Mr Fox who is getting very brave!

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I'd like to introduce you to my friend Mr Fox. His is a bit of a sorry tale, I'm afraid. In brief, he was bred by a breeder who it seems doesn't bother to put any time into the youngsters at all. If they need moving, they're herded. To show off their paces for sale, they're chased around a school. To load when sold, they're chased onto a lorry.

When my client bought him at the age of 3, then, he'd known nothing except being chased and penned. This left him scared and he was not easy to deal with. For very good personal reasons, my client decided to send him to a trainer to see if learning to work would help him. Sadly, the trainer recommended was awful. I've seen the photos and Mr Fox is terrified. After they brought him home, it took 6 weeks before he would allow anyone to touch him.

By the time I first me him, he had settled a little but would still not let a stranger near him, would bolt when being led anywhere - to the point of going over fencing or anything in the way - and reacted very badly to any pressure. He's never had his feet done, can't tie up, nothing.

The first session I did was a while ago and achieved, to be honest, nothing. He wanted nothing to do with me at all. The only safe place to work was in a stable and I felt this was not right for him as he felt trapped. In his fear, he almost collapsed, just because I was in the stable with him. It was heartbreaking.

We have therefore moved my pen over there and we have square in his field where he feels comfortably and where we can work safely. He's happy popping in and out, and has hay in there so it's a nice place. It's Mr Fox's box!

We have also taught him about the clicker. He likes that! For a horse like Mr Fox, who has absolutely no reason to like human beings, particularly trainers!, it was important to find a way of getting him onside. Join up would not have been appropriate and his reaction to any pressure at all made it difficult to use advance and retreat/pressure and release. The clicker has changed his focus and given him a reason to try.

Today was session 2 in the pen and I'm absolutely thrilled with his progress. Because he has few bad associations with leg handling, and because his feet are in a bit of a state, we have actually started with leg handling. His near fore is quite good already, and today we picked it up and started gently moving it. The off fore is more difficult. He really hated anyone on that side at all and he'd still rather you weren't there



You can see his whole body swaying away from me.

He's much happier with his owner, Ellie, touching him so she is doing most of the leg work with him to start off with. She's very good and a real pleasure to work with, and the bond between them is one of the greatest tools we've got at the moment.

One big thing I wanted to start working on today was lines. Due to the previous training, he has dreadful associations with them. Even just walking into the pen with a longer line in my hand got his head up, body braced away.

I spent some time, then, desensitising him to its presence, getting nearer, until he finally allowed it to touch him.



On his back was not so bad but his quarters got a huge reaction. To far, too fast and we backed off and went more slowly. The near side again was easier, the far side we made some progress but there is still more work to be done.

I know it was packing a huge amount into one session but because I wanted to leave Ellie with enough to work on for the next 10 days till our next session, we also started doing some work on teaching Mr Fox to release to pressure by teaching him to back up and come forwards again. Judging from his (lack of) reaction, I don't think anyone's tried this with him and he was great.



We have some mountains to climb. I have no idea how far we'll get and how long it will take to get there. Because, despite his terror, they actually did get as far as trying to back him, he may find all that too much. We'll take our time, though, and build his confidence in every way we can. And we'll see.

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Well, if we have a mountain to climb, we are at least no longer at sea level. Mr Fox is making fantastic progress, thanks to some really excellent work by Ellie.

It's 10 days or so since I last saw him and in that time he has come along leaps and bounds. His whole attitude is changing. He's softer, more forwards thinking and... has his headcollar off in the field!

Interestingly, when I approached him in his box, he presented me with his previously bad side. He was a fraction cautious about letting me in but at no point tried to spin himself round, as he would have previously. He even left me on that side as I went to clip him on. We did a little advance and retreat, rather than just clip on, as he was taking his head away a little, but soon he was letting me first stroke his head, then take his headcollar, then clip on.

