22. December 2011 by admin.

It’s nearly Christmas! Hurrah!!!!! I love this time of year.  The presents are all wrapped and either delivered or placed under our trees and the house is pretty well organised.  I really enjoy the build up to Christmas Day and am looking forward to seeing Emily in Coram Boy on Christmas Eve afternoon.  We will then all head home, lock the door and settle down for a family evening finishing off the preparations for Christmas Day.

I have had a truly extraordinary year again and have made many new friends as well as working with people that I have met over the years who inspire and humble me with their dedication to make the world a better place for animals.  To all of those working in animal rescue that I have had the privilege to meet over the past twelve months, in a climate where welfare issues  are on the increase and funding is at an all time low, stay strong and keep up the brilliant work. Helping an animal will not change the world as we all know but it will change the world for every animal that finds his/her way to you.

There is nothing more to add now apart from to wish the Tilley Farm Blog readers a very Happy Christmas.  I wish you all success in everything that you do. I hope the coming year will bring you everything that you deserve and work so hard to achieve.

Thank you Liz for posting this blog and for keeping our websites up to date.  Your help and support is greatly appreciated.

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22. December 2011 by admin.

The Inbetweeners won an award for Outstanding Achievement at the Comedy Awards which was televised tonight.  It is a well deserved award as the film broke UK box office records for a British Comedy and the series has been hugely successful as well. Emily is currently in rehearsal for Coram Boy, Tony is working on a new series and Tony, Daisy and I met up in London to watch a private screening of Endeavour which airs on ITV in the New Year.  The show is a prequel to the wonderful Inspector Morse series and Daisy has a small part in the pilot episode so the year ends on a good note for my wonderful family.

It has been a great year with lots of travel for me and the diary is filling already with oversees trips next year.  We are all so lucky to be successful in jobs that we all adore.

I spent two days on a dog seminar at the beginning of the week with the gifted and inspiring Roger Abrantes.  Roger is a well known dog trainer and behaviourist and also works with horses. He is a very entertaining speaker and the two day seminar was information and great fun.  I love learning as much as I adore teaching and it was great packing to spend a night away without being under any obligation or dragging training equipment along with me!

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22. December 2011 by admin.

I had another lovely interview with David the Dogman for Radio Europe today talking about dogs and horses.  David’s daughter Sara has a horse and we have had a lengthy talk about her horse on the phone and David is a great advocate for understanding behaviour in all animals.  The show is co-hosted by a vet who works at a large practice local to the radio station and we are now hatching plans to organise a two day TTouch seminar/workshop at the veterinary centre working with all animals including horses as the centre is attached to a large equestrian establishment.  As it is freeeeeezing here a weekend in Spain holds a certain appeal although I do love these cold frosty mornings.

As my schedule is quieting down a little our December routine involves an early morning dog walk after bringing the Shetland Pony in from his over night paddock, feeding cats and donkeys and then strolling around our fields with our three older dogs before heading back to the house to give them breakfast after liberating the donkeys from their stables.  I leave the donkeys in eating breakfast whilst we walk the dogs around the fields as donkeys don’t do dogs and I certainly wouldn’t trust Miss Poppy in the company of our dear old deaf dog Ginny who is ending the year fit and well despite starting the year having seizures.  That dog is a walking miracle for sure.

Miss Poppy is hilarious and is a bold and mischievous donkey. She is highly intelligent and when she causes trouble (which she is prone to do at times) it is because she is too darned clever for her own good and gets bored.  So many horses and dogs that have high intelligence are labelled as difficult because they get easily frustrated so if you are suffering with an intelligent horse through the shorter days it is well worth teaching your horse some clicker training techniques that will give him/her some necessary mental stimulation if stabled for long periods of time through the winter.  Poppy is suffering from Cobblers Child Syndrome so I am going to start clicker training her over the next couple of months.  I think she will take to it really quickly and I am sure she will provide some good entertainment as she starts getting the idea!

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4. December 2011 by admin.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmaaaaaas!  Our trees are up at home and Daisy is decorating the house whilst I work on the yard today. 

