The Day Ruby Came Home
21 Aug 2026
After months of uncertainty, specialist care and failed transport plans, one little disabled pony finally made the 1,800-kilometre journey from Queensland to Victoria — and back to the companion waiting for her.
Last Monday, a little pony stepped off a float in Victoria. To anyone else, it might have looked like an ordinary moment. To me, it was anything but.
That little pony was Ruby.
For months, her life had been consumed by uncertainty. There were hospital stays, specialist assessments, failed transport plans, enormous expense, sleepless nights, doors that closed one after another, and more than once, the suggestion that perhaps the easiest answer was to let her go.
But Ruby wasn’t dying.
She was disabled. She was difficult to transport. She was frightened. And she needed people willing to find another way.
So I kept looking.
Ruby is blind in one eye, deaf, has cervical spinal compression, mild wobblers and severe travel anxiety. She spent 31 days at the University of Queensland Equine Hospital undergoing extensive diagnostics. The specialists established something incredibly important: she was not in pain, and she had a good quality of life.
Her greatest problem wasn't living.
It was getting home.
Finding someone who could safely transport a little pony who panicked when loading became one of the hardest things I have ever done. Plans were made and collapsed. Options that sounded promising disappeared. There were moments when I genuinely wondered whether there was any safe way to bring her to her family in Victoria.
And then came Jackie Hicks from Horse Trans AUS.
Jackie was willing to take on the journey that had seemed impossible for so long. She drove Ruby approximately 1,800 kilometres from Queensland to Victoria alone, with Ruby travelling alone in the float and the entire journey managed around her individual needs.
A veterinarian was there for Ruby's loading and made sure Jackie was equipped with sedatives should they become necessary during the journey.
She never had to use them.
That says an enormous amount about Jackie's skill. She has extensive experience handling difficult, sick and wild horses, but what mattered just as much was the way she treated Ruby: with kindness and patience. She didn't try to overpower her, frighten her or force her through fear. She gave Ruby time, read her behaviour and worked with the scared little pony in front of her.
Until Jackie, nobody had ever been able to load Ruby into a float and travel with her without Ruby becoming severely distressed and panicking. Every previous attempt had ended with Ruby injuring herself.
Jackie did what nobody else had been able to do.
She used skill, kindness and extraordinary patience — and for the first time, Ruby travelled without injuring herself.
It wasn't completely straightforward. At one point Ruby had simply had enough, and Jackie stopped the journey and took her off the float to rest. There was no timetable more important than Ruby's welfare.
Eventually, when Ruby was ready, they started again.
And last Monday, she arrived.
I don't think I will ever forget seeing that float. After all those months of carrying the responsibility for her life in my hands, suddenly she was here.
Safe. Alive. Home.
Ruby saw Sunshine again
Her little companion had made the journey to Victoria ahead of her, while Ruby's future remained uncertain. They had been separated through everything that followed — the hospital, the waiting, the endless attempts to find a way to bring Ruby home.
And now, finally, they were together again.
Their reunion was incredibly emotional. Watching Ruby and Sunshine recognise one another after everything that had happened brought me to tears. For all the complicated human problems that had surrounded Ruby's journey, their reunion was beautifully simple.
They had found each other again.
There was no grand finish line. No crowd. No applause. Just two little ponies reunited, and one disabled pony finally standing where she belonged.
Perhaps that was what made it so beautiful.
Ruby will never know how many people helped her get here. She'll never understand the phone calls, the kilometres, the veterinary reports, the money, the planning, the tears or the people who refused to give up when things became difficult.
She doesn't need to.
She only needs to know that she is safe. That Sunshine is beside her again. And that she is home.
Sometimes taking the hard road means being told no again and again. It means expense, exhaustion, uncertainty and wondering whether you're fighting a battle you can actually win.
But then there are days like last Monday.
Days when a little pony finally comes home. Days when two old companions find each other again.
And suddenly, every slammed door, every sleepless night and every kilometre feels worth it.
I followed my heart, and I refused to give up on her.
Because Ruby's life was never an inconvenience to solve.
It was a life worth fighting for. ❤️