Ride, Learn, Innovate: Exploring the Future of Coaching at The Dutch Masters

What can technology add to the conversation between horse, rider and coach?

That’s one of the things I’m looking forward to thinking about at The Dutch Masters in ’s-Hertogenbosch.

I love watching international sport, and the FEI Dressage World Cup™ Freestyle is already reason enough to be excited. I’m drawn to the artistry, the choreography, the musical interpretation and the individuality of each partnership.

This year there is another conversation happening alongside the sport.

Equestic is hosting a Future of Coaching forum, looking at how coaches and riders can use data alongside what they see and feel.

I’m curious about that.

Equestic is hosting a  coaching forum at the show, bringing together leading voices from dressage and show jumping to explore how insight, data and experience can integrate within modern training. It’s a conversation that will resonate with riders and coaches who are thinking carefully about how they prepare and develop their partnerships.

At Equestrian Heroes, I talk about riding with feel and awareness, recognising how you and your horse communicate and develop together over time. I’m interested in how Equestic’s SaddleClip and app can add a further layer of insight to that evolving partnership.

What can the data tell us?

Equestic’s SaddleClip records information from a training session, including symmetry, time spent on each rein and workload.

Take something as simple as time spent on each rein.

If the data showed that you had ridden considerably more on one rein than the other, what would you want to know next?

Was that what you intended to do? Were you working on a particular exercise? Did your horse feel different on one rein?

The data gives you information. The questions you ask about it give it context.

A coach can bring together what they saw, what the rider felt, how the horse responded and what the data recorded.

That conversation interests me much more than the numbers on their own.

Looking forward to The Dutch Masters

I’m looking forward to hearing how other coaches are thinking about these questions, seeing the technology in action and adding those conversations to my own thinking.

There will also be some exceptional horses and riders to watch.

And I’m definitely looking forward to the freestyle.