Catherine Latham Equestrian Coaching

02/08/2024

When your horse extends through their AO joint [the articulation between the base of the skull and C1], their lower jaw retracts - you can feel this yourself if you point your nose to the sky, notice how your bottom jaw glides back.

When your horse flexes through their AO joint, their lower jaw protracts - you can feel this yourself if you press your chin to your chest, notice how your bottom jaw glides forwards.

When your horse flexes through their AO joint, their laryngeal diameter decreases - you can feel this by pressing your chin to your chest and taking a deep breath in, notice how much harder that is.

If your horse has tension in their jaw, they lose range of motion through their AO joint - you can feel this yourself if you clamp your jaw shut, notice how much harder it is to point your nose to the sky or point your chin to your chest - your neck feels tight and immobile.

And the same can be said if your horse has tension through their AO joint or neck, they will lose range of motion through their jaw.

-

Now do all of those movements again and notice how, when you drop your chin to your chest:

It's difficult to inflate your ribs to breathe,

It's hard to round your back,

Your hips tighten up.

This is because you've impinged your deep ventral line.

We do this to horses when we ride with a rein length/tension that doesn't accomodate and support their anatomy.

So if we compress their jaw and neck, we compromise their ability to:

Breathe

Lift their back to carry a rider

Activate their hindlimb.
..Gives us quite a lot to think about with how many horses are ridden and trained, doesn't it?

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Want to learn more?

The recording for Train Your Eye - How's Your Bit Affecting Your Horse? is now live on my website.

❤️✨️

28/07/2024

Fascinating watch!

22/05/2024

There’s always a reason for the behaviour.

Trust your own instincts - if your horse is telling you there’s something wrong, don’t listen to anyone else who tells you there isn’t. It’s still such a common issue in the horse world sadly.
Euthanised because “she was trying to kill people”. I bet she’d tried really, really hard not to until it became unbearable for her.

08/04/2024

29/03/2024

This is an excellent discussion of the difference between massage and The Masterson Method, Integrated Equine Performance Bodywork and is why I love Masterson work so much!

Recently, I’ve had quite a few people mention and/or inquire if The Masterson Method is “massage”. Though traditional equine massage is an excellent modality to help horses feel better, Masterson Method is not massage. As Jim Masterson refers to it as “Beyond Horse Massage”. And it is!

With traditional massage we manually manipulate the soft tissues with our hands (better tool than anything on the market) to release tension in the superficial and some deep muscles of the horse’s body. The horse can be munching on hay, not paying attention to the therapist but we can still continue to massage. Many horses just love it and some may be quite sensitive but the benefits are the same. During massage, the horse may constantly switch from the sympathetic (fight, flight, freeze) to the parasympathetic (rest and digest “healing state”). Either way, this doesn’t really affect the work being done. The horse will still benefit.

With the Masterson Method, the horse “MUST” participate for it to work! The practitioner’s goal is to take each joint of the body through a small range of motion . . . “in a relaxed state”. It may be only seconds but can be minutes that the horse goes into the parasympathetic state and we create range of motion in that quick span of time and the “magic” is that when we do so, with timing and feel, it triggers the central nervous system to release deep seated tension and restriction in key junctions of the body that most affect performance. The joints of the key junctions are embedded deep beneath layers of soft tissue. It is impossible to “massage” these key places. But we can reach it through the central nervous system. And to bring further clarification, The Masterson Method, though it may appear that way, is not stretching either. When we “stretch” a horse, the muscles are active. With The Masterson Method we create range of motion when the muscles are “relaxed”.

And this takes us back to, “Is The Masterson Method massage?” The simple answer is, no it is not. However, it can have the same affects as massage and goes even deeper . . . It goes “beyond massage”. This is why our title isn’t “Massage Therapist”, rather “Masterson Method Certified Practitioner”. The two certifications are completely different, as is the application.

Yes, I am certified in equine massage and do still use a portion of that very effective modality but I’m also a Masterson Method Certified Practitioner and can offer the horse both! If you’d like to learn more, below is a link to The Masterson Method Website. I hope this helps to clarify those asking.

https://mastersonmethod.com

20/03/2024

Hi all,
Firstly, apologies for the lack of any significant updates on this page recently!

