'If the horse (or child) can't say no, saying yes is meaningless.' Exploring agency with Mia Palles-Clark and Stuart Armstrong.

Welcome to the third episode of the River Tiger Podcast. In this conversation I am co-hosting with Stuart Armstrong (The Talent Equation Podcast) and welcoming our fabulous guest Mia Palles-Clark. Mia is a British showjumping BSCC Level 3 Coach, Coach Developer, British Army team coach, England Home Pony Chef d'Equipe and UKCC Coach of the Year 2017. For many of you, Stu needs no introduction, but if you have not checked out his podcast yet you are in for a treat. There is a link to Stu's podcast at the end.
In this episode we start to explore some of the implications of agency (or lack of) for horses and children within our sporting communities. Not surprisingly, this ended up as a long conversation and covered many fascinating areas and ideas. The focus was always on how we move forward and what all of us can do to help shape a great future for both equestrian and youth sports.
The themes we covered included:
- why agency is important
- aspects of our language and culture that shape our interactions and behaviours
- what can we do to change the landscape of our sporting and coaching eco-systems
- listening to our horses and children
- why agency is just as important in youth sports and how we can learn from other sports and disciplines
- why and how ecological dynamics and a constraints-led approach could have an impact on competence and also support agency
- a bit of a wish list of what we would love the future could look like.
Links to my guests/co-hosts
Mia Palles-Clarke can be found on Instagram @miapallesclark. She is a coach educator with British Showjumping and runs her own coaching business Mia Palles-Clark Showjumping (find her on FaceBook).
Stuart Armstrong is the host of the wonderful The Talent Equation Podcast which can be found on most podcast platforms. He is also active on Twitter @stu_arm.