Welcome back, today I would like to explain how we are continually advancing in the area of ​​working with horses that until now has been completely ignored; and that area is emotional stress management in horses.

But before we can discuss emotional stress management and how it affects your horse, we need to look at how your horse’s brain works and compare it to our own.

For starters, horses don’t think like us; his brain is structured in a totally different way, and the way your horse uses his brain in conjunction with his input becomes the cause of the various levels of stress your horse may experience.

When we look at and compare the horse’s brain to our own, the most important area to consider is the “frontal lobe” area.

In our brain, the frontal lobe is extremely large and well developed, as this is the part of our brain that allows us to be able to process all the information that we receive on a daily basis and that adds to our personality as well as our ability. develop cognitive or reasoning skills.

The exact opposite is true for your horse when we compare the same area, the frontal lobe of your horse’s brain is much less developed and therefore does not give them anything resembling the ability to reason through a problem, even close of the capacity that you or I have.

Most of the other sections of your horse’s brain that provide movement and overall athleticism have developed in the same way our frontal brain has.

If you put your horse in a situation where it needs to reason its way out of it, you will most likely end up with a horse in full flight mode, causing your horse to run away in order to protect itself. Not to mention the high levels of stress that can be created within that situation.

In case you’re wondering how this all comes together and interacts; it is basically accomplished through a very small area of ​​the horse’s brain. In fact, the area I am referring to is about the size and shape of an almond. That part of the brain is called the “Amygdala” which is more or less involved with your horse’s emotion control area, which is directly related to your horse’s emotional stress.

The emotion referred to here, when looking at the horse’s brain, is based on fear and rage; this emotion is not the feeling of sadness, pride or any other point that we can experience. It is an area of ​​what is known to be primitive in nature as well as instinctive in how it reacts when stimulated; this is where the “fight or flight” response originates.

This primitive part of the horse’s brain which includes the amygdala is part of the “limbic system” and it is this system of the brain that leads to many of your horse’s unresolved issues along with the same issues that tend to be held back.

All the factors that have affected you in the past, those that you could not understand or relate to, are stored here and may present themselves from time to time.

The importance of this area is that it is one of the main and controlling areas of the production of emotional stress and it is that same stress that produces fear and fear produces a “flight or fight” response; therefore, being able to relate to the real problem helps to understand the root of the problem and gives us a way forward that will help maintain the problem created by the response of the emotional area.

It is the size, development, and way your horse uses its frontal lobe that leads to the various levels of stress that can be created in a given situation.

Stress is a condition that develops within your horse’s body and, if left unchecked, can lead to chronic problems.

As in people, when a horse is stressed, the hormone “cortisol” is released; This hormone is often referred to as “the stress hormone,” which is produced by the adrenal glands and is deposited in your horse’s bloodstream and saliva.

There is a belief among certain trainers that certain bits used with a horse help relieve stress and allow the horse to better cope with the situation it is working on. This group refers to the use of a “Freshwater” bit to achieve this result. To explain, a freshwater bit is one that has raw steel for the center piece, (the part that goes in the mouth), it has been shown that raw steel allows the horse to produce a greater amount of saliva, which It allows the release of the stress hormone cortisol and the horse to be much calmer in stressful situations.

The hormone cortisol is taken up by various cells throughout your horse’s body and is normally used in a positive way to regulate your horse’s metabolism, electrolyte balance and help reduce any inflammation.

Although cortisol is very important in helping to regulate your horse’s overall health, from time to time it can become unbalanced and that is what often leads to health problems.

When a horse has high levels of cortisol, it actually weakens the horse’s natural defense mechanism, its immune system, making it much more open to many bacterial disease problems, such as; canker sores, abscesses or even rain rot.

In our experience, once a great deal of emotional stress has been released, we have seen additional physical problems arise; such as lameness problems, body pain, gait problems, as well as many other situations. We tend to believe that this is the body’s way of allowing the immune system to start functioning at a higher level than before.

Basically there are two levels of stress that are evident in horses and they are; long-term stress, which is known as chronic stress and short-term stress, which is known as acute stress.

Understanding the difference between the two categories will help you manage your horse’s stress.

To help you understand the differences between the two types of stress, I’ll cover some of the indicators for both acute and chronic stress, which are:

Acute Stress Indicators

• Shaking
• tense muscles
• shyness
• bolted
• High neck/head carriage
• tail wriggle
• Swing

Chronic Stress Indicators

• Walking or knitting stall
• A change in your horse’s attitude
• Type of aggression Behavior
• gastric ulcers
• grind your teeth
• skin infections
• Colic
• opaque coat
• Reduced performance

Now, these are just a few of the many indicators of acute and chronic stress levels; every horse is different and every horse reacts differently in the same situation.

This is where it is important to know what is normal for your horse and what is out of the ordinary.

Just as people maintain stress gauges, horses will too and this can be very upsetting for horse owners who are suddenly faced with health problems that seem to have come out of the blue.

The area of ​​emotional stress management that we have ventured into is relatively new and we have made great progress with many different horses in many different situations.

In the process of helping horses, their owners, and returning them to a level of performance that seemed to have fallen by the wayside, we have opened the door to many past problems that seemed unattainable in the past.

If you have a horse that you think would benefit from our services, please contact us and we would greatly appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about your horse and determine how we might be able to help you and your horse.

Well that covers what we wanted to go over today and we are always open to you with your feedback and ready for your feedback; so please do it!