I think a lot of you already know, but I suffered a pretty nasty injury just over a month ago 😢.

I had a fall off a little rescue horse who unexpectedly spooked and bucked, which resulted in a fractured vertebrae in my spine - to my huge initial shock.

As most of us horsey folks do, I tried to immediately get up and help the horse who had become more scared from the fall.

Thoughts of just vet taping myself up and getting on with things did cross my mind 🤣 until it became very obvious even to my stubborn self that this wasn’t going to happen this time😖

Even then, I really thought I was going to have a scan and be sent home with painkillers and lots of tutting about how dangerous horses were, not a long stay in hospital!

I’m doing ok, recovering slowly and thankfully there aren’t anticipated to be any long lasting effects. Still a scary time for sure, especially being self employed with the usual bills and mortgage to pay.

My lovely sister Louise set up a go fund me page which I know a lot of you have already contributed to and for this, I am eternally grateful - thank you, thank you, thank you 💕
It’s given me this first important month where I haven’t had to be concerned with anything else other than trying to get better as soon as I can ☺️.

I’m able to do a bit more each day (frustratingly nowhere near as much as I’d like to be doing!) and am mostly super grateful it wasn’t any more serious.

I’m desperately hoping (and needing!) to get back to some work soon and can’t wait to see all of you and your horses - it makes me realise just how much I love my ‘job’ when I miss it so very much 💕

In the meantime - something I’ve been wondering about 🤔

Would there be any interest out there in online coaching / support or video analysis? It’s something I’ve been thinking of offering in any case, for those of you who are too far away for me to physically get to. Just a thought - let me know if you think I can be of any help 🥰

Meantime - hope all of you and your horses are doing fabulously, any updates and photos/ videos would be massively cheering up for me!! Please feel free to post in the comments 😁

Thanks for all who have kept in touch, kept my spirits up and cheered me on - I’m so thankful to be part of such a lovely community 💕💕💕💕

28/02/2024

💕💕💕💕

26/02/2024

09/02/2024

Weather, what weather 😂 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🌧️💧😁
Luna, lovely little restart mare, doing a great job despite the best that Wales can throw at her 😁

08/02/2024

The issues in the horse world are unlikely to resolve so long as it’s viewed as inherently shameful to approach things with more kindness and consideration to the horse.

You’re not weak or a “snowflake” for not wanting to hit your horse or use methods that you know will stress them out and scare them immensely when there’s other options available.

You’re not a less experienced rider for opting to take longer to train certain behaviours so that you don’t have to resort to harsher and more aversive equipment.

It isn’t anything to be ashamed of to be highly empathetic and considerate of your horse’s experience.

This is a GOOD thing.

Don’t let people gaslight you into thinking it’s not.

Those who are threatened by other people using softer tactics feel threatened because it calls to question their need to resort to harshness and the insecurity that draws out in them is then projected onto you.

They try to make their insecurity YOUR problem and do so by trying to mock you for caring about how your horse may experience the world.

Empathy is an incredible trait.

Hold onto it. Don’t let people try to make you feel ashamed for possessing it.

You are far better off being hyper aware of your horses’ potential distress than you are completely shut off and ignorant to it.

05/02/2024

Le Mieux Sale

Orchid, Spruce & Atlantic Base layers
Atlantic & Spruce Fly Hoods
Atlantic & Spruce Pom Hat Silk

❗️All 25% Off❗️
While stocks last

05/02/2024

Happy Monday lovely people! 😁🎉

I have a space available (or two, depending on location) on Thursday afternoon this week due to a cancellation.

if anyone would like to have some fun or solve some issues for you and your horse, drop me a message or reply here and we’ll sort out a time xx

22/01/2024

Huge thanks to Rhyddid Riding Club for inviting me to give a demo yesterday and to Trish and Pip for allowing me to work with their lovely horses, May and Millie.