My friend Karen Bush has called in for a visit to exchange Christmas presents and to talk about a new horse book we are writing together and she has also given me a copy of her great new book entitled The Horse rider’s Hacking Handbook which will make excellent Christmas presents for some of my friends.

We have another new arrival on the yard in the (small) shape of a miniature Shetland who will winter here with us as he has come in from the RSPCA and needs a little work. He is tiny and very cute. Myrtle is quite taken with him and as he is a stallion he is naturally quite taken with her!

I have had some beautiful new post and rail fencing put in and although the mud is disgusting the farm is looking very lovely. If I didn’t own the land I would be suffering from paddock envy right now.  A beautiful buzzard was flying over the fields this morning and with the bulk of my work now done for the year I am looking forward to a quiet few weeks writing a book on the Difficult Horse with Karen, enjoying the peace here at the farm and revelling in the build up to Christmas which I thoroughly enjoy.

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4. December 2011 by admin.

A great result in court today.  Hurrah.  Another case resolved without having to put down a lovely family dog. Holland was brilliant and I had a truly wonderful time sharing my knowledge with 65 participants. I worked with a wonderful ex-police dog called Bullet who was a perfect demo dog.  He lives with someone who has been on the equine trainings with me here in the UK and she has already posted some wonderful feedback on the FB page about the change in Bullet and his relationship with her cat and Icelandic horses.  I always write this I know but I am so very very lucky to do the work that I do.  I stayed with my good friend Wilma who runs a small shelter near Amsterdam and at the end of the seminar we called in to her shelter so that I could see the dogs and cats that are in her care.  We walked into the staff kitchen and there were two small white dogs in a basket that shot under the table growling and barking when we opened the door.  It was the most bizarre situation as I recognised the dogs!  I had been shown a video of two street dogs rescued by a charity in Bulgaria in September when I was on a plane heading out to Latvia and they were the same dogs.

I sat on the floor and used treats to help them overcome their fear of me.  The little male dog was bolder than the female and took the treats but the female was too scared initially.  She sat at a distance and watched me as I started to use TTouch on her little friend.  She stared intently at my hand as I was doing small circular movements on the little body of her companion and then stared me straight in the eye.  Slowly she crept towards me watching my hand and then looking up into my eyes.  She was so, so sweet.  She got closer and closer and put her little paw on my hand as I worked on the boy. She kept her paw on my hand and looked at me again and this for sure was an invitation for me to work on her as well.  As I started to work on her she melted, and leant right up against my side with her head tipped back so she could continue to look me straight in the eye.  It was an incredible moment and Wilma and I spent quite some time working with both of them. Yup - I REALLY REALLY love the work that I do.

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4. December 2011 by admin.

I am at Bristol airport for the last trip of the year.  I am teaching a two day seminar on dog behaviour and posture in Holland and will then spend a day in the largest rehoming centre in Holland on Monday.  I have a court case next week but was handed an email when I called in at the farm which hopefully means the outcome in court will be positive, which is great news as I found the dog to be charming. The prosecution were pushing for a Destruction Order but having seen the video of my assessment of the dog the Prosecution will hopefully now agree that a Control Order is put in place instead.  If we win the case it will be a nice early Christmas present for the family.

I am also involved in another case and drove up to Liverpool to assess another dog last Wednesday.  I will post more about that case as it progresses but it has raised some important issues that I think need to be addressed.  I can’t write any details here but as I am sitting in the lounge my brain is working over time. Hmmmmmm. Lots to consider and lots to discuss with other professionals involved in similar court cases.

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4. December 2011 by admin.

