi and cry.
7/16/2023 – Day 2 – Ruffi’s first bath. We cleaned all the dirt off her and brushed her. She looked like a new horse, almost.
7/17/2023 – Day 3 – I call the vet’s office first thing in the morning to see when my vet can come out and scan her since she was never checked by a vet to confirm or rule out pregnancy. My favorite vet in the whole world who knows this horse and her story with us is already coming out to that barn today and can scan her. Dr Renner comes to the farm, scans her, confirms not in foal, and gives advice for refeeding. Is very adamant about not overfeeding as Ruffi has a history of being overweight. I call the stallion owner to advise her that the mare did not get in foal. I had contacted her sometime in the last week to confirm dates bred and advise her that I was getting Ruffi back from the seller. Ruffi also goes out to pasture after her vet appt.
7/23/2023 – Day 8 – Knowing that Ruffi cannot be out on pasture going into the fall, we start looking for a new home with a stall for Ruffi. I reach out to only the BEST HUMAN in the world (but I didnt know it yet) and we meet her and take a look at the barn.
7/29/2023 – Day 14 – We confirm for the spot at a new barn and give notice.
8/3/2023 – Day 19 – Ruffi’s first farrier appointment since coming home. Her feet are a mess. They are hard and brittle and very difficult for our farrier to trim.
8/28/2023 – Day 44 – Ruffi gets loaded up a second time to move to her new home with Sarah. Our new friend Bianca who we also met through this saga, is kind enough to haul her from Monroe to Arlington.
11/24/2023 – Day 132 – Ruffi has her first training ride. She continued to get training rides through December and into January.
01/10/2024 – Day 179 – We decided that while Ruffi is physically bouncing back, mentally she is not ready to start back under saddle and back to work.
02/05/2024 – Day 205 – We had scheduled a vet workup for Ruffi to X-ray her feet and back to ensure her KS had not progressed and to see how her feet were doing. Incidentally a day or so before the appointment she came up lame. We found during her radiographs that she had two fractured coffin bones. The prognosis was good and the vet recommended bar shoes and pads and 6 weeks of stall rest.
04/09/2024 – Day 269 – Follow-up vet visit with the farrier. We were not able to get shoes pulled for new x-rays, however, Dr. R was happy with her soundness and wanted to repeat radiographs in 6 weeks.
05/01/2024 – Day 291 – Ruffi was reunited with her brother, Bacardi at Stanwood Equestrian.
05/29/2024 – Day 319 – Repeat Radiographs with the vet. Dr. Renner is happy with her healing and clears here to go back under saddle.
05/30/2024 – Day 320 – I get on Ruffi for the first time in almost 2 years.
5/31/2024 – Day 321 – Ruffi goes back on full turnout for the first time in nearly 4 months
7/12/2024 – Day 363 – Ruffi gets her first set of glue-on shoes
7/15/2024 – Day 366 – One year since Ruffi has returned home. We worked in hand out in the big field past the outdoor arenas and concentrated on focus.
As of today, Ruffi has been home for 377 days. She is doing well but has not completely returned to undersaddle work. We have been focusing on in-hand work, being focused on her handler so that when we go back under saddle, it is safer for both horse and rider, which we are getting much closer to.
I am so appreciative for all of the new people that came into my life because of this journey. She has blossomed so much and she is almost ready to start back under saddle and be back where she was 2 years ago. I am hopeful for her future, but regardless she will never leave our care again.
Happy Riding and Reading,
A+R