Thanks to all who came and helped create a great positive atmosphere, felt by the horses as much as humans ☺️

We covered a wide range of ideas and topics such as working with our horses from a centred place within ourselves, how the central nervous system of the horse impacts movement and performance, the importance of advocating for your horse and gathering a great team around you who can help you do so.

We also worked on skills such as dealing with horses who spook, how we can prepare them ahead of time to allow them to better self-regulate and operate within a human world, assessing living environments, deciding between routine vs no routine, helping horses who plant while out hacking and helping ourselves and our horses to remain connected to our own bodies when we feel pushed outside of our comfortable ranges.

Alongside many other subjects which are too numerous to mention (or remember 😂)

If this sounds like anything you would like some help with for you and your horse, please do get in touch☺️.

I’m also looking to carry out more demos and clinics this year so if this is something which your yard/ riding club would find interesting, let me know and we can work together on getting this off the ground ☺️

08/01/2024

Looking forward to doing this demo for Rhyddid Riding Club, should be a great afternoon! Now open to non-members if you would like to come along ☺️ Or join as a member too and get the best of both worlds 😁

Kicking off 2024 will be a demo by Cath Latham on 𝑺𝒖𝒏 21𝒔𝒕 𝑱𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒚 12.00 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕
@ Stocklands Livery yard
Booking in advance only

Free to members, please comment on this post to book on, spaces may be available at a £5 cost if there is availability, again if you wish to attend please comment below
𝙇𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙫𝙖𝙞𝙡𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚
We will only be hosting 20 spaces

Cath specialises in building horse/human relationships, with over 20 years experience on ....

ᴾʳᵒᵇˡᵉᵐ ˢᵒˡᵛⁱⁿᵍ
ᴰᵉˢᵉⁿˢⁱᵗⁱˢⁱⁿᵍ
ᴰᵉˢᵖᵒᵒᵏⁱⁿᵍ ᴬᵈᵈʳᵉˢˢⁱⁿᵍ ⁿᵃᵖᵖⁱⁿᵍ
ᶜᵒⁿᶠⁱᵈᵉⁿᶜᵉ ᵇᵘⁱˡᵈⁱⁿᵍ
ᴸᵒⁿᵍ ˡⁱⁿⁱⁿᵍ
ᴹᵒᵘⁿᵗⁱⁿᵍ
ˢᵃᵈᵈˡⁱⁿᵍ ᵃⁿᵈ ᴮʳⁱᵈˡⁱⁿᵍ
ᶠᵉᵉᵗ ʰᵃⁿᵈˡⁱⁿᵍ ⁱˢˢᵘᵉˢ
ᴰᵉᵛᵉˡᵒᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᵃ ˢᵉⁿˢⁱᵗⁱᵛᵉ ᶠᵉᵉˡ ᵃⁿᵈ ᶜᵒⁿⁿᵉᶜᵗⁱᵒⁿ
ᴰᵉᵛᵉˡᵒᵖⁱⁿᵍ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵃᶜᵗ ᵃⁿᵈ ᶜᵒˡˡᵉᶜᵗⁱᵒⁿ
See you there

https://m.facebook.com/catherinelathamequestrian

31/12/2023

Losing this most important soul was the hardest thing in 2023 but I will forever be grateful and indebted to him for all of the life lessons and wake up calls he gave to me.

They are such precious creatures and have so very much to teach us if we could only get out of our own ego’s way and listen.

Thank you Monty, your light will shine on for the rest of my life. Thank you for being the reason I do the work I do, for meeting the amazing horses and people I get to meet, for changing my life in so many ways. I was so blessed to have you in my life for nearly quarter of a century 🥰

Happy New Year to all of my friends, family, clients, mentors and people I have yet to meet.

And mostly, Happy New Year to all the horses, to their wise and beautiful ways, to learning more just to make sure that they are honoured and helped to the best of my abilities

17/12/2023

A long one, but SOOOO worth the read. This is incredibly important stuff from the fabulous Jane Pike 🥰

Yesterday, I was riding Nadia in the arena when I felt the flicker of old patterns bubble their way to the surface. We’ve had some crazy bonkers weather here of late; hotter days followed by cold dips interlaced with frequent and persistent periods of rain. In response, the grass has turned a specific shade of luminous, the sweet sugars suckling their way to the surface ready to be greedily inhaled by my waiting, four legged beloveds.

