About Me
My name is Suzanne Dipple, I am a 33 year old based in Stapleford Abbotts, Essex. I am a Dressage Rider, a UKCCC Level 2 Qualified Coach and an Approved All Steps Formation coach.
I have my own base at home in Essex where I keep my small string of 3 Iberian horses which I compete in British Dressage. I often also have training liveries which I school and compete as well. My string consists of the following 3 horses:
Guapero - 11 year old, grey, PRE (purebred Spanish Horse), Gelding - currently competing at BD PSG.
Licor - 10 year old, bay, PSL (Purebred Lusitano), Gelding - currently competing at BD PSG.
Sanson - 8 year old, black, PRE, Gelding - currently competing at BD Adv Med.
I started out riding at 3 years old, I come from a totally non horsey background but always got very excited as a toddler whenever I saw a horse so my parents took me to the local riding school for my first ride and they say from that moment on all I wanted to do was be around horses. The local riding school did not have an arena and so only offered hacking, so I started my riding life just enjoying being on the back of a horse and hacking out in the forests for around 9 years. In this time, I had my own ponies, I went through around 1 per year as I kept growing so quickly (I am now as an adult 6ft tall so was a rapidly growing child). One of which was a feral unbacked new forest pony that pretty quickly taught me how to sit a buck because when I came off her it was a very long walk back through the forest to the stables!
In time I moved onto a livery yard which had not one but two arenas!! Having never had an arena I didn’t have a clue about what to do in one, I had never been taught basics such as what diagonals were, canter leads, an outline, never mind anything more technical. I had always had a very natural seat but had never had any actual lessons on how to ride, I am actually very grateful for this now as all I knew how to do was to ride by feel and this is something I really value in my riding now. Another thing that I just naturally seemed to have was a complete lack of fear on the back of a horse, no matter how many times I fell off, the first thing I wanted to do much to my parents dismay was get straight back on and that has stayed with me into my adult years. At this livery yard I found a love of jumping, having only ever popped over logs out hacking, I started doing some show jumping with the other kids at the yard and was hooked.
So through my early teenage years I competed at mainly unaffiliated SJ shows with a little bit of BS thrown in there on my 14.2hh Connie, I had no clue what I was doing but luckily my pony at the time was super honest when I missed him so we had a lot of fun.
Then at 13 years old, at around 5ft9, I had outgrown my 14.2hh Connie so my non horsey Dad and I went out horse shopping. My lovely Dad not having a clue but just wanting me to have the horse that I liked, let me pick a 3 year old lightly backed 16.3hh ISH as my first horse! Unsurprisingly the people on the livery yard didn’t think this was the wisest choice but we went ahead anyway and brought him home. This horse, Rio, was the first horse that I produced myself and he taught me some real lessons. I had him for 7 years, we did a bit of everything together and he was who I found my love of eventing on. I sold him on to a hunting home as he was never the boldest horse x country and I had caught the eventing bug and had big dreams of climbing up the levels which I knew Rio would not be mentally up for.
Whilst I was at Uni studying Bio veterinary Science, I bought a beautiful 5 year old Warmblood called Campbell, he had very nice show jumping lines but wasn’t the most careful so I bought him to event. We had 8 fantastic years together eventing, we got to Novice level BE and then unfortunately one day we had a rotational at a big intermediate XC table style fence and I injured my neck, luckily thanks to my air jacket I just had bad ligament damage but it scared the living daylights out of me and I have never been XC since that day. I still own Bam, he is 18 years old and on full loan being a pampered pony with my lovely Auntie.
After our accident, I had around a year out of the saddle other than the odd hack here and there. It was the first time in my life that I hadn’t ridden every day but knowing I would never event again and also being a very competitive rider for a number of years at the point, I didn’t want to ride without the goals and the aims I had always been working towards.
So knowing eventing was no longer going to be my sport, I decided to import a couple of Spanish horses from Spain to produce and sell on. I had always loved Iberian horses, having been on riding holidays in Spain with my Auntie since my early teens, from the very first moment I sat on a Spanish horse I felt completely at home. I had never bought one previously because of the eventing.
At this point in time, having set up a yard at home, I decided to take redundancy from my full time corporate job and start working full time with the horses. The Spanish horse proved very popular horses to sell in the UK and over a couple of years I sold a number of horses to some fantastic homes and still have regular contact with them all now. Two of my current horses are ones that I decided not to sell and to keep for myself as they were particularly special and I really loved riding both of them.
Whilst importing and producing the Spanish horses I absolutely fell in love with training in a more classical way and also started to compete in British Dressage.
In the last 3 years I have gone from Prelim to PSG. This is mainly due to the fact that I found the most incredible trainer, Paulo Santos, who is an absolute master of a horseman and I have learnt so much so quickly through training with him.
I am a huge believer in if you work hard for your dreams you can achieve them. I also believe having a good relationship with your horses will give them the desire to want to perform well for you. They are my best friends first and my teammates second.
I currently ride and train mine and others horses during the week and teach Dressage or All Steps Formation clinics on the weekends when I am not competing.
I love teaching people to build a better bond of trust with their horses, helping people with gaining confidence in scary situations, teaching people how to read their horses body language and how the horses react to our body language as well as all of the technical side of riding the movements for dressage and All Steps Formation. I am a very passionate coach and love to help my riders set goals that they can work towards achieving, whether that be goals for competing, training or in other areas at home.
