PIP AND BAYARD AND ME

I am on an incredible journey which, without Pip Unwin would never have been possible.

I have always loved horses. However, in the past have received very poor riding tuition resulting in my fear and lack of understanding of horses. Also, I could not understand how riding school instructors functioned. Nothing seemed to connect.
I have sat on quite a few horses but have not felt at ease with any of them. In fact at times I was terrified. One horse bucked, reared and napped. Another snorted, stamping hooves and bolting at the sound of an engine. Another bit my backside when I tried to mount. Another would jump over the smallest stick as if it were a five bar gate. Most of the instructors could not understand or deal with my fear, if they even recognised it, shouting instructions at me. Most left me to cope on my own. A lot of the instructors were loud, bossy and controlling or just downright disinterested in their horses and customers. I felt sorry for the horses and my experiences left me feeling a miserable failure.

I went from stable to stable searching for people who could help me to understand horses and ride without fear. Sometimes I left several years in between rides - long enough for me to recover from traumatic experiences!

One day, I decided to try again, looking through the telephone book saw Pip’s advertisement. It looked different. I thought I would give myself one last chance to learn about horses and to ride - so I rang Pip.

When I met Pip I was immediately struck by her calm aura and approach to horses and to middle aged me. Had I found what I had been searching for? The answer was a resounding yes!
Pip talked about how horse and rider can build a partnership through understanding each other.

She gave me confidence through her logical, informative and positive teaching methods, which she relayed to me in a calm and patient way. With Pip’s guidance, I started to use my brain to think in a different way - and I didn’t realise how physically unfit my brain and body were until I tried free schooling!
Pip taught me to look at my feelings as well as the feelings of the horse I was working with. I was very interested when she talked about the way horses think and how they are sensitive to our innermost feelings and how they have deep feelings and long memories.

Pip talked to me about thinking in pictures when with Bayard. This was most challenging for me because I organised my crowded brain in task-oriented lists since I was 16! I needed over 30 years of organised mental discipline to change and with Pip’s support I am gradually getting there. I aim to be single minded and focused, in pictures, whenever I am with Bayard; it is not always easy because my mind wants to revert to its list format. (Old habits die hard!) Sometimes I need to concentrate very hard on being single minded. When I am, he listens to me and I can listen to him.

Each time I went for a lesson with Pip I hoped that I would be able to work with Bayard and was inwardly enthralled when I did. I am staggered to look back at how Pip was able to give me the confidence to free school this beautiful, highly intelligent, huge, creature. His brain was so sharp; he picked up on my thoughts and body language in an instant. Pip helped me to understand how he thought and why he behaved in various ways. She told me how thinking more quickly would help with communication with Bayard, but he was way ahead of me acting on my mental pictures before I had finished picturing them! He would stop, turn round and look at me as if to say ‘well, get on with it, what’s next?’
I recall how I was overwhelmed and close to tears when he followed me for the first time. I felt so privileged and my respect and affection for him deepened. Pip’s teaching had enabled me to begin to understand this horse. Actually, I think Bayard understood me better than I understood myself and I understood Pip when she said that he would also be my teacher.

Pip has considerable natural horsemanship skills, which are quite unique. She has insight into all aspects of horses and people and has been able to identify my needs and see qualities in me that I needed to recognise and apply when with Bayard.
Her knowledge is vast and she uses it to good effect putting over her points in a clear, understandable way. Most importantly, she in non judgmental. She is patient and bides her time imparting her knowledge at the most appropriate time for Bayard and me.
One of Pip’s amazing skills is to be able to treat me as an individual helping me to work towards building a partnership with Bayard. Helping me to understand how to tap into my instincts and feelings, she is unfailingly calm, with a quiet, positive, well thought out, professional manner.

Pip never seems to tire in her role as teacher and everything she says to me is clear and to the point. Here is someone who respects and understands how horses and people think and react. My last chance turned into my incredible journey, thanks to Pip. Because of her, I have realised my dream of riding and learning natural horsemanship in partnership with my beautiful Bayard. I will never take him for granted and will keep building on the skills Pip has taught me.

Looking back while writing this I realise that I have come a long, long way since my first meeting with Pip and I still have a long way to go.

I bought Bayard from Pip and with the benefit of her knowledge, skills and unsurpassed patience have embarked on the steepest, most rewarding learning curve of my life.

Bayard is amazing; Pip is amazing!