L’Écrin du Cédon
Pension, Equestrian center, Posturology
Equestrian practice
The team
Nathalie: the instructor
Pep and professionalism at the service of your biggest dreams!
Nathalie Coulais started riding at 3 years old, she moved from pony to horse at 9 years old. At 17, she validated her Galop 7, bought her first horse and made her debut in official competitions.
At 24, she became a riding instructor and began working in a club.
For more than ten years that she has been practicing this profession, Nathalie has continued to train, improve and evolve with all the current advances both in the field of horse riding and in that of rider supervision. and personal development.
Nathalie holds two levels of the FEDERAL ETHOLOGICAL HORSE RIDING PATENT – BFEE, two training courses followed voluntarily in two different and complementary approaches with Elisabeth de Corbigny and Andy Booth (see Influences)
For the well-being of the riders, Nathalie is also a Life Coach and has followed training in teaching children under 6 years old.
Nathalie opened the Ecrin du Cédon in 2014, offering a wide variety of training courses, and still continuing to train with the greatest professionals, she lets her horses and riders benefit from all the recent progress!
Yvon: the guardian of the box
Yvon Coulais is Nathalie’s father!
A former genius researcher in the fight against cancer, he is now enjoying a very active retirement.
Very attached to all the horses, he pays particular attention to each of the residents, feeding them and watching over them every day.
Son of a farmer, Yvon is passionate about nature: his 100% organic vegetable garden is a delicious testimony to this!
Thanks to Yvon's daily work, the Ecrin exists a little more every day...
Ethological influences in horse riding
In 2008, Nathalie, then a young instructor, became interested in the emerging trend in France of ethological horse riding. At the same time, she has problems with her competition horse, KING, a huge Selle Français who refuses to get in the van. She then meets Elisabeth de Corbigny and solves the KING problem with her.
A pioneer in France, Elisabeth de Corbigny adapted the method of John Lyons and created the term “ethological riding” which the FFE now uses.
Nathalie decides to train in this method which aims to “help horses understand horse riding”. She passed her BFE EE 1 in 2013 with Elisabeth de Corbigny.
The EdC method is very effective, especially for the rehabilitation of problem horses, and Nathalie uses it extensively in her horse work. This method also has the advantage of mixing the ethological approach and classic horsemanship (notably the use of the net).
In 2015, she trained at Haras de La Cense, Andy Booth (established in France, what luck!) has precisely developed a method which takes place in the form of games with the horse, which makes learning fun and dynamic. You also learn how to work in a halter and how to use your seat. It was the tool that was missing at the Ecrin du Cédon, and Nathalie passed her BFEE 2 there in 2015.
For each type of practice, Nathalie draws on these two founding methods of ethological riding, different and complementary, to offer innovative, harmonious and effective solutions!
For example, for a horse that is difficult to catch in the meadow, the EdC method and free work in the lunging ring will be used. But for a disrespectful horse on foot, we will choose a halter work inspired by the Andy Booth method. But obviously, there are no rules... every horse is different!
What is ethology?
Ethological riding is a way of considering horse work by referring to ethology, the “science of morals”. Ethologists are scientists who observe the behaviors of wild animals. Horses being domestic animals, dedicated to work, we had studied their natural behaviors so little that in the 1970s, we knew zebras better!
Since the 1990s and 2000s, the application of the observations of ethologists has made it possible to define the concepts of ethological horse riding. The great pioneers of this natural and logical approach are the Americans, including John Lyons, Pat Parelli and his student Andy Booth. (we could say a lot more...)
