And so it begins...

Ruby love

Remember when I said that I was going to bring back Ruby very slowly?  I wasn't kidding.  My plan is to build tendon strength as well as bone.  In that vein, we will be working in deep sand and on the road. 

Deep sand is easy enough to find in our round pen.  Last week we started off by walking two minutes to the left, then two minutes to the right, at Ruby's pace.  We walked three laps in each direction so I'll be increasing the laps by one in each direction each week.  Eventually the plan will include her carrying me at a walk in the sand, but that is a few weeks off.  Last week, we did this on three alternating days.

Road walking - Ruby gets so excited that she has nearly been dragging me to the gate in order to go explore off property.  Again, we've been alternating days for this and have only been going maybe a quarter of a mile total.  For now, road walks and sand days are alternating - next week, she will start doing both on the same day with rest days between.  I will be keeping a very close eye on her legs during this time.  

There are several macho geldings on Heather's farm that would love to flirt with Ruby when she's in heat, but she's not interested.  She only has eyes for Storm...a friend's KMH mare, lol.  Surprisingly, Storm usually enjoys the attention.

And a bombshell, well for me it was.  Remember back when I first met Ruby, and she was supposed to be six years old?  Several months later I was given some of her old paperwork that hinted she was actually much, much older and already into her early or mid-teens.  Last year when Ruby had her teeth floated I asked the vet to tell me how old she was and told the vet my suspicions.  The vet looked very quickly and said yeah, she's 14 or 15.  This year I had another vet float (due to scheduling) and asked him her age...turns out Ruby is probably 12, as evidenced by the fact that she still has the 11-year-hook and her Galvayne's groove has just started to show itself.  It must be really nice to have registration papers and know exactly how old a horse is, lol.  It's only three years difference, and yet it feels like a lot to me - it's that many more years that I will hopefully have with my funny, smart mare.