Sarah Bunney

Sarah Bunney

Country of Residence: United Kingdom
Discipline: Horse boarder and pleasure rider
IG:  @the.knightmares
FB:  @the.knightmares.team
TT:  @the.knightmares

Sarah is a leisure rider and part of Horseboarding team 'The Knightmares', together with her 22-year-old horse Tinks.
Online she shares tips and experiences from life with a senior exracehorse, tales from the events circuit and advocates for bitless riding.
She also works with young rescue pony Bear, who is currently in training as a driving horse.

What keeps you motivated?
In any equestrian sport, you have to love the animal first and the sport second. This isn’t a hobby you can just drop on a busy week, or if you’re not feeling like it – it’s a lifestyle and a real commitment (both financially and in terms of time) and if you don’t absolutely love it then you won’t get through all the dark, muddy and disappointing days. Being with the horses is my relaxation, mindful and exercise time and I couldn’t imagine my life without them.

What advice would you give to other riders?
Be open to new perspectives and don’t be too enveloped by the ideas behind them. It’s so easy to just follow one path or one ideology – it might be the ‘official’ way of doing things (e.g. national exams), or the latest culture trend (e.g. bitless and barefoot) – but there is never one path that is 100% correct, and never one solution that works for every horse.
Horses are individuals and need to be respected as such, but they are also still a horse – we are often guilty of under- and over-humanising them. At the extreme ends, not respecting them enough often leads to pain, resistance and problems being ignored; while humanising them too much leads to problems arising needlessly because of improper handling and over anthropomorphising the animal.
The biggest benefits I’ve had as a rider have come from learning about a way of approaching things, taking what works and leaving the rest. It lets you be selective, adaptable, and truly understand how these approaches work.

Whats your favourite Zilco product?
I own an S-Hackamore. I have talked about it a fair bit on my page in posts and videos, and it always gets a lot of interest - including someone who went out and bought one for themselves! I spent a long time trialling and researching hackamores, and this was by far my favourite for the range of sensitivity and variety of pressure points it gives. Despite previous bad experiences with synthetic straps, I've had this now for 2 years and it's remained supple and good as new, and really easy to clean.