The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching
The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching is a space for curious, evidence-informed conversations that sit at the intersection of learning, movement, skill acquisition, ethics, and philosophy — with a particular love for adventure, lifestyle, and equestrian sports.
Hosted by Marianne Davies, the show explores what it means to become skilful in environments that are complex, fluid, and never fully controllable — where risk can be managed, but not eliminated.
Each episode brings research and real-world practice into dialogue through spontaneous, thoughtful discussions with practitioners and researchers. Expect deep dives into ecological and systems perspectives, coaching practice, decision-making under pressure, and the socio-cultural realities that shape how we train, compete, and care — for ourselves, for others, and (in equestrian contexts) for the horse as a partner in the learning environment.
The River Tiger Podcast from Dynamics Coaching
Exploring how and why we need to become 'learning environment designers' for our horses, with Kathy Sierra.
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode I am joined by the brilliant Kathy Sierra. I came across Kathy's work near the beginning of my PhD due to her work with a fellow PhD candidate (studying skill acquisition in American Football) in Keith Davids Lab.
Kathy has been exploring using a constraints-led and differential learning approach underpinned by ecological dynamics theory for many years. This is a conversation I have been looking forward to for a long time, I know it's long but it is full of absolute gold so I couldn't edit it down.
I hope you find this episode as fascinating as I did. I know some of you will find it challenging in places because much of what is traditional wisdom in sports (including equestrianism) does not hold up under the lens of contemporary science of movement, skill acquisition, or pain science.
Kathy's area of interest is in the rehabilitation and skill adaptation of horses. She has an incredible amount of knowledge, skills, and experience in designing movement activities and learning environments/contexts that support horses to re-access their movement toolboxes. Using an ecological approach Kathy found that the horses she worked with would quickly blow past rehab and into high performance with surprising ease and motivation.
In this episode we explore a number of themes, including -
- How we can apply knowledge from neuroscience, pain science, and skill acquisition science research to working with our horses.
- Why a constraints-led approach to skill acquisition may be important for horse sports moving forward, particularly the role of self-determined motivation.
- Supporting horses to have autonomy and ownership of their movement.
- Why people and horses need to expand not reduce their movement toolboxes.
Links:
Kathy's website and information about her pain science courses and free resources.
The spider robot that learnt to limp.
Self-determination theory. How do we create optimal learning environments?
Learning the ugly zone.