A "made" horse....

One of the things I have learned since coming to Pippsway, is that every single thing we do with our horse is important. If we let even one thing slide, then we will have undermined our relationship with our horse; in that moment we will have taught him that we are not worthy of being his leader, he cannot rely upon us and we will not have his trust. This causes insecurity in the horse and, over time, all these ‘little’ unnoticed incidents (our horse will most definitely have noticed!) accumulate and we can end up in a situation where a horse that was absolutely fine ‘suddenly’ isn’t. The truth is that before any big problems start, there will always have been signs. Problems will have escalated over time and it may be the case that the owner lacks the experience to be able to interpret the problems sooner, or that they didn’t consider that each of those ‘small’ occurrences were as important as they truly are.

Things like a horse invading your space, not standing still, moving when you mount, stepping on your feet and so on…..they may not seem like such a big deal, but I now know that they are. All behaviour is communication and everything that our horse communicates to us is important. So often, you hear of people buying a new horse and over time problems appear, that horse is sold and another bought, again only to find that problems occur.

Even if you buy a ‘made’ horse, he won’t stay that way if you aren’t doing all the right things. Before I came to Pippsway I simply didn’t know how to communicate with horses. I didn’t understand that every moment I am in my horses presence we are having a conversation and that there are only two ways that conversation can go, either I’m my horses leader and he can trust me, or I’m not and he can’t….

Many of Pip’s clients came to her when they had reached a point with their horses where they couldn’t manage any longer. Rather than having had to sell their horses, Pip has been able to teach them how to communicate with their horses, how to understand what their horses are telling them, and why, and what to do about it. Instead of buying different horses they have all been able to transform their relationships with the horses they already have!