The Curious Coach

Welcome to the first of my blog posts and I've called this being a curious coach because that's exactly what I am.

I have been lucky enough to compete in my sport at international level and through my experiences in competition I became a coach,  now I coach riders from all disciplines and have a huge curiosity about how it is in other equestrian worlds.  So, this is going to be the focus of my blogs. I am excited because I have some fabulous people that I'm going to be talking to and bring to your attention from all sporting communities.

I passionately believe that we can learn so much from the others around us and sometimes we are so involved with what we're doing we can't (as they say) “see the wood for the trees”.

In my research for my masters degree I studied communities, how we behave in the different communities we are in, and the effect they have on us.  We are not just in one community we are in many we may be a mother, wife, coach, and equestrian and all these life experiences surround us with different people.  We learn from each other and grow with each other.

But what really fascinated me was what we could learn from those who are not in our immediate group.   So I have reached out of the boundaries of the dressage world and have engaged with people living a completely different equestrian and sporting life to me.  What followed was some enriching and enlightening conversations and that is what inspired me to want to write these blogs.

I will be telling you about a Community of Practice that I facilitated over the COVID pandemic and how people got together and organised their own coach development as they were all stuck at home like everybody else riding out the storm. 

I have learned how athletes and coaches in different sports such as wheelchair rugby, NZ hockey, Para-dressage and Endurance riders work together in teams to be their best selves. I chat with volunteers who are passionate about supporting the young of today and introduce an inspiring Pony club commissioner with over 5o years of experience.   All these amazing people are dedicated to their sport and supporting others.

I am excited to introduce these talented dedicated people and look forward to inviting you to join me in these conversations for change.