Avoidance vs Shut Down

When I taught my nervous system clinic recently, an observation arose from a horse owner that caught me a little off guard. I had to think through it for a while before I realised how the misconception had arisen. The owner was adamant that her horse’s grazing behaviour was a shut down response having heard

The problem with desensitisation

Allowing the horse to sense their environment, react in line with their emotional state, and find safety is the key to building resilience.

What is the Nervous System?

A podcast giving an introduction to the nervous system. This will lead into the demonstrations of techniques and methods that I will be using at Equifest and in my clinics.

A Horse with More Freeze Than Go

My horse, Gino, has been a perplexing case of difficulties. Now almost 11, he’s been with me for eight years. He is a friendly and curious horse who makes me wonder if he was a dog in a past life due to behaviours such as being exceptionally loyal, licking everyone, and having no fear about

The Freeze Response – A Biological Process

An understanding of the nervous system, and it’s most severe response under threat – the immobility response – provides a useful guide for training horses.

Interrupting Anxiety

Following on from the previous post which talks about our composure in helping horses through their anxiety, there are a number of actions we can take as well to interrupt anxiety and help our horses cope with scary situations. These are based on some personal experiences getting my own horses through difficult situations – my

Anxious Horses – Energy and the Horse

There’s something about horses, a sixth sense that most humans are not attuned to noticing. Let’s call it the ‘energy sense’. I believe that this comes from the highly developed nervous system in the horse, a gift of evolution that has helped them survive. There is a hypothesis that horses synchronise their heartbeats in a