Episode 71: Becky Chapman - Part 3: Teaching Tools

This is Part Three of our conversation with Becky Chapman. Becky is a classical dressage riding instructor and biomechanics coach. She is also a clicker trainer. Becky has been sharing the journey which brought her to clicker training. Last week you heard the story of Gazelle, a mare who introduced herself to Becky by rearing up and falling over sideways. Becky still bought her and tried to turn her into a riding horse. She had two major falls from her that resulted in serious injuries that required long recovery times. In an odd way these injuries turned out to be a good thing. The long recovery gave Becky time to study subjects that were outside the normal British Horse Society teaching curriculum that had been her original formation. After she recovered from the second fall, she began riding with Mary Wanless. Becky described Mary as a very experienced biomechanics coach who approaches horse instructing with a physicist’s brain. Becky’s interpretation of Mary’s work is that most riders are part of the problem. So the question is how do we help riders to become part of the solution? That’s the question we’ll be exploring as we rejoin the conversation.