18. May 2010 by admin.

Well. What can I say? Today was Dukie’s television debut and the last animal Asbo sequence that I am doing for This Morning.  He was perfectly behaved in the green room, settled well and stayed calm for the three hours that we were there. He practiced his routine whilst we were waiting for our slot and wasn’t distracted by all the coming and goings back stage.  He went into the studio for a pre-record and again went through his routine perfectly.  Unfortunately though we weren’t given a rehearsal for some unknown reason and when we went into the studio to do our live piece we passed huge wall monitors that were showing the early training with Dukie.  The poor little terrier was really distracted by the monitors as he could see and hear Corinna and me calling his name and clicking the clickers and his head was swivelling left and right as we took our places on the sofa.  This slightly threw Corinna as well as it was unexpected but she did a great job in asking him to focus on her.  He lay quietly on the rug when Corinna asked him to go into a down.  When a giant bird appeared on the screen he ignored the monitor between the two sofas and stood calmly watching the bird on the bank of monitors at the opposite end of the studio.  The appearance of the bird took me and Philip Schofield by surprise but Dukie took it all in his stride.  It was all going so well but when Corinna stood up to take off Dukie’s lead so that he could perform his routine she forgot to ask him to sit first and just released him.  He promptly trotted off to the far end of the studio and then left the building through a door that had been left open! We were all laughing so much that from that moment on it all fell apart completely. Have you ever tried recalling a terrier when you are laughing? Forget it. Corinna is brilliant on television and I will never forget the sight of her standing in the middle of the set sans dog saying ‘And we had hula hoops and everything’.  Hilarious. She and Dukie should have their own show.  On the plus side though Dukie would normally be gone for over two hours but this time Corinna was able to retrieve him after a few minutes but of course by this our air time had gone.  At least we made the nation laugh! 

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18. May 2010 by admin.

I am in my element.  Tina is away teaching in South Africa and Little Sarah who worked here for years has now taken on a full time job at a new hospital so I am on stable duties with Shelley. We are whizzing about trimming tails, grooming horses, mucking out, feeding, turning out and poo picking the paddocks.  I have been riding too which is something I haven’t had time to do for ages and have reorganised the feed room, and the tack room.  We have washed out stables, swept, cleared out the bunny runs and everything is ship shape. Shelley has worked for me for around sixteen years and we have been having great fun together. It’s just like old times and I am one happy bunny.  I am so enjoying spending all this time with my horses and tidying up my farm.  Having done the yard over the weekend I have decided not to replace Little Sarah as we simply do not need the extra staff now that my school runs days are over. Shelley’s children are also growing up fast so Shelley has more time now too and Mags, who works in the office is also on hand to help out and ride my horses if needed. 

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18. May 2010 by admin.

I left early to drive over to Essex to see my lovely client Corinna and her terrier Dukie.  Both are hilarious and Corinna has done a brilliant job addressing the multiple issues that he has. When I first met them Dukie was attacking the television if another animal (or puppets!!!!) appear on the screen, had nipped several trouser legs when out and about, and would run off with Corinna’s possessions if she wasn’t paying him any attention.  He would also bark at Corinna for attention and had no recall whatsoever. 

Since meeting them a couple of months ago Corinna has started clicker training Dukie and using TTouch with outstanding results.  She showed me a little routine she has taught him and he was AMAZING.  He can run and sit on a target mat on cue, goes to his bed on cue  and lies down quietly which is incredible as he had shredded so many dog beds Corinna hadn’t bought him another one until she started training.  He hasn’t bitten any legs since she started using the clicker and playing with the interactive dog games I’d lent them and he now also takes himself off to bed in the evenings which is a far more peaceful option than standing in front of Corinna barking.  He hasn’t chewed his new bed at all and his recall in the home is perfect. He has also been perfectly behaved in friends houses too. Fingers crossed that he can perform his routine and not relapse and attack the television monitors when we appear live on This Morning next week!

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28. April 2010 by admin.

I have now gone to the dogs! Carte Blanche came to film on Wednesday so no day off and I worked with a brilliant terrier named Houdini who was fantastic. He arrived stressed and panting and calmed down beautifully on film. Pushing the skin lightly in one and a quarter circles on either side of the breastbone can have an almost instant calming effect and it certainly worked on Houdini. He was a total star and a delight to train. I then gave an evening talk for ABC, which was sold out. My TV series has been shown out here three times which is great and I am very happy that I can help to promote the work here in SA for the benefit of the Practitioners and, of course, the animals.