We have a new young mare on the farm.  She is a sweetie and will be brought on over the next year or so by Shelley who has helped to look after my horses for 17 years.  Shelley’s lovely old boy Bertie was put to sleep earlier this year and I am thrilled that she now has a lovely young Cob cross who will bring her a lot of joy over the coming months and years.  Shelley’s daughter Maisie has had great fun with Rusty through the summer and took him to Pony Club Camp amongst other things.  She was awarded a cup for the highest score in her E Test the other day and we are all very proud of them both.  Shelley had a tough start to the year and lost one of her dogs as well so I am very pleased that the end of the year is ending on a more positive note for her family.  Shelley is such an incredible person and deserves all the good things that are coming to her and Maisie has such a wonderful rapport with Rusty I really enjoy watching them working together. I am so pleased that her excellent handling and riding skills with her equine friend have also been rewarded.

Students from Norton Radstock College Equine Academy came out to the farm this morning to learn more about the way we work with horses. The girls were great and had a good time learning about posture and its links to behaviour and also had the chance for some hands on work as well giving them more tools for their own horses and those that they handle on their course. We are going to work with them again in the future so that we can share more techniques and tips as they continue with their studies.  I enjoy working with younger students and Tina and I are more than happy to give up our time to educate as many young people as possible. I think it is important to pass on the skills that we have acquired over the years and with funding at an all time low think we should play our part in helping those who have a desire to broaden their education for the sake of the horse.

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4. December 2011 by admin.

I have a new career! I was a guest on Radio Europe with David the Dogman and then drove off to Bristol with Tony to be a guest on 3Geese for BBC Radio Bristol.  I have been a frequent guest on Radio Europe over the year and thoroughly enjoy my time on the show with David but 3Geese was a new one for me.  I had met the 3Geese (Jo, Livvy and Chrissie) when they came out to interview Tony for the show at the farm in the summer and we laughed through the whole afternoon.  I was invited to be a guest on the show today and had a great time discussing light hearted headlines.  One was on men commentating on their partners ‘wobbly bits’ as some brave women had stripped off for the national press and their partners were discussing their stomachs etc! No mention of personality! I said that if Tony started to comment on my wobbly bits I would take his wobbly bits and tie them round his head! Tony came with me and as the theme of the show was based on The Beatles he sang an acoustic version of We Can Work it Out.  Of course, he was fantastic.  Who cares about Wobbly Bits? That man can SING!

At the end of the show Livvy asked me if I would like to be a regular guest on the show.  Hurrah!  I love doing radio shows and I am very happy that I have a fun new project for the coming year.

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4. December 2011 by admin.

I had a thoroughly enjoyable weekend in London.  Saturday and Sunday were spent judging the Companion Dog classes with Carolyn Menteith at Discover Dogs at Earls Court.  Tony came up to London with me on the Saturday to judge some Scrufts classes as well and although we technically had the day together we only met once in the Press Office as we were judging in different rings!  I also gave a seminar on TTouch and saw Tony in the audience for the start of the talk but he was whisked off to judge another class part way through and we only hooked up again at the end of the day.  Such is the madness of our lives!  We both had a great day though and we are more than happy to support the Kennel Club Scrufts and Companion Dog classes.  I get a good work out judging Companion Dog classes as some of the classes have over 30 entries and as I like to meet and greet each dog I do a lot of squat thrusts over the course of the weekend!

Tony was in the Twenty Four Hour plays at the Old Vic Theatre on the Sunday and I met up with Emily and Daisy on the Sunday (after another 150 squat thrusts!) in a wonderful new hotel in Whitehall.  We headed over the Thames to Waterloo and had a great evening watching the Twenty Four Hour Plays.  Writers, directors and actors meet at 9pm on the Saturday.  The actors bring props and the writers then sit up all night writing a short play with their choice of actors. The props have to be included in the storyline. The groups meet up again early on the Sunday morning and the day is spent rehearsing the plays and learning lines before performing the plays in front of an audience on the Sunday evening.  The money raised from ticket sales goes to fund new writing projects and new talent and of course the evening is highly entertaining.  The night was rounded off with a lively party back at the hotel.

I had a wonderful new client today who drove quite some distance to see me.  Her dog is wonderful and I am glad that the session was productive for them.  The owner is really switched on and I really enjoy working with clients on a one to one basis as we can obviously go into more detail than when I am working with several animals on a workshop.

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