Module 7 of 10 · 45 min
Adapting Your Coaching
The plan is a guide, not a script. Branching scenarios covering nerves, tension, fatigue, confusion and the unexpected.
By the end of this module you will understand how to
- — Recognise the signals that a session needs to change
- — Choose proportionate adaptations for rider and horse issues
- — Change the objective when it is no longer appropriate, without wasting the session
A plan is a guide, not a script
The plan tells you what you intended. The horse and rider tell you what is possible. When they disagree, the plan changes.
Adapting is not failure or poor planning. A coach who delivers the plan regardless of what is happening in front of them is not coaching — they are reading out a document.
- Signals that indicate you need to adaptRepeated failure, rising tension, falling confidence, loss of rhythm, fatigue, boredom, or a change in the environment.
- Ways to adaptMake the task simpler, slower, larger, shorter, or more supported. Change the gait, the figure, the height, the number of elements, or the objective itself.
- Always aim to end the lesson with something positiveWhere you safely can, finish on a version the pair can do well, so the rider leaves with something achieved. If safety or horse welfare means the work must stop, stop — never keep going simply to manufacture a good ending.
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