Mr trix has a bad week...but then a good one!!!

So we started the canter work, first session was very short and went really well, unfortunately our positive weeks were never going to last, we had to have a negative one. The next session Mr Trix was very anxious about being in the school, he went back to rushing and panicing about being in there. We spent the whole session trotting again and re gaining his confidence.

This took it out of him, he was bucking and being a little silly. Some quiet riding was needed. We have since that session not cantered, we have gone back to basics and lunged him in his passoa and got some really nice steady paces in all gaits.

Mr Trix loves hacking out so again went and cantered out, this has always been ok, maybe a little rushed but good none the less. He has started to slow and not get quite so excited about cantering out.

This week we then re tried canter in the field with no one in the field, he still seems to dislike a person in the middle, and he was successful, steady work came back to trot steady, no rushing and lunging, just some nice steady canter work, for the first time!! (he did pop in a little buck, but this was nothing like before)

So Trix and I are really getting there, he is getting better and better and as long as I listen to him and accept he is going to have bad sessions we will always improve and learn from them. The next installment will hopefully be another great story to tell.

Helen and Mr Trix x x

Mr Trix, how great will he be?

Well, I am shocked and surprised by Mr Trix. As each day and week passes he gets stronger and stronger, he is starting to offer me a lot of nice work in trot wth a decent head carriage and little rushing and hardly any snatching. So I gave him a week off!!

He has learnt so much in the last 5 months and has come a very long way, he has surpassed my expectations. He is now ready for the next phase of training, this means extra pressure in his schooling, if you remember back he had not cantered yet in the school, but that day came. We went out for a nice long hack and then into the school, he was a dream, no arguements no lunging or snatching. This was, for him, very tough and demanding! This will be his next phase, canter work, I would like him to enjoy schooling and not look at it as a chore or hard work. This again will only come in time.

I will be very excited to post the next installment for you to read, he is a pleasure to work with but not only that he is so willing to work with me.

A very happy Helen x

Annie and her clipper phobia

The reason i wanted to write this blog was because I hear this so often, and if this blog helps one person then i will be happy.

Annie was a mare i had on loan for 3 years, she was phobic of clippers and had not been clipped for years. The previous attempt ended up with people retreating out of the stable looking very subdued.

So, this is where I came in, knowing I had all the time in the world I bought the cheapest pair of pet clippers I could find (£3) and everyday when i was grooming her i would turn them on and leave them on but not in my hand or near her. Once she didn't react to the noise I then moved onto phase 2.

This was holding them in my hand whilst grooming her, not touching her just holding them, again waited until no reaction. This part came quicker as she was already used to the noise. When she had got used to this, phase 3, touching her with them but not switching them on, this one was easy as she was used to them by now not doing anything to her.

So, when it came to switching them on and touching her, she did not react, I could then clip her, now these where 1" wide battery operated pet clippers, quieter and not as intrussive. So albeit she was used to these ones the size and noise difference was huge. The next process was repeating the above with a slightly larger pair of clippers.

I started from step one as it takes no time at all to recover a fear reaction. Spontanious recovery happens very quickly in pray animals. It comes under the fight, flight, freeze and fiddle about catagory.

To cut a long story short I was then able to clip Annie all over with horse clippers using only a head collar for control, because I had desensitised her to the noise then the feeling she was happy to trust that they weren't going to eat her..... This process took just short of 6 months. She will now stand and be clipped by anyone. This is rehabilitation it takes time and patience but in the long run the animals levels of anxiety are reduced and the animal can happily work with you.

Helen x

Mr Trix part 2

For the last few weeks I have been building up Mr Trix to be able to work in the school without snatching at the bit and pulling his head about, finally we got 20 minutes of decent work with him holding himself with a  nice head carriage. Patience, perservierence and continuation training has done this.

Behaviourally he has come a long way; T touch has helped him focus on his head, adding bobbles and bandages to make him aware. (see photos on website)

We have not developed enough yet to ask for canter but he is strenthening each week and i am sure it won't take long at all. With the use of magnets prior too work and after work this has helped him build on his top line and be able to offer a nice outline without snatching and grabbing. He has now been fitted with a dressage saddle rather than the western saddle we where initially working in.

He is now hacking out with others, this is an area where Mr Trix struggles, he lacks in confidence hacking out with others. This is again an area to build on but not the main of my focus, as he will get this bit easily. The main concern was his muscle tone and his weak top line. This has now improved and he will be ready for his next part of training which will be stamina.

Watch this space for part 3....

Helen x

Nina and her new life....

Roughly about a year ago now a couple walked into training classes, with them they had a medium sized black lab cross called Nina. She was wearing a harness and halti and with them they had brought a muzzle. They told me that they had been to another class and was told there was nothing they could do to help them.

Nina started off letting everyone know she was around, she lunged and pulled and carried on as Helen called her as the "Asbo dog". This continued for a few weeks until we all got to know Nina. Seeing her reaction reducing over the weeks was amazing. However Nina's real turn around came when my pet dog Shadow became her friend. We free run them together for a couple of weeks then introduced my other dog Tyler, Nina was needing to know that not all dogs where going to get her and that if she asked for space from them she would get it.

This went on for another few weeks and bit by bit we introduced other dogs, all of them got on well, but the important thing in this is that both Helen and Dave learnt that she wasn't as bad as she was making out, she had just learnt that by creating the way she did she got what she wanted. (Which was to be taken away from the other dogs). However being off lead gave Nina the freedom and the choice to express herself the way dogs need too.

Regards Helen

P.S the photo on our facebook page is Nina with her friends!

Mr Trix and his journey so far....

I bought Mr Trix in November 2011, he was fearful of people, hands and being touched. Although he came across as wanting attention and demanded it, when you actually wanted to touch him his first line of defense was intimidation.

He would not stand whilst a rider got on, he would bite at every opportunity, he would lash out with his back leg whilst fitting rugs, he would scoul and pull faces at everyone in close proximity.

First thing was to introduce him to riding with no pressure, so out came my western saddle and off we went, everywhere, Trix will hack any where. So we did, he is noble and brave whilst hacking, not much scares him, he did stop a couple of times and refuse to walk so i took the pressure off him and asked him to stand and take in the environment and the stimulus that was worrying him.

2 months of hacking and ground work later, he no longer walks off whilst mounting, he no longer bites, he no onger kicks out with his leg. He is changing all the time, he has required patience and understanding, rehabilitation is a timely process. He has been checked out by my physio Becky Walker of Yorkshire Animal Physiotherapy. He had a few tight areas on his back but mainly in his shoulders.

We have started schooling, he has been rushed and pushed faster so he does not know slow, although this is coming again in fairly quick time, he is learning to hold himself without rushing and will in time be able to offer me slow and steady from the beginning. This is a great way to strengthen back and hind quaters.

Our progress is moving quicker than I ever thought, he is trying new tricks all the time to test me and my strenghth as a handler (emotionally not physically). He will try and intimidate me to test weather i have weakened, but the positive move is that others can now go in with him and he will not fire at them or make a move in a negative way.

T Touch is helping with the process and of course lots of mints and attention in a positive way!

Thank you for reading I will post more updates in due course. Many thanks Helen