Day one of the dog course went well and we have a lovely big group and a nice mix of dogs. By the end of the first day there were already huge changes. I love my job. Off to supper now and then an early night as we are visiting the shelter tomorrow and I have lots to teach people in the morning. I am getting tired now as it has been full on for several weeks but an early night should help.

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28. April 2010 by admin.

The past five days have been great, great fun. We have looked at faces, necks, backs, bottoms (!), hindquarters, legs, ears, ribs, and tails. We have observed horses on the move and under saddle. We have led horses over patterns of poles, balanced riders in the saddle, and continued with the body work once the horses are under saddle. We have used body work techniques to free up tight muscles and relax tense horses. All the horses have completely changed, some beyond recognition, and I am so, so sad that it is over.

Koedoe, a rare Nooitgedacht horse owned by Heine, did a wonderful demonstration of how the neck ring can dramatically improve the balance of both the horse and the rider and the tension in the lumbar area that Koedoe arrived with had completely disappeared by the end of the week. Koedoe was also suspicious about strangers when we first met him but on the last morning of the bridleless riding work, he took full advantage of the neck ring to beetle off with Heine and head towards the group of spectators so that he could get some more bodywork. It was very funny and very sweet.

Skarumba, a lovely chestnut Arab endurance mare, changed through her whole body. She was a little flighty and fidgety at the beginning of the week and had some muscle wastage through the back, but as her top line and balance improved, so did her behaviour. Her owner, Gerhard, also reported that he usually struggles to catch her but by the middle of the week she was happily walking over to him. This is something I see over and over as TTEAM improves a horse’s willingness to work.

Bob has changed beyond measure and Powder Rock, a stunning palomino Quarter Horse has also been a total star. His owner, Andrea, was a little reticent about riding without a bridle, but Powder Rock is a wonderful horse and they both enjoyed the experience so much that we couldn’t get Andrea off her horse.

I was also extremely proud of Laura and her little horse LG. LG has had some back issues in the past and is prone to bucking when in the company of other horses. Lindy has been working with Laura to improve her balance and it certainly paid off on the clinic. Finding neutral pelvis and using a small rotation left and right helps to free up both the horse and rider as it helps them to engage core muscles thus reducing the need to brace and carry tension through the body. As LG put his head down and bronc’d Laura up the middle of the arena I just kept reminding her to rotate left then right. Her new body position that Lindy had been working on for a few weeks beforehand ensured that Laura sat what were some pretty huge bucks, and as she remembered the little left and right movements LG gradually settled and was actually able to make it from one end of the school without flying through the air. So… all in all a brilliant and productive week and whilst I am looking forward to the week ahead I will miss everyone. I may just have to come back in October.

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28. April 2010 by admin.

Staring coats and dull eyes all start to shine!

The Irish mare, as I suspected, is proving to be rather quirky. We have done some lead work with her over patterns of poles and I have also introduced her to the clicker. This is another valuable tool and she has responded well. The chestnut TB is AMAZING. His owner came to visit him today and could not believe that the roach back has almost gone and that he is now able to work with his tail free. He is also better balanced through his whole body and he no longer looks as though he is about to sit down. Bob the show jumper has softened through the neck and can now bend to the right. He is enjoying all the body work and his bottom and pelvis are straight!

I showed the group how to help a horse to learn to shift his centre of gravity back, by placing one hand on the sternum and using a slow ‘ask hold and release’ technique to help open the withers and raise the back. It’s a really neat exercise and has worked very well on several of the horses that either have muscle wastage or are locked in the back. It never ceases to amaze me how such small, subtle movements bring about such huge changes to the posture of the horse.

As the clinic progresses the horses that had arrived with slightly staring coats and dull eyes are starting to shine all over. Their eyes are becoming brighter too and I am also stunned at the skill level of everyone on the course. I kind of threw the newcomers in at the deep end by starting with such detailed observations but everyone has impressed me with their understanding and their ability to work with these wonderful horses. I don’t want the clinic to end.

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28. April 2010 by admin.

Poor Robyn is stuck in the UK.  I can’t believe how lucky I was. Had filming over run on Wednesday I would have postponed my flight and gone straight to the yard from Johannesburg airport on Friday morning. Had that happened I would now be at home and the clinic would have gone ahead without me.

We had another brilliant day. I am so happy here. I am completely immersed in horses and really enjoying being back at Donnybrook where the clinics are always held. I haven’t seen Denneke who owns the property for several years and aside from loving every second of working with the horses, it is great to be reconnecting with old friends and making new ones too.

