Neptune is a beautiful Arab gelding that Pip recently adopted from Fearne Animal Sanctuary. After a very sad start in life, being kept in a stable and starved for 3 years, he has been rehabilitated for a year at Fearne and has now landed firmly on his hooves in finding a home with Pip. For the first two weeks Pip left him to settle in with the herd in their 12 acre field and over that time his curiosity has been piqued as to what happens outside of his field. Only when he had clearly expressed his interest at coming with us, over several days, did Pip approach him to pop his headcollar on. Unfortunately just at that moment my greyhound Luke decided to be the lure in a game of ‘chase me, chas
Having allowed my weight to creep up over the last few months, I found myself in a position where I couldn’t ride. All horses have a maximum riding weight (this includes the rider, plus the weight of their riding garb and tack) and although some people think that the bigger the horse the more weight it can take, the truth is that smaller stockier breeds can take far more weight than a thoroughbred. Whilst I’ve been out of the saddle I’ve instead been enjoying my time at Pippsway in different ways. Recently a new horse called Henry came to Pip for backing. He has had the luxury of a lovely life, since being rescued by his owners, and thankfully was largely unspoiled, with the exception of the
Today I had the privilege of watching a new horse being introduced to the herd. It’s always a pleasure to see, but this was even more poignant than usual as this little horse is a rescue. Pip had mentioned to me some time ago that if she could have her choice of any horse, she would choose an Arab. I was surprised as I thought she would have wanted a Lusitano Stallion. She explained that she already had her two girls, two mares that she bred herself from her Spanish mare Zarca and her Lusitano Stallion Pifado and that she would like an Arab as they are really good for endurance, her preferred discipline. Many months have passed since we had that conversation. Then a series of events unfolded
I was at the yard today when one of Pip’s newer clients came over to ask if Pip could please give her some advice. It turned out that things were going awry for her and her horse in the space (of about 15 feet) between the electric fence and the field gate. Pip immediately sussed that the issue would likely be how they were passing through the gates. Now, I have history with gates! For some reason I found the procedure of going through gateways, whilst at all times being in a position of leadership and at no time being maneuvered by my horse, rather the challenge! No sooner would I have mastered it at one gate, then I would need to go through a gate that required a different approach, for wh
Desensitising horses is a very popular approach these days and on the face of it I can see why people think it is a good idea. However, when I discussed it with Pip when I first came to Pippsway, she didn’t agree. Her argument is that you cannot possibly desensitise a horse to every likely eventuality and what are you going to do then? Also it can serve to ‘shut the horse down’ and Pip likes her horses to be very much alert and present to everything that is happening. So instead of desensitising her horses, she focuses on building two way communication and a trusting relationship. I’ve been working on my relationship with my horse for over a year now and we’ve come such a long way. So when I
