Horse’s Nervous System & Healing
As a prey animal, the horse’s nervous system is hard wired to be on high alert, ready to flee from danger at a moment’s notice. This has a huge impact on how they interact and respond to us and healing. As prey animals, we know horses will do whatever they can to hide weakness or injury. This can make a bodyworker's job more difficult. How ?
Well, the horse’s sympathetic nervous system or, “fight or flight,” overrides the pain response utilizing adrenaline, inflammation and hormones such as cortisol to protect the horse from danger which then creates inflammation or a brace response in the body. This makes it difficult for the limbic system to access healing throughout the body and access a parasympathetic nervous system. Creating a neural feedback loop which generates a consistent firing of compensatory patterning.
To facilitate healing, the parasympathetic nervous system needs to be accessed or in the very least the body needs to be reminded that proper function or movement is available through integration. As body workers we are working to bring circulation and flow back into the tissue, to stimulate and activate the musculoskeletal structures and encourage a rewiring of compensatory patterns and nervous system response. This, as you can well imagine, is the difficult dance we as bodyworkers are trying to manipulate through the tissue to regain parasympathetic nervous system access.
Patterns are present in all things, in us, the ecosystem, our surroundings and in both equine and human responses. Our patterning and conditioning drives how we carry our bodies, this idea is the same in horses. An example is our response to trauma and how it can develop holding patterns in our bodies, fascia and emotional responses. This is the exact same in horses, though they do not have access to healing the same way we do. The unravelling process looks different, while we can talk through patterning which allows us to pin point the center of the onion, this will arise differently in horses. This is what we look to achieve as bodyworkers, pin pointing the center of the onion, without the ability of the horse to tell us exactly who, what and where, they use their silent responses and patterns to communicate. The unraveling is the process we start in bodywork, to rebuild the horse’s patterns and nervous system response to active stimulus.
The first session horse to horse will always look a little different. As you can imagine, each horse has different history, needs and pain points. The initial steps require a level of trust in the bodyworker - horse relationship, to create space for the parasympathetic nervous system to open up and continue to be open to receiving the work. This can take multiple sessions, particularly in cases with acute injury or chronic pain. The horse’s nervous system is in overdrive to try to protect oneself.
Breaking the pain response to facilitate flow and circulation in the body is where a team approach comes in. The physiological aspects of this process takes place on a cellular level as the body searches for homeostasis and an emotional level where the body seeks safety in the process.
