I knew immediately that Pips’ method or riding was going to be very different to what we had experienced previously. She only taught one-to-one, used music during lessons and essentially started from scratch. On the day of my daughters’ first lesson Pip explained that a crop would not be needed for any of her horses!

I was fascinated from the beginning. Pip started with lessons about feeling the horse and its’ movements, re-learning balance, and about asking the horse to do something rather than always demanding. My daughter, in addition to the lessons, learned about preparing the horse, caring for it after exercise and how to reward good and polite behaviour. (It’s not all about edible treats)

From the start, my daughter also learned to ‘free school’; to engage with the horse in an open area and to use movement and behaviour to make things happen, to demonstrate her place in the herd. Throughout, Pip always explained how and why things could be made to happen, did happen and if they didn’t, why not. I was amazed to see that a horse could chose to be with a human, appeared to understand and respect the relationship and would respond to each non-verbal signal.

I was scared to see my small, 11 year old daughter in an indoor school, alone with a cantering (sometimes galloping) Arab gelding, but, by then I knew that I could trust Pip and that her horses were not unpredictable or unreliable. I also knew that the horse was watching and listening closely to the girl and was responding to her actions.

After a year or so of watching my daughter work with and learn from Pip, I decided that I really needed to have a go myself. I had ridden as a child, but didn’t really want to ride again, it was the free schooling and developing a relationship with the horse that attracted me.

My first lesson (on a horse for the first time in possibly twenty years) was calm (I was worried) the music soothing, and Pip led me (saddle cloth only, no stirrups or bridle) so I could feel the horses’ movements. She suggested I keep my eyes shut throughout and I had one of the most relaxing half hours I’d had for years. Even though the experience was so good, I still really wanted to free school and that is what I spent my other lessons doing. As with my daughter, I experienced Pips’ calmness and constant explanations of how to do things and why things happened with the horses’ behaviour.

I found free schooling to be confidence building, hard work and totally absorbing. Take your attention from what you are asking the horse to do for even a few seconds and you lose the contact, you don’t know it, but your signals to the horse change and it becomes unsure of what you are asking it to do. You have to be totally absorbed and concentrate hard. It is an exhilarating experience.

All of Pips’ horses and ponies (we’ve met a number over the three and a half years) have been polite and well mannered and we’ve never met one who, even if they arrived bad tempered and fraught, wasn’t calm and relaxed after time in Pips’ care.

We have seen a steady stream of “difficult” horses be referred to her and many of the horses she has owned have been rejected by other horsemen and women as too difficult. She always quickly learns why they are “difficult” and because she always takes time to explain, we have learned a lot about the types of human actions which trigger the problems and some of the methods that can be used to alleviate or solve them. She is always quiet and calm with people and horses. We have seen Pip work with a range of horses which have been ‘difficult’, she is unfailingly patient, gentle, kind and fair to each. I have really learned from her that there are rarely bad horses only poor and poorly educated owners.

Each bit of horse behaviour observed has always been explained to us by Pip and she has always described why we need to do things with horses in certain ways. She always explains why a horse does a particular thing at a certain time and explains, demonstrates and supervises how to respond to or ask a horse to do something. You really know that you are doing things right when she lets you work alone with one of her horses.

We have often observed Pip to be selective in not only the horses she takes on, but also in the people she teaches or owners she works with. If she feels she has nothing to offer or the owner is not prepared to put in the time and effort, she may well decide not to take the task on. She will not work with students who are not receptive to her methods or who do not treat the horses appropriately.

Three and a half years on, I would love to continue to improve my free schooling techniques but do not have the opportunity to do so. My daughter has fully regained and improved on her confidence levels. She rides well, and in the calm manner of Pip. I never see her get angry with a horse even though I know she has been very frustrated at times. Many people comment on her relaxed riding style and good balanced seat. She is always telling me why the horse is reacting in a certain way to a stimulus or event and then takes the time to tell me how we should react, usually by saying “Pip says….”

Thanks for all your time and effort, Pip.

Sue Noble. September 2006