Love the horse first and the sport second.
Thanks
Suzanne x
I have my own base at home in Essex where I keep my small string of 3 Iberian horses which I compete in British Dressage. I often also have training liveries which I school and compete as well. My string consists of the following 3 horses:
Guapero - 11 year old, grey, PRE (purebred Spanish Horse), Gelding - currently competing at BD PSG.
Licor - 10 year old, bay, PSL (Purebred Lusitano), Gelding - currently competing at BD PSG.
Sanson - 8 year old, black, PRE, Gelding - currently competing at BD Adv Med.
I started out riding at 3 years old, I come from a totally non horsey background but always got very excited as a toddler whenever I saw a horse so my parents took me to the local riding school for my first ride and they say from that moment on all I wanted to do was be around horses. The local riding school did not have an arena and so only offered hacking, so I started my riding life just enjoying being on the back of a horse and hacking out in the forests for around 9 years. In this time, I had my own ponies, I went through around 1 per year as I kept growing so quickly (I am now as an adult 6ft tall so was a rapidly growing child). One of which was a feral unbacked new forest pony that pretty quickly taught me how to sit a buck because when I came off her it was a very long walk back through the forest to the stables!
In time I moved onto a livery yard which had not one but two arenas!! Having never had an arena I didn’t have a clue about what to do in one, I had never been taught basics such as what diagonals were, canter leads, an outline, never mind anything more technical. I had always had a very natural seat but had never had any actual lessons on how to ride, I am actually very grateful for this now as all I knew how to do was to ride by feel and this is something I really value in my riding now. Another thing that I just naturally seemed to have was a complete lack of fear on the back of a horse, no matter how many times I fell off, the first thing I wanted to do much to my parents dismay was get straight back on and that has stayed with me into my adult years. At this livery yard I found a love of jumping, having only ever popped over logs out hacking, I started doing some show jumping with the other kids at the yard and was hooked.
So through my early teenage years I competed at mainly unaffiliated SJ shows with a little bit of BS thrown in there on my 14.2hh Connie, I had no clue what I was doing but luckily my pony at the time was super honest when I missed him so we had a lot of fun.
Then at 13 years old, at around 5ft9, I had outgrown my 14.2hh Connie so my non horsey Dad and I went out horse shopping. My lovely Dad not having a clue but just wanting me to have the horse that I liked, let me pick a 3 year old lightly backed 16.3hh ISH as my first horse! Unsurprisingly the people on the livery yard didn’t think this was the wisest choice but we went ahead anyway and brought him home. This horse, Rio, was the first horse that I produced myself and he taught me some real lessons. I had him for 7 years, we did a bit of everything together and he was who I found my love of eventing on. I sold him on to a hunting home as he was never the boldest horse x country and I had caught the eventing bug and had big dreams of climbing up the levels which I knew Rio would not be mentally up for.
Whilst I was at Uni studying Bio veterinary Science, I bought a beautiful 5 year old Warmblood called Campbell, he had very nice show jumping lines but wasn’t the most careful so I bought him to event. We had 8 fantastic years together eventing, we got to Novice level BE and then unfortunately one day we had a rotational at a big intermediate XC table style fence and I injured my neck, luckily thanks to my air jacket I just had bad ligament damage but it scared the living daylights out of me and I have never been XC since that day. I still own Bam, he is 18 years old and on full loan being a pampered pony with my lovely Auntie.
After our accident, I had around a year out of the saddle other than the odd hack here and there. It was the first time in my life that I hadn’t ridden every day but knowing I would never event again and also being a very competitive rider for a number of years at the point, I didn’t want to ride without the goals and the aims I had always been working towards.
So knowing eventing was no longer going to be my sport, I decided to import a couple of Spanish horses from Spain to produce and sell on. I had always loved Iberian horses, having been on riding holidays in Spain with my Auntie since my early teens, from the very first moment I sat on a Spanish horse I felt completely at home. I had never bought one previously because of the eventing.
At this point in time, having set up a yard at home, I decided to take redundancy from my full time corporate job and start working full time with the horses. The Spanish horse proved very popular horses to sell in the UK and over a couple of years I sold a number of horses to some fantastic homes and still have regular contact with them all now. Two of my current horses are ones that I decided not to sell and to keep for myself as they were particularly special and I really loved riding both of them.
Whilst importing and producing the Spanish horses I absolutely fell in love with training in a more classical way and also started to compete in British Dressage.
In the last 3 years I have gone from Prelim to PSG. This is mainly due to the fact that I found the most incredible trainer, Paulo Santos, who is an absolute master of a horseman and I have learnt so much so quickly through training with him.
I am a huge believer in if you work hard for your dreams you can achieve them. I also believe having a good relationship with your horses will give them the desire to want to perform well for you. They are my best friends first and my teammates second.
I currently ride and train mine and others horses during the week and teach Dressage or All Steps Formation clinics on the weekends when I am not competing.
I love teaching people to build a better bond of trust with their horses, helping people with gaining confidence in scary situations, teaching people how to read their horses body language and how the horses react to our body language as well as all of the technical side of riding the movements for dressage and All Steps Formation. I am a very passionate coach and love to help my riders set goals that they can work towards achieving, whether that be goals for competing, training or in other areas at home.
Love the horse first and the sport second.
Thanks
Suzanne x