THE subject of licensing coaches in equestrian sport took centre stage during a lively panel discussion at last Thursday’s RDS Coaching for the Future Symposium held at St Mary’s Church on the grounds of the Ballsbridge venue.

Horseman, author and inventor William Micklem was master of ceremonies for the full day of presentations and panel discussions on the topic and was joined by leaders in the sector from around the world.

The first panel was titled ‘Contemporary coaching for the future’ and Micklem was joined by Tim Downes, Fellow of the British Horse Society (BHS), Dr Camie Heleski, a lecturer and advisor at the University of Kentucky, Pat Crann, international show jumper and BEF Level 4 coach, veterinarian Meta Osborne, senior steward of the Irish Turf Club and horse breeder, and Lisa Ashton, equitation science consultant.

Asked by Micklem if they believed coaches should be licensed, all five panellists were in similar agreement.

Uneducated

Tim Downes commented: “Typically, I absolutely think coaches should be licensed, but I see no point in licensing uneducated coaches.

"My concern is mostly at the lower levels where we have far too many coaches that can’t see the breaking point between learning to ride a horse and learning to train a horse.

“We have far too many coaches out there who are trying to educate riders, who are not good riders, to educate the horse. They can’t read the behaviours of the horse; when the horse says I can’t do that for you because you are restricting me, you’re causing me to be off balance. I don’t trust you.”

Downes continued: “The classic example I use all the time is when we see children on ponies; they’re out of balance, restrictive, dependent on the reins for their security… they are riding down to a fence and the pony says ‘I can’t be doing that, you’re not letting me use my body, therefore I am not jumping it’. The coach says ‘now you have to smack it. Now you have to train the horse to do as it’s told’. If we could get that bit of training right, horses would immediately start to get a better deal.”

Pat Crann said: “I tend to agree with Tim. I think you’ve got to be very careful how you apply the licensing. And I think the current qualifications need a little bit more of a look at. There’s a lot of, putting it very basically, ‘how to fix the horse and how to get the end result of the horse’ without going right back to the basics of understanding how to actually ride and remain in balance and actually educate the riders. I think the coaching side of it is gone a little bit to end result.”

Lisa Ashton, who featured multiple times throughout the course of the day with presentations on how to improve the lived experience of the horse, added: “I think it’s excellent that you’re talking about the role of the horse in coaching. I think that can be front and centre for the FEI in a rider and coach license. Today is all about updating knowledge and we should be auditing the knowledge and seeing how we actually demonstrate application.

“What I’m interested in is the application for the lived experience of the horse. What is the role of the horse in that training session, for the coach to take both the rider and the horse on that journey. I would love to see, if it’s through a license, that the emphasis is put on the lived experience of that horse having the most positive experiences because of evidence-based knowledge that the coach is actually upskilled in.”

US model

Asked about the direction of travel in the USA on licensing coaches, Dr Camie Heleski said: “I would say we’re a few years further behind on the thinking on that and it depends a lot on which part of our industry.

“I think there’s also a question whether you incentivise coaches to do more professional development in education or do we say you must have this license, this documentation, and implement it across the board? I’m not positive the way you get the most value.”

Coming from the racing industry, Meta Osborne had a ‘lightbulb moment’ while listening to an earlier presentation. “In racing, the trainer is training the racehorse. We assume or hope that the riders are confident riders and it got me thinking that maybe there is a role within racing for coaches of riders because not every trainer has that skill around ability, and maybe that will help with the retention within racing of young riders.”

FEI licensing

From the floor, CEO of Horse Sport Ireland Denis Duggan said the direction of travel within the FEI is the introduction of licensing and additional training around coaching. “At this point, it’s not entirely clear what that means and what the criteria to become a licensed coach or licensed trainer will be. I do think the FEI are certainly looking to our brothers and sisters in the racing fraternity and looking at the lessons that are learned there and also the models.

“So there are certainly rules afoot at international level that will have a trickle-down impact into Horse Sport Ireland as the national federation. The expectation of the FEI is that all national federations will follow suit, of course,” Duggan said.