We studied necks today amongst other things, looking for over development of the bottom line, bracing muscles, mane changes, weak top lines and so on. Bob, a retired show jumper, is very stiff through the right side of his neck and pulls faces when being touched around vertebrae C4 and C5. This is quite a common pattern and it is often easier to allow the horse to move whilst doing shoulder presses and caterpillar movements up the neck as opposed to asking them to stand still and simply accept the hand contact. Not surprisingly Bob finds it really hard to turn right and he is also dropped in the pelvis. The wing of the pelvis is significantly lower on his left side and I showed the people who were working with Bob how this will be reflected through his tail. I also lifted his tail to show how the pelvis can also influence the position of the anus and the line that runs from the anus down the tail groove. Sure enough, everything was sitting to the left.

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28. April 2010 by admin.

I am now in South Africa. The flight was great and I managed to film everything we needed to cover and arrive at Heathrow in plenty of time. As I left the London venue where we were shooting the next clip for Over the Rainbow, I thought I was hanging up the mike for a few weeks but Eugenie, who runs the TTouch programmes in SA has other plans! She has arranged for the South African TV series, Carte Blanche, to film me working with horses and dogs so I have a very hectic schedule now, which is fine by me. I started the clinic by showing the participants how to assess a horse’s head for muscle imbalance and changes to the TMJ - Temporomandibular joint. Some of the horses are crooked through the poll and the TMJ is more open on one side, which will link to how the horse is able to flex under saddle.

Understanding the link between posture and performance is vital as it gives you a greater understanding of why a horse will struggle more on one rein than the other. If the horse is jammed through the head and neck he will also find it hard to engage the hindquarters and an uneven neck will usually be accompanied by a dropped pelvis. Carte Blanche filmed the body work demonstration I gave in the afternoon and I worked with a lovely bright chestnut TB gelding who came off the track five months ago. His back is very roached through the lumbar area and his tail is clamped into the tail groove. He also sits back on his hocks giving him a very steep angle through the hindquarters. After a few minutes of tail work the roach almost disappeared and we will continue to work with him through the week. I also worked with an Irish Sports Horse mare who is very difficult for her owner. Although she was very calm when I worked with her, the look in her eye, the shape of her muzzle and the inappropriate muscle development in her neck tells me a very different story. We shall see!

We also looked at horses on the move and have some great horses to work with so I am one happy bunny. I feel very at home in South Africa and my first day has flown by. I had a peaceful evening in the company of my friends Rick and Lindy and can’t wait to get back to the yard tomorrow.

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28. April 2010 by admin.

Clinics are still running at the farm but I have hardly seen anyone this time. I drove up to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s home today to meet with the team from Over the Rainbow. Our short-listed dogs looked brilliant as they walked up the drive and the weather was kind to us; we were able to film outside in the glorious surroundings of the fine estate and we then had the hard task of short listing the dogs even further. Not an easy decision by any means.

I drove back home and now really should be packing as I am leaving for London tomorrow to film yet another segment before heading to Heathrow for my flight to South Africa. My lovely MBF Jon will drive my luggage to the airport so that I am not bogged down with PolePods, lindells, my computer and all my clothes. My friend Robyn is getting ready to teach an equine workshop tomorrow at a dressage yard in Gloucester before she leaves for Canada.

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28. April 2010 by admin.

It has been a hectic and hilarious week. I spent two days at Stoneleigh with my fellow judges Jodie Prenger and Gerry Cotts auditioning around 600 dogs for the part of Toto for a gala performance of the upcoming production of The Wizard of Oz, which is all part of the Andrew Lloyd Webber Over the Rainbow TV series.

We all had a brilliant time and met some wonderful people and amazing dogs. I was totally stunned to see two Beagles performing a synchronised heelwork routine. Beagles, as many of you will know, are notoriously difficult to train as they are independent and have a naturally high hunting drive. (Frankly it was no surprise to me that the space probe named The Beagle completely disappeared! It just kept going on its own journey, ignoring the frantic calls of its creators back on earth. Had it been called The Collie, it would have shot off, done its job and returned at high speed.)

I also met an ‘assistance’ dog named Bumble that had Jodie and I in tears. The bond she has with her owner Demi is just fantastic. Bumble was trained by Dogs for the Disabled, and has transformed Demi’s life on many levels. For me, they were the epitomy of what dog ownership is all about. A deep and glorious relationship based on appreciation, respect, love and trust.

I returned home on Wednesday night and then left for Northamptonshire on Thursday evening to film a segment for Sky One. I arrived home this afternoon and am now organising my trip to South Africa. Time is running out as I have more filming to do.

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