Ellie is now picking up front feet with no problem at all so today we did hinds. It really is a 2 man job to start off with, just in case he kicks out. Ellie did all the work, first of all desensitising him to the hook, then asking him to pick up. Because she's also spent some time desensitising to a piece of rope all over him over the last week, the beginning went extremely well. The we asked him to pick up his foot. Ok to start off with, then he started to explore behaviours. This included grabbing his foot away and then kicking the hook. He had one little worry but settled very quickly, and then allowed us to pick up his foot. Because he's generally much worse on the other side, in his case we will get him to understand the process well on this side before moving to the other. We were, though, both very pleased with how he accepted things.



After giving Mr Fox a little break, then, we moving onto something different. Because of the horrors of his training, there is obviously some concern about how he will feel about having any sort of tack on or even rugs. It's not winter yet, but let's plan in advance and make sure he'll be happy with a rug if he needs it.

We used a folded pad as the first introduction. He was very wary to start off with but by working confidently and gradually making the pad bigger, then letting him see it on the other side of him, and building up so that he could cope with it, he soon had it on his back.



You can see from his mouth that he's not relaxed but he was not so stressed for it to be a negative learning experience. I believe that if we can prove to him that these things that once were bad in fact aren't, then we can start to move forwards.

That was plenty for one day, so we then took his headcollar off and he stuck with Ellie for a cuddle.



Happy pony, happy mum.

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Mr Fox had his front feet picked out today. And his hinds picked up with my hand.

;D ;D ;D

There was one totally fantastic moment. When I first went to lift his hind leg with my hand, he distinctly thought about kicking. He lifted his leg high, adjusted his balance to bring the foot in my direction... then... didn't. For me, that's about the biggest breakthough you can get, when they conciously override the decision to react negatively and instead think it through and decide it's ok. Brilliant.

We only did leg handling today as he was just so good that it would have been the wrong thing to muddy the waters in his mind, and also it would have been a shame not to reward that fantastic leg handling by saying thank you, that's all we wanted, now you can go back to your hay.

What a good boy.

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I hope for photos later, but got a phone call this morning to tell me that... wait for it... Mr Fox has had his front feet trimmed by the farrier! I'm told he stood there good as gold, as if he'd been having his feet trimmed all his life. They made the very sensible decision to leave hinds till next time rather than risk it going wrong. Very wise, I think. This means that Mr Fox's first memory of a farrier is now a good one.

He's a great little horse, he really is.

[Deleted]

Trust can be very fragile.

Mr Fox had been doing so very well. Following the achievement of having his feet trimmed, we'd started to push the boundaries on leading. In an enlarged pen, Mr Fox had started to understand that he could walk alongside a human - it really wasn't very easy for him. He did so well, though, that we even ventured outside the pen for a few minutes at the end.

Then, unfortunately, Ellie went away for a day and left Mr Fox in the care of a friend and it all went badly wrong. Mr Fox pulled away and ended up in the field being chased by a snake (the leadrope), and it sent him right back. When I arrived for our last session, he was in his stable, reluctant to let anyone even touch him again. It felt like we were almost back to the when I'd first met him.

It's very easy in this sort of situation to feel down, deflated, disappointed. These negative emotions are, though, the opposite of what the horse needs. With Mr Fox cowering in the back of his stable, if we had added negative energy to the mix, it really wouldn't have helped him put his trust in us again.

By being soft but businesslike, we went right back to the beginning, targetting, reminding him what he'd done before and that he could do it, and within a fairly short period of time he was allowing us to touch him, clip him on, even touch his off side. And then you felt that it was ok. Tentative, maybe, but he started to feel back on track.

I had initially thought we'd just leave it at that but my instinct told me that it he would be ok outside his stable. We took the precaution of using some pen panels to make sure he only had the area immediately outside his stable, just enough to walk a little in, and that he couldn't escape if he did have a wobbly. With Ellie leading, he came out carefully but then relaxed. He did so well, she then led him into his pen in his field, round there a little, then we opened the pen up again and he led out into his field just a little, then back into his pen, then out again, then back to his stable.

