12/02/2024
I got to talk about it
We cannot just make stuff up to make it sound appealing to the audience while at the same time the horse is not on the same page as you.
The equine Nervous system
I have held off, stayed quiet yet I see so much made up s**t which may make you feel good yet the horses not so.
I think the comment that tipped me over the edge was the horse wiggling it's nose was the Vagus nerve making it move 🤐 like no just no step away from the cranial nerves and just pick up a book just get educated a little before and as always you are being sold a course so the misinformation just gets spread around like a wildfire that is soon out of control
We know only a teeny amount about the horses brain, we still know only a small amount about the human brain yet we have people who will interpret equine behaviour and often make up inconclusive facts about what they see and tell you what makes you have a fuzzy feeling, now we can all have our own opinion yet often I see the horses actions not reflecting the humans words.
Horses control their own Nervous system we can help by providing a safe living enviroment, and in safe I mean the ability to move away if they feel threatened, a good diet to help the Enteric system, because as we know the gut/brain relationship will provably supercede any other, allowing the horse to express more than one emotion, and having the awareness for us as the human that for the most part we ask horses to do things which may affect how it functions
Posture; placing a horse in a posture that we deem relaxing is only relaxing for the horse If it wants to do it, do not determine your whole session on wether you get a lick, chew or yawn for if you do you need to find the reason why there was such an outward release of tension build up and often when you stop and the horse does this it may be because however gentle your approach you were dictating what the horse does and it may have been internally resisting yet all we focus on is the external aesthetics.
What is the one thing horses will do if they don't feel safe??? They will move.
What is the one thing we do to make us feel safe in that moment??? Make the horse stand still
I hear over and over again people talking about the Nervous system and telling you how important it is for you to understand yet coerce and control is being touted as the answer to "self regulation" eurghh I really hate how that word has been basterised
We can interpret because we still know so little but please it's never about an end result it's the process to get there and if someone is educating you to only look at the lick, chew, yawn as a get out of jail free card for anything that came before then I am sorry to say they should not be educating you on how the nervous system works
For the horses sake we need to really learn before we educate and I personally do not like to see a horse like a robot with only one emotion, how can we ask horses to engage with us if we have switched them off to the world around them
Sorry rant over but I can't take looking at another horse being uncomfortable and the yapping of the handler telling you made up s**t.
