Ruby is a beautiful brown horse who we refer to as “posh” as she comes from a very good background and is most definitely a lady.

Ruby is now the herd leader of the younger horses, and she is a calm, fair leader, who will gallop to her shelter at the sniff of rain (we told you she was posh).

She now knows who she is, what she likes and what she doesn’t.  Sadly, this was not the case when we first rescued her.

Ruby came from a competition yard where her life consisted of being enclosed in a stable, being exercised on a horse walker, or travelling on a lorry to competitions or competing.

When she arrived at the sanctuary and was placed in a field, she was frightened of the horses in the field next door.  She didn’t want to explore her new surroundings, run or play and she certainly wasn’t used to grass and didn’t even know she could eat it!

We had not observed this behaviour in any of our rescued horses before and we knew we had to treat her very gently and teach her how to be a horse.  Who better for the job than our then oldest grandma horse, Cottie, who at 30-year-old was more than 3 times Ruby’s age.  We introduced Cottie to Ruby and magically Cottie took on the role of Ruby’s grandma and started teaching her that the grass was for eating, the field was a safe place, the horses next door could be approached without fear and that us humans were kind.  Cottie has sadly crossed over rainbow bridge now, but we will always be grateful for all she did for Ruby.

Ruby then created a beautiful friendship with Illyanne, our previous herd leader, after we integrated her into the younger horse’s herd.  They looked like identical twin sisters, apart from Illy being slightly taller.  Ruby helped manage the herd with her best friend for many years, learning so much from majestic Illy.  When Illyanne crossed over rainbow bridge in February 2021, Ruby appeared totally lost again.  But with the help of her close friend, Louie she stepped into Illyanne’s shoes graciously and has been looking after her horses since.

She is a confident lady who enjoys the company of our volunteers and enjoys nothing more than being able to explore her field with her friends.

Louie absolutely adores Ruby!   We don’t think they are married yet, but we think they are a couple!  We love our posh lady.