Catherine Latham Equestrian Coaching

27/05/2025

19/05/2025

😍

A few years ago, I had a conversation with Warwick Schiller about relaxation- what it is, how we recognise it, and how it shows up in both our horses and ourselves.

At the time, I had just bought Nadia, my big warmblood mare, and let’s just say the dream of us riding off into the sunset was quickly replaced with something much more humble: taking off all the gear and going right back to the beginning.

Her anxiety told me riding towards sunsets were off the table for now.

🧘‍♀️ The only thing I was doing? Helping her relax.

Not long after, a bodyworker came to see Nadia and was shocked at how much her shape had changed over a relatively small window.

"What have you been doing with her?" she asked.

And my honest answer was:

“I’ve just been playing with how to help her relax.”

At the time, my understanding of the nervous system was fairly surface-level. I knew that when we’re anxious, scared, or depressed, we carry ourselves differently—that was obvious, even intuitive. We all know what it looks like to see (or feel) posture reflect mood.

But what I thought I was observing in Nadia—muscles softening, tension releasing—was actually something much deeper.

🫁 What we often miss: The organs’ role in posture

In all the conversations we have around body and behaviour, what rarely gets mentioned is the role of organ placement and internal pressure systems in shaping posture.

Just like every other part of us, our organs- and our horse’s organs- aren’t static. They’re constantly moving, shifting, responding. And their position is directly influenced by the state of the nervous system.

Each of the major survival responses- fight, flight, freeze, and collapse- has a specific motor reflex pattern. The body rearranges itself to serve that response.

For example:

🔹 In fight, it prioritizes force.
🔹 In flight, it prioritizes acceleration.

When the nervous system chooses one of these, the body- organs included- shifts to match.

Think of the size and mass of structures like the lungs, diaphragm, and liver. Where they sit in the body dramatically affects outward form.

To illustrate this, what I've come to understand is:

🫁 In a parasympathetic state, the lungs sit higher in the neck tube, helping stabilize the deep front line and neck.

🫁 In a fight-or-flight state, the lungs drop lower, often creating that rounded “hunchback” posture we associate with stress.

🎗️Support from the inside out

In the parasympathetic system, the body functions differently. Each internal “chamber” is pressurized. The fascia is responsive and alive. The organs are not just in place—they’re vibrant, spinning, and vital.

And this creates a body that is supported from the inside out.

Posture becomes full without force.

Muscles soften, not because they’re “letting go,” but because they no longer need to brace.

The skin has vitality. The body, ease.

🐎 That’s what I was seeing in Nadia.

Not just muscles releasing.

Her entire system was reorganising—physically, mentally, emotionally.

And here’s the most important part:

This wasn’t something I did to her.

It was something her nervous system chose- a different operating system, a different postural template. One that created change from the inside out.

One that affects things from the top down and inside out: physically, mentally and emotionally.

It's changed my understandings about posture, and what we are truly observing when we see physical and structural changes in our horses.

As ever, I'd love to hear your thoughts,

xx Jane

17/05/2025

Loving this fabulous CPD with Mark Rashid this evening in a two hour online course
“Navigating Horsemanship Together: Instructors and Clinicians”
So much great food for thought regarding the instructor/ clinician and student relationship!

The second part, for students, is tomorrow and I would highly recommend jumping on it if you can, it’s a great opportunity to learn from one of the best in the horsemanship world 🥰
I’ll put the link in the comments xx@

01/05/2025

Are you really listening to your horse? 🐴

A large proportion of my clients contact me because they’re having behavioural problems under saddle. More often than not the problem people think they have is just a symptom of a horse that is struggling and the earlier signs have been missed or seen as irrelevant. I always send out a booking form that includes questions about how the horse is to tack up and mount, and every time there is something of note.

Maybe its “he goes to the back of the box when I come in with his tack” or “I can only get the bridle on if I leave his head collar on underneath otherwise he throws his head too high” or “he swings his quarters out at the mounting block unless he’s against the wall”. We have been taught that as long as we can get on the horse then he is fine to ride, I used to think this too and think things like this were just issues to be trained out of the horse. We talk about partnership but only when its convenient to us, when the horse is saying no the thought of not riding doesn’t even enter our heads. All of these scenarios are pretty clear nos.

These days I see all of these issues as loud communication that the horse is not okay with being ridden. If the horse isn’t okay with being tacked up then we don’t tack up the horse that day, if the horse isn’t okay with being mounted then we don’t ride the horse that day. I am not saying we simply stop and never ride the horse again, but I am saying we don’t just ignore this behaviour because we can get away with it and its inconvenient for us not to ride. We need to find out why the horse is saying no and figure out how we can make them feel better about the situation. There are usually elements of both discomfort/pain within the body and negative associations with being ridden to address.

If we ignore these behaviours or try to train them out of the horse by hassling them until they comply, backing horses up, chasing them with flags, driving them in circles until they stand still etc. We are just shutting down their only line of communication and letting them know we will not listen. That is no partnership.

If you’re reading this thinking pfft my horse is fine he’s just trying to get out of work, maybe think about why he finds working with you so unpleasant. Horses are very amicable creatures, if he’s saying no he has good reason to.

If your horse has been ridden before and won't stand at the mounting block, it is because he doesn't want you to get on his back not because he needs to be trained to stand there, he knows what is about to happen and he's communicating he's not comfortable with it. The same if you have tacked up your horse before and he turns away when you arrive with your tack, he doesn't need to be taught to stand, if he was comfortable about having his tack on he wouldn't move away. We need to figure out the why before we can understand how to improve things.

There is so much talk around listening to your horse, but its not listening if you hear his no and then carry on anyway. When trying to improve issues like this with your horse, really think about whether you are improving his associations or just teaching him that unpleasant things happen if he doesn't comply. As always it comes back around to “just because we can doesn’t mean we should”. 🐴

www.lshorsemanship.co.uk

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23/04/2025

You want your horse to feel confident and relaxed.

Nobody wants tension.
Not you, and certainly not your horse.
But so many riders unknowingly fall into patterns that actually build more tension instead of releasing it.

Here are the 3 most common mistakes I see — and what to do instead:

🔸 Mistake #1: Hoping ''he’ll get used to it''.

You expose your horse to the same thing over and over… hoping that with enough repetition, the tension will fade.
But if your horse is still holding the same tension in his body, he’ll keep getting the same feeling — or worse.

🔸 Mistake #2: Trying to ''work through'' the tension.

You arrive early. You lunge for 45 minutes. You push past the tension and hope it fades away.
But when tension builds up in your horse's body, so does stress. And pushing harder can lead to shutdown, injury, or more resistance.

🔸 Mistake #3: Believing it's just his ''character''.

- “He’s a hot mare.”
- “He's always been spooky.”
- “It's just his temperament.”

But sensitivity isn't a personality flaw. It's your horse searching for comfort, with the only tools nature gave him.

🎯 So, what can you do to help your horse?

We usually try to:
- Work around tension
- Push through it
- Or just accept it as normal.

But there's a better way!

Ready to learn how?

I’ve put together a special free training with step-by-step videos to help you reduce tension and spookiness under saddle. 👇

Click here to watch the videos now:

👉 https://trtmethod.com/free-tips/free-videos-reduce-tension-and-spookiness-under-saddle/