08/23/2026
Why do I put welfare before performance? Because I don’t believe the two are actually separate.
You cannot consistently achieve your horse’s best performance while neglecting the things that allow their body and mind to perform at their best.
Let’s break it down.
Here are just 3 examples
🍏When your horse has consistent access to high quality forage and a diet appropriately formulated to meet their nutritional needs, you are giving their body the resources it needs to work and recover.
Healthy muscles. Strong connective tissues. A functioning digestive system. A body that is actually equipped to do the job we’re asking of it.
📏When a saddle properly accommodates the horse’s withers, spine, shoulders, and back and is correctly balanced, it allows the horse greater freedom of movement.
That means they can use their body more effectively instead of compensating around discomfort or restriction.
🧠When we recognize a horse’s mental load, respect their thresholds, and avoid continually pushing them beyond what they can process, we aren’t making them “soft.”
We’re teaching them how to regulate, recover, and cope.
We can gradually expand their threshold for stress while giving them the opportunity to come back down and process what they’ve experienced.
And a horse that can regulate, recover, and understand what is being asked of them is ultimately more trainable, more resilient, and more capable of performing.
This is why I put welfare first.
Not instead of performance.
Because it is the foundation of sustainable performance.
At Catalira, the goal isn’t simply to make a horse do more.
It’s to develop a horse who is physically capable, mentally prepared, emotionally regulated, and willing to participate.
Because that’s where I believe truly exceptional performance begins.
