Major League Eventing Podcast · Major League Eventing

Natalie Hummel - How to Heal

February 12, 2025·53 min·4 clips

Even Boyd Martin admitted he didn't feel he belonged at the Olympics — and Natalie explains this fear of not belonging is an evolutionary biological threat, not a character flaw.

1. The Major League Eventing Podcast, hosted by Robbie and Karen, features returning guest Natalie Hummel, a transformational life coach and nervous system practitioner who works with equestrian athletes. 2. Natalie Hummel runs 'How to Heal' and 'How to Perform' programs alongside Hannah Sue Holberg, who provides riding skill instruction while Natalie handles mindset and nervous system work. 3. The episode's core thesis is that performance problems in riders arise from nervous system dysregulation and early-childhood 'misunderstandings,' not from lack of skill or effort. 4. Natalie explains a six-month group program called 'How to Perform' that recently held an in-person clinic in Ocala, where she could observe and intervene on real-time physical patterns, such as a rider's unusual body movement before oxers. 5. She describes the foundational program 'How to Heal' as necessary before 'How to Perform' because adding competitive pressure to an unresolved nervous system pattern is 'like putting pressure on a broken ankle.' 6. The three nervous system states — dorsal vagal shutdown (turtle), sympathetic fight-or-flight (shark), and ventral vagal safety (human neocortex) — are introduced with a ladder metaphor showing that transitions always proceed in order and cannot skip steps. 7. Feelings of not being good enough form during ages zero to seven when children are in an egocentric developmental stage and interpret disconnection — even a simple timeout — as evidence of personal unworthiness. 8. Natalie introduces 'misunderstandings' as the term for these childhood interpretations, which can be identified and updated by revisiting the developmental moment and providing the context that was unavailable at the time. 9. The fear of not belonging is identified as the deepest evolutionary survival threat, activating shutdown before any skill is displayed, meaning riders fail not because they lack ability but because they shut down before they can demonstrate it. 10. Boyd Martin is cited as an example of a top-level eventer who has publicly admitted feeling he did not belong at the Olympics, illustrating that the phenomenon is not limited to amateur riders. 11. 'Self-sabotage' in elite athletes — such as not asking owners for sufficiently capable horses — is reframed as unconscious threat-protection from feared success rather than a character flaw. 12. For riders returning after a fall, Natalie argues the first step is to allow and express the fear through journaling or conversation rather than suppressing it, then make a genuine decision about whether to continue competing. 13. The buffalo-blizzard analogy is introduced: a buffalo turns directly into a blizzard and exits it quickly, while a cow runs away and stays in the storm indefinitely — avoidance prolongs the experience. 14. Competition nerves are reframed as an appropriate biological response to genuine threat cues (evaluation, judgment, one winner) rather than signs of weakness, and Natalie argues the correct intervention is locating the sensation in the body and allowing it to speak for 90 seconds. 15. Quick fixes such as affirmations and box breathing are described as turning off alarm bells without addressing the threat, which causes immediate re-triggering. 16. Robbie recounts substituting for a trainer whose philosophy was that a lesson where the student was not crying at the end was not a good lesson, and Natalie explains this as the coach's own unresolved shame being projected onto students. 17. Shame in coaching is explained as the coach's self-belief system perceiving student mistakes as a threat to her own adequacy, not as a deliberate pedagogical choice. 18. The episode uses a conversational, self-disclosing format — Karen and Robbie share their own performance struggles and receive direct coaching responses rather than general advice. 19. Best for equestrian athletes and coaches interested in applied nervous system science, mental performance, and the psychology of shame and belonging in competitive sport. 20. Listeners expecting technical riding instruction or quick competition tips will find the episode entirely focused on inner work and nervous system theory.

As heard by us

A clear look at how fear, belonging, and safety shape whether eventing still feels worth choosing.

It treats belonging and self-protection as intertwined, showing how a person can shut down in ways that look like simple lack of confidence. The piece keeps its focus on the mental side of eventing and equestrian sports, and it does so in plain language that makes the fear feel…

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Want a straight talk on fear, belonging, and riding through hard stuff?

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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