Of course it would have been better not to have the setback but at the end of the day it's served a purpose. He has shown both himself and us that things can go wrong but it's not the end of the world. The trust, although a little shaken, is still there.

The moral of the story, for me, is not to let these things become the end of the world. If something like this happens, keep a positive attitude and help the horse through. That's what shows him that you are still there for him, no matter what...

[Deleted]

One step forwards, 3 steps back... or at least that's how it feels at the moment.

Ellie had been doing some really good leading work, not only in the pen but also in his field. She had got to being able to walk him right down to the bottom and back, with him keeping calm. Then she tried walking him at 90 degrees across the field. Oh no. We can't do that. Mr Fox panicked and tanked off.

It's so hard to know what the problem is until you see it. No, Mr Fox, that didn't mean you had to show me. Twice...! But at least I could see what the problem was. When you walk down the fenceline, it's all nice and quiet. As you go across the field, you are walking towards the road and suddenly roofs of cars appear, flying over the hedgeline. What this says is that we've got trust but only so far, and he's still looking in to himself if he's spooked.

The field is starting to muddy up so we decided for next time to move the pen into the school. He's less happy there (hence working in the field) but it also means we have a second barrier if he hoofs it. At the moment, when he goes there is little choice but to let go - he really tanks off - but that is of course teaching him that that is his best option.

The good bit is that even after a worry he's not reverting to "don't touch me" mode, and we did a bit of standing still and being quite and he was good.

Video time...



By the way, he's got his headcollar as well as Dually because I wanted that lesson to be about leading, not changing headcollars, and the line is looped rather than clipped so I can pull free if I need to. Which I did! It avoids you having a panicking horse being chased by a snake round a muddy field.

[Deleted]

Is everyone ready for this?



Are you sure?



Really, I mean certain...?



If not, you probably should at least sit down, drink in hand, because...




wait for it




nearly there



Mr Fox does longlining!!!

You don't believe me, do you...




Sorry about the vid quality, into the sun, but you can see how amazingly chilled he is! That's just on one line but we then went onto two, with a roller, and he was just brilliant. He doesn't understand too well about releasing himself from pressure on the Dually yet - explanation to follow - but if you remember this is the horse who suffered at the hands of another training, including being lunged on concrete while he was so scared he nearly fell over, you can see what a huge, huge achievement this is.

So, how did we get there? Well, you know the saying "do what you always do and you'll get what you always get"? That was what was happening with Mr Fox. While he was still in the same place, doing the same things, we were getting the same results. He was doing ok, but he was still holding onto his fear almost like a security blanket.

His pen has now not only moved into the school, it's also BIG. No more hiding in corners. No more just standing there worried till something happens. And, he forgot to pack his security blanket when he moved.

Once he was out of that comfort zone, then, he had to start looking for something else. It could, of course, have gone the other way, but he has such a bond with Ellie that his choice was to trust her and rely on her. Very quickly, she was leading him not only in the pen but outside too, on both sides of his body. He now wears a rug, with filet string, and is totally fine with it. Ellie had then progressed to putting a roller on him and even walking him round in it.

As you can see, she's put one heck of a lot of work in and I hope she knows to take full credit for all the progress he's made over the last couple of weeks. My hat goes off to her (but not while working!).

The plan today, then, was to do the follow the line exercise. It started off sort of ok and he coped well enough with the line over his back. He wasn't so sure about me being there - 1 person is ok but 2 still spells danger - but settled very quickly on his good side. On the other side, though, it was too much and he ran off.

He had one line clipped onto his Dually so I thought, what the hell, let's see what happens... and started single longlining him, driving from a longlining position and turning him as you would on the lines. Well, blow me (and all of us) down, he was great! A little scoot away from the line behind him once or twice, but other than that, he just left us alternating between speechless and grinning like the proverbial Cheshire cats.

