10th December 2011

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!

This entry was posted on 22. December 2011 at 16:09 and is filed under Sarah Fisher. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.