Feral Hearts: Equine behaviour and training solutions

22/06/2022

Please spare a moment to have a look at my fundraising page for Fudge, Twirl and Bubbles and see if you can help, even if by just donating a tiny, tiny amount.

31/01/2022

A reminder that my equine and canine pages are now merged and content can be found over at Feral Hearts: Equine and canine behaviour consultations and training

Information regarding my services can be found on my website:

www.feralhearts-horses.com

If you have any questions you can pop me a message or WhatsApp/call me on 07505000709

:)

Welcome to Feral Hearts! I offer behaviour consultations for horses and dogs as well as coaching in modern horse and dog training methods. Locations covered include Nottinghamshire / Derbyshire / Mansfield / Chesterfield / Loughborough / Lincolnshire. Online coaching also available.

12/10/2021

For sake of ease and organisation I'm merging my 2 pages, so please find all my horse behaviour posts over here from now on:

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https://www.facebook.com/FeralHeartsBehaviour/

🌻 Professional dog behaviour and training support

Helping Over-Reactive, 'Big-Feeling' dogs and the people who love them.

📍Covering Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire (Based NG16).

☎️ Call Jen: 07505000709

10/10/2021

Calming signals and displacement behaviours...

It's the small stuff added together that gives us greater insight to our horses experiences. Here Lady is watching something in the distance. Everything is new to her, she's only been with us for 4 days so far and still hasn't been integrated with the other horses so is hypervigilant from both the journey here, all the changes and living alone. She is staring over the fields, note once she's stared for a while she begins to lick and chew and turns her head AWAY from what she was watching. The licking and chewing is a tension release in this case, and turning her head away is displacement I believe. Once she's done this, she scratches her lip on her leg, also a displacement behaviour, which shows she's not fully comfortable with the situation but she's not really sure what to do, this comes into the 'fiddling about' section of 'Fight, flight, freeze or fiddle' responses. These are all signals that it is easy to spot in most horses on a daily basis when they become uncomfortable, conflicted or tense. These are signals that our horses use to communicate yet we often miss, and when we miss these smaller signals and fail to respond to them then they add up until our horses have to 'shout' and use bigger, more.obvious behaviours to tell us theyre unhappy such as nipping, kicking or taking flight for example.

If you've not already then I highly recommend checking out the book 'Language signs and calming signals of horses' it's not cheap but it is well worth the investment! As far as I'm concerned it is a priceless study that every horse carer should invest in. ❤

14/08/2021

Harry practicing his scent tracking for the first time in several weeks. He's remembered it so so well! 😍

Scentwork promotes increased engagement, relaxation, builds concentration plus helps with LOTS of other awesome things that benefit your horse. I love using it before working on more difficult behaviourssuch as cooperative care as it sets a great foundation for you and your horse going into training calmly. ❤

13/08/2021

The ponies have the second part of their track open finally 😁 Honestly, these past few weeks have been so so much work, but absolutwly worth every second. They're loving their new home ❤

13/08/2021

Please, listen to your animals 'No' and ask WHY they express that decision not to do something. When we keep nagging and correcting animals we shut down their communication, they just shut up and put up as they learn that doing so reduces the aversive experinces they are exposed to. This creates a 'ticking time bomb', as soon as someone allows and encourgaes them to say no finally, they will use it and use it a LOT until they learn that doing things with us cans actually be a positive experience.

Please, listen to your animals and work WITH them. Mental wellbeing is more important than what exact behaviours they perform on cue initially (safety and cooperative care procedures aside in some cases). Let's begin treating them as the sentient beings that they are rather than expecting them to perform like machines.

11/08/2021

Only 24 hours until our first Life Skills dog training class begins! 😁 I can't wait to meet the 4 lovely doggos who will be joining me, and of course, their people too!

I am so nervous, this is the first class I've ever taught and I want it to suit everyone (which i have hopefully have planned it right for!) but I'm also trying to focus on making sure that primarily we're all able to relax, enjoy ourselves, and make progress, rather than focus on 'perfection'. It's honestly helped so much chatting to each of the people who have signed up, you all seem so kind and thoughtful and I'm looking forward to meeting you all tomorrow! ❤

If you're interested in joining the classes pop me a pm and I can register you for our next 6 week course! 😊