When my daughter was younger and learning to tie her shoelaces, it wasn’t me who turned out to be the best teacher—it was my 13-year-old niece. Cognitive scientist Sian Beilock describes this phenomenon as “expert induced amnesia.” 

Because I learned to tie shoelaces so long ago, the skill had become fully automated. I could do it effortlessly, but I struggled to explain how I was doing it. My niece, having learned the skill more recently, still remembered the explicit steps, which made her far better at talking my daughter through the process. 

This same phenomenon shows up every day in equestrian sport. Riders and coaches with years of experience often perform skills so automatically that they struggle to verbalise how they do what they do. Understanding expert induced amnesia is essential for effective equestrian coaching, rider development, and improving performance under pressure. 

Below, we’ll explore how expert induced amnesia applies to rider learning, motor skills, and equestrian coaching. 

Understanding expert induced amnesia is essential for effective equestrian coaching, rider development, and improving performance under pressure. 

1. Novice Riders Benefit From Explicit Instruction — Experienced Riders Often Don’t 

In the early stages of motor learning, riders benefit from explicit instruction and conscious focus on technique. This helps them build a clear understanding of the skill and makes coaching feedback more effective. 

However, once a skill has been practiced enough to become automatic, too much conscious thinking can actually disrupt performance. This is often referred to as: “paralysis by analysis” or “choke”  

This is often referred to as: “paralysis by analysis” or “choke” 

2. In Competition, Automatic Skills Perform Best 

In competition, riders perform best when their skills remain automatic and fluid. This is why it’s important to reduce internal dialogue and avoid overloading yourself with verbal instructions. 

As sport psychologist Bob Rotella famously said: 

“Train it, then trust it.” 

Keeping cue words simple (“soft hands,” “rhythm,” “ride forward”) can help the brain perform best under pressure. 

3. Refining Automated Skills Can Feel Hard

I have, on occasion, come across riders who are well established at the level they are riding at. However, they are at times reluctant to make the changes to their technique that can assist the horse in developing the balance and posture required to move to a higher level. This is because refining skill is hard! Automated skill can feel fluent and effortless. However, if an automated skill contains a flaw, fixing it often means bringing back into conscious control to make the correction and this can feel like hard work, much easier and more enjoyable to keep doing what you’re doing. I remember once Mary Wanless saying to me ‘Charlotte, the tricky thing about coaching is people often come to you expecting that you’re going teach them to do what they are already doing but better, but the reality is often you will need to teach them something that feels strange and different and that can be a really hard sell!’. As always, she was absolutely right, thankfully we have the feedback for the horse to help us pled our case! 

4. High-Level Riders Don’t Always Make the Best Coaches 

 We often assume that the higher level the rider the better they will be as a coach, almost as if competing at Badminton means they have an innate ability to pass on their talent! However, this is not always the case, in fact if the skill gap between rider and coach is too large sometimes import elements of a skill get missed, if it has been so long automated by the coach, they don’t register it as a factor! Of course there are some fantastic riders who are also brilliant coaches (Carl Hester comes to mind!). However, sometimes if a rider has established skill a long time ago or has a degree of natural ability it can be difficult for them to remember the process, often leading to frustration from both the coach and the rider.