Somerset Sound Morning Jo

Somerset Sound radio

August 17, 2006

Interviewer: Jo Phillips

Jo: As I've been saying this morning, we're very aware, aren't we, of the close relationship that humans have with animals. But is it really possible for us to totally understand and communicate with them? Well, my next guest thinks so. Sarah Fisher from Somerset is the UK's highest qualified equine and companion animal instructor and her first book, Know Your Horse Inside Out is being released next month. She, along with her partner Anthony Head from Little Britain, Doctor Who and coffee beans, joins me now for a chat . Good morning to both of you.

Sarah: Hi.

Anthony: Good morning.

Jo: Great to speak to you. We've got loads to talk about, especially as far as the animals are concerned. But I just wanted a bit of gossip on you two first of all. Can you tell me how you met and just everything about your relationship really?

Anthony: Backstage at the National Theatre. I was doing a play, I was part of the Peter Gill company, we were doing Danton's Death and basically the entire stage was used so in order to make our entrance we had to wait in the corridor behind and there was this very beautiful blonde girl who used to sort of - I don't know, she used to come down the corridor and then -

Sarah: And then I came along.

(laughter)

Anthony: She used to work in secretarial services and also front of house and so she used to go past with someone else's drink at the same time every night and we just used to get talking and I used to get there earlier and earlier and she seemed to get the earlier and earlier.

Sarah: Buy more and more drinks drinks and I'd be "Yeah I'll go to the bar" so I could walk past Tony sitting out in the corridor.

Jo: So how long ago was this?

Sarah: Twenty-three years, I think.

Jo: Oh, my goodness.

Sarah: I know. A long, long time.

Jo: So this would have been before, you know, the coffee bean ads because I have to say Anthony, my mum found out I was talking to you today, and she had such a crush on you during the coffee bean days.

Anthony: Thank you. The coffee - it wasn't so much the coffee bean ads because everyone seems to get me confused with Gareth Hunt who used to do the shake and I never shaked my beans. Never shook me beans. Um basically, I was the neighbor.

Sarah: In the Gold Blend Adverts.

Anthony: Yes.

Jo: Okay, I'm pretty sure my mum still had a crush on you, don't worry, it wasn't the other guy. Um, so you obviously, Sarah, have obviously been with Anthony for an awfully long time - twenty-three years, my goodness. What can you tell us about Anthony that he wouldn't tell us?

Sarah: He snores

Jo: Does he?

Sarah: Yes, our dog snored less than he did.

Anthony: (laughing) I would tell you that, I would. I'd be honest.

Sarah: He irons. He's a good ironer.

Jo: That's good.

Sarah: He's a good cook. He's everything actually, he's perfect.

Jo: Ohhh, my mum's going to like the sound of you even more now, Anthony. Now, Anthony, what can you tell us about Sarah that she wouldn't tell us about you.

Anthony: Um, she's very, very beautiful and extremely talented. And she's taught me an enormous amount about animals because I used to have this sort of - well, you know yes, I like animals but I don't quite get this sort of love that, you know, that I now have for animals and she's taught me an enormous amount.

Jo: Well, yeah. Let's talk about the animal side of things. When did you both kind of set up this project? Because you not only have animals around you for your own sake, but you try and educate other people about them too, don't you?

Sarah: We do. I started training with an amazing woman in America called Linda Tellington Jones about eleven years ago. I read one of her first books called The Tellington Touch and it was basically about how you can influence an animal's behaviour and also it's health just by doing tiny movements on the skin and I was so hooked, I flew straight out to America and started training with her and realized that this is something we really needed to offer in England. So I started just working with private clients and then six years ago, we bought a farm near where we live and we started running courses there for companion animals and for horses. and I travel now nationally and internationally lecturing and giving seminars and workshops for the shelter staff and members of the public who just want to learn more skills to help their own animals and also just to learn more about how to handle animals and how to help their behaviour.

Anthony: She's renowned!

Jo: Well, I think I saw you quite recently on TV, it was the Only Fools on Horses show, I think you were on that, weren't you?

Sarah: Yes. That was fab.

Anthony: That was amazing. It was such a result. I mean we were only there for sort of about 45 minutes and all of them were absolutely bowled over by the amount of change that they could make to their own horses - they weren't their own horses, but the horses they were riding. Just by way of saying thank you and also just helping the horses to chill out a bit.

Sarah: That's the cool thing. It's really easy to teach people to do it. You don't have to have studied it like I have - obviously I've made it part of my life now, it's a huge part of my life. But you don't need to have studied it for years and years and years in order to learn some tips that can make a difference to the animal that you love.

Jo: So it's not just about horses then. This can be done with cats and dogs and hamsters and all sorts.