I notice the grass affect all my horses in different ways. Nadia remains polite with a slight hint of desperation to get things right, as is her way. But when you added the certain pep of sugar, the threads of anxiety that used to dominate our conversation and are now little more than background trickles make ripples in the pond of what is mostly now still water.

The emotional component is most obvious. If I was to sing it out loud, it would go something like,

Lalalala, isn’t it a lovely day, lalala, OMG where are my friends!!! Lalalalala

Like Nina Simone for the main verses with a hard, heavy metal chorus, an experience that is somewhat jolting, leaving you fumbling with the k***s on the radio in an attempt to tune back into the previous song you were listening to.

But this is not a conversation on grass affectedness. It’s a conversation on something I refer to as ‘rebound anxiety’, a phenomenon I witness frequently in both horses and humans, and a regular experience of both who spend more of their time in a state of contraction than a state of openness. Nadia has been my greatest teacher when it comes to both understanding and navigating my way through this.

My definition of rebound anxiety is when the system, primarily the body, begins to relax and the tight binds that have physically, mentally, and emotionally held it in a firm little ball begin to unravel. Broadly speaking, the contracted state is one that is typical of fight flight (or a sympathetic nervous system state) ; a state of openness is synonymous with parasympathetic.

Our state of homeostasis is determined as the average point of wherever we spend the most time. So, if I spend most of my day in fight flight, my balance point, or point of homeostasis will sit between the average range of my fight flight experience.

Put simply, the experience of contraction becomes my normal, my comfort zone. It might not be ideally what I want, but it is ultimately what I know and am most familiar with. Which means anything outside of that- even if I understand that to be more beneficial, healthful, or desirable- challenges that experience within me.

Rebound anxiety is when the system starts to open and unfurl. As a result, the body feels different; the rebound anxiety response is a reflexive response of the mind to re-contract. The openness makes us feel vulnerable and unsafe, even if the reality is that we are more attuned to our environment and experience, making us effectively more able to discern what is needed with a greater degree of accuracy.

I witnessed this in Nadia yesterday. We trot around with the Nina Simone vibes. She starts to blow out, flow through, relax. And then all at once, the experience feels unnerving, and she binds back up. Our heavy metal chorus.

Like I mentioned before, this gentle navigation between expansion and contraction used to be the norm; now it is few and far between, exacerbated by external forces that add an extra something something to old patterns.

It’s an experience we are playing with in my membership all the time, the practice ground being the movement work where we are essentially only needing to look after ourselves. We get to play with new sensation in the body, create new stories and expand our capacity to hold increasing degrees of openness within the edges of our skin without feeling overwhelmed and creating unhelpful thought patterns as a result.

If contraction has been your norm, it takes a while to accept openness as a safe place to rest. It’s a gradual and continual conversation. Getting pulled back into old patterns- like Nadia- is not a sign of regression or devolution. It’s just…. life.

A process of negotiation, understanding and feeling that you gather more and more tools to work with.

Onwards.

❤️ Jane

11/12/2023

💕

The five basic freedoms of animal welfare are what is considered to be the “bare minimum” when it comes to when needs to be provided to promote wellbeing.

They are as follows:

1. Freedom from Hunger and Thirst.

2. Freedom from Discomfort. (Providing appropriate environment with shelter)

3. Freedom from Pain, Injury or Disease.

4. Freedom to Express Normal Behaviour. (Normal behaviour for horses includes socialization, play, mutual grooming, group naps, lengthy times spent foraging, adequate movement)

5. Freedom from Fear and Distress.

On an international scale, on many accounts, it is fully legal to not provide horses with all of these freedoms.

Most horses have freedom # 1 , but that’s where things start to get murky.

Freedom from discomfort could also be taken as the discomfort that could come with being a herd animal who is isolated and confined for 20+ hours a day, even if there is shelter.

The discomfort that it causes an animal made to basically be perpetually moving with other horses to be forced to stand within the walls of a 12x12 box is substantial. This also predisposes horses to physically uncomfortable ailments like ulcers.

