‘It’s not about winning, it’s about these wonderful horses’: Olympic medallist on her journey with her ‘best friends’

“We do this because we absolutely love horses and respect them as animals, and we want to work together in harmony as friends. And I’ve got a huge amount to learn, but I do my utmost to do right by the horses.”

Eventing legend Pippa Funnell spoke of her journey in equestrianism, and her joy in that journey, and her philosophy of treating her horses as friends, at the 2025 World Horse Welfare conference on 21 November.

The theme of the event was “Through the horse’s eyes”, and Pippa, a patron of World Horse Welfare, said she decided quickly to accept the invitation to speak.

“I feel throughout my career, I have tried my absolute utmost to see things through the horse’s eyes,” she said. “They suffer nerves like we do. They need their hands holding with sympathetic riding and sympathetic handling.”

Pippa said her journey started as a pony-mad youngster who loved horses – and dogs – dearly. Her godfather Raymond Brooks-Ward gave her her first pony, Pepsi, a “little scruffy black pony” who lived out all year.

“I used to dream in those days that one day I would have a clipped-out horse, as I used to get my welly boots stuck in the mud, and would be scraping inches of mud off him before I rode him all through the winter,” she said.

Pippa’s second pony was Flighty from her mother Jenny Nolan’s great friend Ruth McMullen, who became Pippa’s long-term mentor.

Getting into horses’ minds

“Flighty was a four-year-old, so right from a young age, I had to learn how to get into the pony’s mind,” she said. “He tried at any opportunity to buck me off; I had to learn stickability, and I realised he was far less likely to buck when I rode him forward. That’s advice we give our riders now on young, fresh horses that come out a bit jolly each day, especially through the winter.”

After Flighty came Jeremy Fisher, whose conformation was not the greatest. Pippa said this meant she was most likely to succeed in “best rider” classes, so learned to ride as well as possible – and she found that when she rode better, the ponies went better.

Then came Sir Barnaby, bought as a fun horse, a Pony Club horse.

“Never, in my wildest dreams, would I imagine that Barnaby would have taken me through Pony Club right up to my first Badminton, my first Burghley, and winning at Gatcombe in the British open championships,” she said.

“Barnaby taught me that it’s important to have mutual respect. In the early days, he had no respect for me. I was very intimidated by his size, and he tried to take advantage of me at every opportunity. Every time he saw anything out hacking, he would spin around, and I realised that if I kept him straight, I’d be able to stop him from spinning. I had to do this because at some stage, he was going to hurt himself and he was going to hurt me.

“I had to learn that. So throughout my childhood, I really think I learned so much from all the youngsters I had, and those valuable lessons, I believe, have helped me throughout my career.”

Pippa spent eight years with Ruth, and watched her ability to get the best out of any horse.

“It was this time at Ruth’s that brings me to my first quote,” she said. “I use quotes with a lot of the young riders I help and mentor: ‘Work on your horse and your horse will get better. Work on yourself and all your horses will get better’.

“How true I found this over the years; any issues I have with horses, I first think ‘What am I doing wrong? How can I improve myself to help the horse?’ Another thing Ruth always used to say is that 90% of a horse’s problems are caused by the rider, riders using conflicting aids.”

Pippa cited riders who say a horse is strong, but they are driving with the seat and holding in with the hands, confusing the horse. She also stressed the importance of balance and an independent seat, as if the rider is unbalanced by a spook, and catches the horse in the mouth, that creates a bad experience for the horse.

“So actually, horses don’t just associate that monster or plastic bag with fear,” she said. “They associate that with a reaction from riders losing their balance. If you lose your balance backwards, be quick to follow with the hand.”

Taking time

Pippa also stressed that taking time is key, to perfect the basics and not rush a horse before he is ready. “Trust takes years to build, seconds to break and for ever to repair,” she said, citing one occasion when she lost patience with Jeremy Fisher and “set him back weeks”.

“I went to bed that night, I would have been 12 years old, and I never slept because I felt so bad about it,” she said. “I thought my pony does not understand the words ‘I’m sorry’. So I really did [take that on board] and I’ve stuck by it ever since.”

“If you want a good friend, you need to be a good friend,” she added. “Trust to me is built up by confidence, mutual respect, empathy and for me, above all, friendship.”

Pippa paid tribute to her great horses, including Bits And Pieces, Supreme Rock and Primmores Pride, with whom she won medals, five-stars and the Rolex Grand Slam of eventing.

“But it wasn’t about the winning,” she said. “It was more about working with these wonderful, wonderful animals.”

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