Sarah: I work with all animals. I've worked with snakes, shy tortoises that won't come out of their shell, ha-ha, but it is true. A rat, aggressive rabbits and a lot of the animals are reactive to humans and are deemed to be aggressive and dominant are actually really frightened and that's why they become defensive and it's no different to people or the bully on the school playground. The bully is actually normally really insecure. So it's the same really that can be applied to animals and when you make them feel safer and more confident then obviously their reactive behaviour is diminished and they become less reactive to people approaching them or being picked up or going to the vet or going in a car and there are very specific areas on the body that hold tension which then relate to very specific behaviours.

Jo: I was just going to say it's called T-Touch, this technique. Is it easy to describe on the radio, how it works and can we practice it at home or do we need to see you?

Sarah: No, no we can. It's just really light movements of the skin and you're working with the nervous system. You want to increase circulation to certain parts of the animal's body where it may be tense and circulation may be impaired. Just by pushing the skin, not sliding over the skin as you would if you were doing a massage technique. You just push the skin round in one and a quarter circles - why one and a quarter, we don't know but it feels really different. Um you can start changing the way the animal moves and therefore the way it behaves and anybody can do it but the key is that this work is really really light. It's the lightest pressure it takes to move the skin on your cheek, really light without causing any indentation in the skin.

Jo: And what kind of reaction, Anthony, do you get from the animals you use T-Touch on?

Anthony: Um, it basically - I'm not a practitioner, I should say. I'm a very keen supporter and I love watching it, the process take place. Basically, I mean - it's - you're working with them in a way that's not just a general stroke or as we say in Somerset a smooth. Basically the animal - you can see them suddenly go "Ohh, I've not felt anything like that before" and it makes them sort of think for a minute. Um, and I think that's the basic secret you're working on the central nervous system and not working on the musculature.

Sarah: But it does change that as well.

Anthony: Yeah, but I mean the thing about this book Know your Horse Inside Out - and also just to say that there's been such an advance order on it that Sarah's been commissioned to write your Dog Inside Out so she's writing that right now. But the thing about it is also recognizing when your animal - basically what's going on in your animal. It's almost as if we can hear what our animal is saying rather than just - when animals are growling or look like they are sort of, they're annoyed about something, they're actually not giving human emotions. They're actually telling us in the best way that they can that they find something that we're asking them to do challenging or painful or there's the memory of pain -

Sarah: Or they don't understand what we're asking them to do.

Jo: So lots of people work their animals too fast. They expect them to be consistent every day in their behaviour as well.

Sarah: And humans aren't. We're not consistent every day. Some days we can think faster, other days we may have a little bit of back pain. We're not consistent but we do seem to expect our animals to be. And it's just a way of showing people to recognize that on this particular day, your dog may be a little bit tight in the hindquarters so that will make it difficult for him to get into the car or make him worried about fireworks and thunder or your horse has got stuck in the stable when he was rolling so he's now sore in the neck so he won't want his bridle on today. He may rush out now through the stable door because their tight in the neck affects the way they can judge where they are in space - it affects their spatial awareness. So it's just giving people more tools to really understand their animal and to then help their animal. And people want to love their animal and they want hand contact with their animal and we're really promoting this hands on, really get to know your animal inside and out so you can really also - not only to see where the animal has a problem now but spot where problems may arise a little bit further down the line.

Jo: Well, your first book, as you mention, Know Your Horse Inside Out, is coming out the twenty-ninth of September 2006 As Anthony said there, it's got such advance orders that you've been commissioned to write more books. it's probably going to become a whole series, I imagine with cats and dogs included as well. I suppose, my final question, you must have loads of animals that you look after and that you have around you. Does that mean that you have the happiest animals on the planet ever because you know this technique or is it the case that just like humans they have bad days as well.

Sarah: It's a bit of a cobbler's child, I think because we're always so busy working with other animals that we don't tend to spend the time working with ours but we have a really great team at Tilley Farm where our farm is based, who help us with all animals and actually I have to say that - we have eight horses on the property and two donkeys and people are always stunned that none of the horses put their ears back when you go into the stable, none of them pin their ears and try and bite you when you try to put their saddle on and they all come when they're called from the field. We don't have to go and catch them, we just call their names and they do all come running in. So yes, I do think we have very happy horses. The problem is when horses come to visit, they actually don't want to leave.

Jo: Anthony and Sarah, it's been great talking to you this morning. Good luck with the book and keep in touch, won't you?

Sarah: Thank you, very much.

Anthony: Thank you.

Jo: Bye for now. Anthony Head and his partner Sarah Fisher talking about life on Tilley Farm and it sounds pretty idyllic, doesn't it? And Sarah's brand new book which as I've been saying is called Know your Horse Inside Out. It's out on the twenty-ninth of September. If you want to find our more about the work that Sarah and Anthony do, on their farm in Somerset, check out their website - I had a look at it yesterday - really really useful. The address is www.tilleyfarm.co.uk and just talking about Anthony Head on TV and in films and stuff like that I think there are loads of features on Anthony on our website as well, so you can read all about Anthony on bbc.co.uk/somerset.