If horses go anywhere from 4-6 hours without hay, their stomach will start to ulcerate, this could also be regarded as a form of discomfort or as not fulfilling Freedom # 3.

As per studies like Dr. Sue Dyson’s ridden pain and lameness studies, ~40% of ridden horses display some form of lameness, suggesting many horses don’t have freedom from pain.

Lots of horse owners are unable to read horse behaviour due to it not being properly taught, meaning they often miss out on what their horse is trying to say.

Pain or stress related behaviours are often mistook for “naughty” behaviour and punished accordingly.

Freedom # 4, in my opinion, is the most commonly unfulfilled need in the horse.

As a herd animal, being near other horses near constantly and actually being able to have physical contact with other horses is a need.

Social needs account for a generous portion of equine wellbeing and there is extensive evidence of how complete isolation damages welfare substantially.

Many horses are kept in complete isolation from other horses, the closest form of socialization they receive being seeing other horses from across a fenceline where they cannot even touch noses.

I did this to my first horse for YEARS. He was utterly deprived of social connection and I was none the wiser to the damage I was doing because I was taught it was okay.

Horses are also trickle feeding grazers. They’re meant to move A LOT and cover a lot of distance.

While providing them with massive acreages worldwide may be difficult, I do think we need to consider the fact that it isn’t fair on a welfare perspective if they’re kept in such small spaces that the only time they get to go above a walk or a trot is when they’re ridden.

They deserve space to engage in autonomous movement, this is a natural behaviour.

Enrichment in stalls and small paddocks can help to better fulfil these needs by giving horses more control to influence their environment but it cannot replace socialization and autonomous movement completely.

Lastly, Freedom # 5. Many horses do not have this freedom as it is still super accepted to deliberately traumatize horses in training.

The fact that people can post videos of them training horses so aggressively that they flip them over or the horse tries to jump out of a round pen, so desperate to escape, and have people laugh at it with them is an example of how many humans aren’t aware of the trauma they may be inflicting on horses.

It isn’t realistic to provide a completely fear free life but if we can lower stress in training, we should. Many choose not to do this due to not wanting to have to learn new methods.

We shouldn’t just accept having perpetually stressed horses. Stress is unpleasant for any creature, we need to value comfort in training more.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that we should move towards a reality where these 5 freedoms are used as a guideline for welfare and where boarding facilities are held to similar standards as zoos, in which they are required to fulfil a certain number of minimum standards in order to remain open.

This should honestly be the bare minimum.

Having public facilities have to fulfil basic welfare requirements allows owners more options in being able to find better care for their horses and it holds facilities accountable by ensuring they are set up to appropriately manage the animals they intend to keep.

This really should not be a controversial statement as most horse people I’ve spoken to are able to see the poor welfare in unregulated zoos and in other care with more exotic animals.

The horse industry has just had a certain level of care so normalized that complacency has developed.

Minimum welfare standards would be a win for everyone by allowing horse owners more freedom in selecting ethical care practices for their horses by pushing more public facilities to provide them due to it being legally necessary.

The discussion on how to fulfil all 5 freedoms on less space, in urban environments, needs to happen but that doesn’t change the fact that ALL of these freedoms must be fulfilled in order to practice good welfare.

Can the horse industry agree that there needs to be a certain set of minimum standards met to quantify adequate care?

Welfare can’t just be about providing food/water to sustain life but not providing enough to psychologically sustain adequate mental health or allow existence without pain and excess stress.

11/12/2023

06/12/2023

❤️

I used to look down on people who used things like carrot sticks, clicker training, and ba****ck pads.

Those who opted for the softer route were "just scared of their horse" or "didn't know how to ride" in my eyes.

And I would continue with my whips and spurs, my idea that the horse had to always do as I said, that I was the leader and they needed to respect me, and that I could never get off my horse when he was scared because that was "letting him win" (Read up on dominance theory in horses and how it's heavily disproven and you'll see why I was wrong there.)

All of that was a result of my conditioning over years and years.

I remember when my gut would tell me to do things more gently, how confusing it felt when I was always being told the opposite by those who had more experience than me.

