Eric Smiley: Communicating with Horses & Riders

In this episode of “In Stride,” Sinead is joined by Olympic event rider Eric Smiley.

Eric Smiley represented Ireland at two European Eventing Championships, winning team bronze at both, competed at three World Equestrian Games, and has been on four Olympic teams. Eric is also a British Eventing Master Coach, a Fellow of the British Horse Society, and a coach for the 2012 Belgium Olympic Eventing Team. In addition to being a competitor and coach, Eric was formerly an FEI official and on the ground jury at both Burghley and Badminton Horse Trials. He was also the Director of the Golden Saddle Scheme for 18 years, where he helped identify talented children in all equestrian disciplines and was Chairman of Eventing Ireland for a total of 5 years. Eric competed in his last Badminton at 59 years old and now focuses on educating the next generation of riders.

In this episode, Eric discusses various topics related to training and bringing horses up the levels, including:

• Making riding instruction and horse knowledge more accessible.
• The difference between young horse training and re-training horses with a previous career.
• The importance of keeping the training consistent and simple.
• The physical and mental maturity of horses at a certain age and how that is reflected in young horse championships.
• Training horses to be good decision-makers and not dependent on the rider in cross-country or show jumping.

Join Eric and Sinead in this exciting conversation on training horses with simplicity and clarity.