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Click here for Part I]
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Click here for Part III]
Martin Black and Dr. Stephen Peters are trailblazers in the field of horse neurology as it relates to horsemanship. They know horses lack our frontal lobe – that’s the part of the brain responsible for forming generalizations, plans, and strategies.
So, Black and Peters don’t have much taste for the attribution of these human capacities to equine behavior:
--
“My horse gave me some payback when he decided to toss me”
OR
--
“He bucked me off, but then came back and said he was sorry”
Utter something like that and they might shake their heads and walk away.
Their collaboration on a forthcoming book entitled "Evidence-Based Horsemanship" will displace a lot of that popular but silly, wrongheaded horsespeak.
Nonetheless, they still find it helpful to explain horse development and behavior using people metaphors. You will hear them say things like:
--
colts are like 3rd graders and need recess
OR
--
let him go home and think on it
That’s because despite our mammoth differences, we share some similarities in the very basic development and composition of our nervous systems.
We both have autonomic nervous systems (ANS), the largely involuntary regulators of our organs, muscles, glands, etc.. The parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems are the chief elements of ANS.
Parasympathetic and Sympathetic? Huh?
The sympathetic nervous system is what we see in
Fight or Flight situations. With help from a University of Washington neurology website, let me suggest two scenarios:
Outing A:
You’re out for a pleasant ride on a nice, sunny day. Suddenly, an angry bear appears in
your path. The
sympathetic nervous system is called into action (of both you and your horse!). It uses energy: your blood pressure increases, your heart beats faster, and digestion slows down. Y'all beat feet!
When a horse has a sympathetic nervous system response, we see the
whites of his eyes, his muscles tense, his nostrils flare. You know the
look.
In the brain dissection, Peters pointed out the trigeminal nerve running over the eye, down the face to the jaw. That's why you will see the cluster of signs (white eyes, tight jaw and lips) noted above.
Outing B:
You’re out for a pleasant ride on a nice, sunny day. This time, however,
you decide to relax, hobble your horse, and chill for a bit. You and your horse hang out in a meadow. He grazes while you read and ponder life.
Now is the
time for the
parasympathetic nervous system to work and save energy: your
blood pressure decreases, your heart beats slower, and digestion can
start.
The parasympathetic nervous system is called upon in “
Rest and Digest” situations. When a horse has a parasympathetic response, he licks his lips, he might blink and cock one of his legs.
Click here for a super helpful video by Dr. Gary Fisk at Georgia Southwestern State University.
When we look at these two trail riding episodes, we can also examine our differences. Here is where the horses’
lack of frontal lobe might actually put him in a better spot:
-- You, the rider, come away from the Angry Bear experience with nightmares and baggage. Every time you return to that spot, hear a twig snap, see a picture of a bear, talk about bear encounters, or smell huckleberries, you freak.
In studies of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder patients, said Peters, chemical etchings on the brain can have the effect of turning traumatic experiences into Super Memories.
But if the horse has enough good experiences afterwards, he will likely override that traumatic episode. Such is life without a frontal lobe. Or, as Black noted with classic Yogi Berra delivery: “If the world becomes good, the world becomes good.”
-- After Outing B, the rider comes away from the experience by perhaps attaching the meadow, the smells, the book all into one fond, romantic recollection. Rose-colored glasses are frontal lobe stuff. The horse, on the other hand, may recall that he got to eat at that meadow.
Read Part III