I remember once hiding the twitch we owned (sorry mum!), throwing it under something in anger that it had been used on my pony - interestingly, new research is showing that the response a twitch elicits is actually akin to a freeze response when a horse is held down by a predator, it's not as kind as we once thought.

As I've slowly learnt more about how different training methods work on a psychological level for the horse, and also embraced my authentic self, learning to stand firm in what I really feel is right, not being swayed by the ideals of big names and "success", I've fallen back into that softness.

I'm learning that those who have the most secure, trusting relationship with their horses have done so through gentleness, through allowing their horse to speak and say no (and respecting that no), through stripping back the the equipment, throwing out harsh bits, draw reins, and spurs, and allowing the horse to respond to smaller and smaller cues.

I've learnt that we can have so much more success when we are softer, achieving a much more harmonious relationship with our horses in the long run.

You don't have to force your horse, you don't have to silence him, there is another way.

03/12/2023

1000 times yes 👏🏻🥰

Something I find particularly interesting is the response from some people on my post about harsh training being more encouraged and accepted than gentle and soft training.

A few commenters took my non-specific reference of gentle and soft training as synonymous with poorly behaved horses and not teaching boundaries.

I find this interesting because I think it further illuminates the real issue,: people view softness as weakness. As not setting boundaries, as letting horses get away with things…

They cannot comprehend how to teach horses how to behave safely without using what may be viewed to be as some form of harshness.

When physical punishment is the only tool available for fixing unwanted behaviours for so many horse people, there is a problem.

Physical punishment is a behavioural suppressant. It doesn’t actually deal with the underlying reason behind the unwanted behaviour and leaves horses at high risk of developing new, potentially equally as unwanted and dangerous, behaviours to replace the purpose of the old one.

This isn’t just my words, it’s researched fact. In virtually every species studied, physical punishment increased reactivity, unpredictable behaviours, general frustration and risk of fallout behaviours.

Behavioural scientists almost unanimously recommend avoiding physical punishment because of the risk factors.

And yet the horse world is so far behind that they think the only alternative to physically punishing unwanted behaviours is having a poorly behaved horse…

There is such a disconnect that many people don’t realize that some of the most dangerous horses they’ll deal with are ones who are routinely physically punished.

The most dangerous horse is the stressed horse.

Flight behaviours are what create unpredictability and injure people.

Chronic stress (or pain) is what creates aggression that can hurt people.

Want to know what stresses a flight animal significantly? Being hit.

Pain.

A lack of predictability and clarity.

Punishment never tells the animal what the “right” answer is. It just says “don’t do that” and then the correct answer is left to ambiguity, which is frustrating to the animal

On top of this, if unwanted behaviour stems from pain or neglected needs, suppressing it is essentially just shaking a bottle of champagne with the cork on… when that cork comes off, it is going to explode.

If you find yourself thinking the only alternative to harsh physical corrections is a poorly behaved horse, this is an invitation to learn more about the science of behaviour and behaviour modification so you can develop your toolbox.

It is very archaic and misguided to hold such views and we are in a time where there is enough research on these topics to unequivocally say that it is straight up untrue to insist the only means of correcting unwanted behaviour is physical punishment.

It is time for the horse world to start to be more accepting of science rather than just relying on biased personal beliefs and anecdotes as it harms both horses and people.

03/11/2023

Loving this photo of the very beautiful May 💕

Her owner shot this just as I finished a session with Masterson Method Bladder meridian technique where I think it’s safe to say that a good level of relaxation and self regulation was achieved!

She’s an ex-racehorse with some physical issues and underlying behavioural problems, bolting, spooking at speed, stressing in the stable, deep concern being taken away from other horses.

A lot of this comes due to her early upbringing in a highly unnatural environment, but we’re also working through her physical challenges and rehabilitation alongside her vet and the fabulous Lisa from Beyond Physiotherapy.

She’s in a great home now with a caring owner who has already turned things around massively for this very deserving girl. I’m just glad to be part of her ongoing journey back to heath and happiness 🥰

02/11/2023

🥰🥰🥰

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