Dr Shelley Appleton
Training
When it comes to the ability to understand and work well with horses, my background places me in a unique position in the equestrian world. My education in science, learning and human performance has allowed me to appreciate all the realms and dimension of understanding and working with horses. While so much of the equestrian world is full of experts that have their way and method of understanding and working with horses that tend to be narrow and restricted to their own beliefs or disciplines.
This can make many experts critical and dismissive of other professionals or disciplines. This is not me, and I hope to bring to the equestrian world a voice that bridges the divide between the disciplines and beliefs. My background in research has allowed me to appreciate ALL sources of knowledge, insights or ideas. I take on board the knowledge of famous horseman and women, world champions, those with PhD’s in horse behaviour, fellow trainers, equine industry experts from veterinarians to farriers, from diverse disciplines from classical dressage to team roping, from neuroscience, psychology to biomechanics. Therefore, all the various ways of looking at horses and how to work with them. By doing this I have been able to identify how the insights connect and where it overlaps. I have a vast tool box of techniques and methods for working with horses. Then I use my knowledge of human learning and performance to build horse training talent in people.
I promote people to understand horses and appreciate the impact of how we interact with them. What started years ago as an interest in developing my own training skills. Working with my own horses and then any horse I could lay my hands on, turned into helping my friends, then their friends until all my spare time was consumed by coaching and giving clinics. I now coach full time and it is very satisfying to empower people with the knowledge and skills that give them their joy and purpose back into horse riding.
Visit Dr Shelley Appleton at the following sessions
Details
Saturday November 12th
5:15 pm to 6:00 pm
EQUITANA Classroom (Royal Block)
Teaching people how to train horses
I have a passion for training horses but I also have a great fascination with people and how they learn. Therefore, there is nothing I enjoy more than TEACHING people how to TRAIN horses. This presentation will discuss this process. There is very little out there that identifies the significance of the human learning process on horses. It is an important issue to discuss because the equine industry is very much focused on the horse and its issues. However, the behaviour of any horse is always determined by the horsemanship skills of the person sitting in the saddle or holding onto the lead rope. Therefore, the quality of a person’s learning will ultimately impact their skill development.
Details
Sunday November 13th
11:00 am to 11:45 am
EQUITANA Classroom (Royal Block)
Strategies for building talent in Equestrian Sports
Talent is something you LEARN and something you DEVELOP. Talent is a function of effort and the quality of HOW you practice and develop the mental and physical skills you need to do a particular activity whether that be singing, swimming, mathematics, playing the piano or riding a horse. This presentation will discuss strategies of how anyone can improve their ability, skills and performance with horses because they can. All anyone needs is a desire to do so and an effective way to go about it.