The clip about is the 3rd short session, and I'd just clipped the line on the other side of the Dually for the first time. Wow. Just wow.

Given that, and given that Ellie had done all the prep with the roller, we then put the roller on, two lines on, and off we went. He was just brilliant. Because he'd gone off before I was ready, we hadn't done the follow the line exercise that I was planning so really didn't know what to do if I asked with any pressure on one line. He could have panicked and spun but he didn't. He went quietly, turned with my body, stopped with a block very quietly. Backing up, that I tried very briefly, was obviously too much and he started to look worried but there'll be another day for that.

I can't tell you how totally, totally chuffed we are with this boy.

[Deleted]

I think someone has stolen Mr Fox and replaced him with this fantastic, thinking, working horse...






Now, much as we loved the old Mr Fox, there is something about the new one that leaves a big grin on your face. I think we'll keep him!

You can see we've still got work to do, but my, how he has come on over the last week! Ellie's been working to desensitise his off side, with the result that you can now tack him up and work on both sides with only a slight worry. She's also been leading him from both sides and that has made a huge difference. They've been working in the full school, over poles and everything!

Latent learning at its best, he now also understands the things he was struggling with last week, without having been longlined in that period. Last week, any pressure on the Dually to either come in off the side of the pen or stop was very confusing for him. Now look at those stops! We also worked on asking him to stand still, as you can see, even when I put the lines down.

Again, you have to remember that this horse could not abide someone walking up to him not very long ago, and certainly not on the off side. By the end of the session today, I could walk him off on the lines away from Ellie, do a quick loop round and bring him back towards but not right up to her, put the lines on the floor and walk up and stroke him, then untack. For a normal horse, maybe, no big deal. For this guy, it's just huge. We are just a tiny bit pleased.

[Deleted]

Wouldn't it be lovely if things went according to plan? But, of course, this is Mr Fox we're talking about...

We had a long session this week. Something to do with Mr Fox's trainer putting petrol in her diesel car and having to wait for the AA man... ooops. It was good at times but baffling at others. I think, though, we all learned a lot and hopefully the baffling bits won't set us back too far.

Baffling bit number one. Mr Fox was in a very anxious mood, even in his stable. We thought we'd pinpointed the cause to Ellie having draped the leadrope round his neck, but upon reflection I'm not sure as he was hiding in the back corner when she went to clip him on. He jumped at the roller being put on but was otherwise ok, nothing that really set alarm bells ringing.

He then walked out tentatively but ok, but as soon as she led him into the pen he blasted through and knocked her over. She unsurprisingly let go and Mr Fox then charged round the pen, line chasing him like a snake. Oh. This wasn't what I'd planned!

I got the line and went straight into single line longlining and he settled. That I was very pleased with, as he could have held onto his panic.

Once settled, we did some leading, on both sides, and a bit more on the line. He was very good and I let him go while we went and had a cuppa.

20 minutes later, we tacked him up again, popped the longlines on and he was brilliant. He walked, trotted, stopped and even did his first steps of rein back. Fab. Untacked and gave him another break.

I then wanted to go back for just a couple of minutes, just to really put that first blip to bed and do a bit more stopping and reining back. He was awful! He panicked at the idea of being sent off on the lines - something that just hadn't been a problem half an hour ago - and got himself into a right state.

He then started to worry about the line behind him and the follow-the-line exercise turned into a drama. I had hoped that I'd be able to show him that he just needed to turn away from me and all would be well, but he simply couldn't bring himself to do it.

So, we got to the point that he would lead with the line round his hocks, and left it at that. A little ground regained, and some trust re-established. Ellie's got her homework cut out this week but I have every confidence that she'll have got him back on the level by out next session on Wednesday.

The really frustrating thing is that we aren't seeing his triggers. There must be a reason why he can go from doing some really excellent longlining to a panic in the space of half an hour but what that is at the moment beats me. Answers on a postcard...