So, what does this all of this neuroscience mean for us as EFW/ EAS folks? 

This is a section of the course which I’m quite sure I’ll be updating regularly as new connections (or perhaps even new neural pathways!) and aha’s around all of what we explore in this course happen in my own brain, but I’ll share some key application pieces for now and look forward to hearing your own applications and aha moments as you would like to share these!

I  also had an early version of this section reviewed and edited by Janet Jones as some of this material is grounded in my learnings from her research and writing.  So a huge thank you to Janet for catching my mistakes and adding in suggestions that I initially missed!

Keeping Our Clients and Equine Partners Physically and Emotionally Safe

Having an accurate understanding of how the equine brain works, and how it differs from ours, is critical for us to keep our clients, our equines and ourselves physically and emotionally safe during EFW/EAS sessions.  Assuming that our equines experience, think and process stimuli and information just like we do can lead us all into dangerous territory.

Having a better understanding of how equines experience their world, process stimuli and emotion, learn, remember, and react or respond to potential threat can also make us better equine handlers, trainers and partners. Once we start to see things from their perspective we can stop blaming them for doing things that are part of their natural makeup, or for not doing things which their brains simply don’t allow them to do. We can create environments for them that help them feel safe and learning experiences to match their many skills and abilities. We can also become more aware of what we may be teaching them unintentionally and not blame them for the results of that!

I’ve come up with a list (definitely not exhaustive) of recommendations grounded in this understanding. Most of these recommendations and considerations are already included in various sections of our EFW/ EAS training at Healing Hooves, but now we have the neuroscience to explain WHY and to support these recommendations. These are all points we can also coach and support our clients around as appropriate.

1. Remember and normalise that as flight animals with brains that receive, process and act on stimuli differently than ours do, our equines may spook, run, shy or otherwise try to move to safety in response to stimuli which we can’t see, didn’t notice, can’t smell and/ or have assessed (using our pre frontal cortex) to be of no threat. Thus, always allowing the equine an ‘exit route’, keeping our clients in safe zones around the equines, staying on our feet (not on our knees or sitting) around equines, wearing suitable foot and head gear, moving slowly and calmly, grounding prior to equine time, allowing equines time to check out a new environment and smell new things, and all of the other physical safety considerations we discuss throughout trainings now make even more sense.

2. If an equine does react to something during a session, we can often depersonalise this as natural and not a rejection of the client or the relationship. The flip side of this is to guard against any romanticising of the human equine relationship to think or say that they would never do anything to hurt us.  Remember the article from Leif Hallberg in Exploration training? She stated that when triggered, an equine is not thinking relationally and will most likely react quickly to ensure their own safety. Now we know why.

3. Aim to listen for and respond to our equines’ whispers. They are always communicating something through body language and early warning signs and if we can read and respond to these it will avoid the need for our equine’s to move to bigger levels of communication. This is something we explore theoretically and experientially through our work with Sue Falkner March and in the horsemanship sections of trainings.  We can also build many aspects of this into EFW/ EAS sessions in ways which support a client’s therapeutic goals as well as keeping client and equine safe.

4. Whenever you are interacting with an equine, first take the time to regulate/ ground yourself. We integrate this into every aspect of training and sessions at Healing Hooves and help you discover and practice many different ways of approaching it. The same applies to your clients. There are many opportunities to integrate this into clients’ non equine goals and growth.

5. When your equine communicates (hopefully at the whisper stage) some level of concern or distress, listen and respond. This can include releasing any pressure you are applying, practicing calming signals, breathing, allowing the equine space and to move (if safe). If this happens in a client session you may need to move the client to safety as you do this. Get curious about what may be happening for the horse without making assumptions, and be cautious about making it about the client. Remember our equines are so much more than mirrors!

6. When taking our equine into the barn/ arena/ a different pasture we would be well advised to allow them time to use their senses to assess safety. Let them have a good look (with both eyes) and time to smell and listen before asking them to go to work in any way.

7. If we moved or changed something in our equines’ environment since they were there last time, or if we approach it from a different angle, remember this is a new object to them and let them check it out!

8. Be aware of how equines see colour. For example, if we want or need them to notice something, use yellow or turquoise, or white against a darker background.  If we want to not overstimulate them, don’t use yellow (or turquoise). Using red, green, or darker muted colors that blend with the background would be less stimulating and less noticeable.

9. Remember that what we can see, hear and smell may be quite different to what our equines see, hear and smell in the same moment and environment. We may miss things they are concerned about and they may initially miss and then suddenly become aware of something we have been aware of all along. Our equines also have many blind spots.

10. If an equine seems unsure of something, give him the opportunity to see it from the side (not straight on) and to sniff it and give him/ her lots of time to make sense of our human world and all we are requiring our equines to encounter and process.

11. Always approach equines from the side and invite them to smell you.

12. Be aware of our timing when we either release pressure or reward our equine in any way. Janet Jones’ research has indicated that there is a neurological maximum time of 3.5 seconds to provide positive reinforcement and this is only available provided our equine doesn’t offer any other behaviour within those 3.5 seconds! And release of pressure (negative reinforcement) has to happen instantly.

13. Remember mirror neurons and the option of our equines learning through observation, including when we don’t intend for this to happen. This can also apply to our own and client’s learning too.

14. Never punish an equine; all they will learn from this is to fear you and everything else connected to that lesson. If you feel your frustration creeping up, use your prefrontal cortex and take a break.

15. Consider exploring ways to support your equines’ training and learning through inviting and making space for their curiosity. When using behavioural strategies use positive or combined reinforcement over negative where this is possible, only seek to train an equine when both of you are regulated, and aim to avoid the use of threats and bribes!

16. Try to avoid restricting an equine’s peripheral vision; it’s a way for them to assess safety.

17. Try to avoid direct eye contact with an equine (that’s what predators do). Instead, look around at the environment – they may come to trust that you are going to notice any danger so they can relax and leave it up to you. Remember our material from Foundation training on being the caretaking alpha here!  If they do seem to be uneasy, have a good look around, listen and maybe even sniff the air.  You may discover what they are concerned about and/ or you may reassure them that you have their back and they can relax.

18. If there’s an unexpected noise try to show them the source of it. This could be as simple as going to a source of music to turn it on (or up) rather than using a remote.

19. This should be obvious, but never creep up on or try to hide from your equine. Always speak as you approach an equine or an area where others are working with equines.

20. As horse handlers and facilitators in this work we are responsible for understanding and taking up a relationship with our own autonomic nervous system and to stay within our window of tolerance at all times.  When others (client or horse) become dysregulated we should have a range of strategies (including coregulation) to keep everyone safe (physically and emotionally), to allow for the safe expression of emotion as appropriate and to help all to return to a regulated state/ their window of tolerance. This often requires us to recognise and make space for our own emotions and triggers, to do our own healing and personal growth, and to broaden our own window of tolerance where possible.

21. Wherever possible we should allow our horses the space and time to safely ‘discharge’  any ‘charge’ that arises from a sympathetic nervous system activation to an (actual or perceived) threat. And thus to naturally return to their para sympathetic nervous system.  Or to put is simply, what goes up should be allowed to come back down. Clearly we should not endanger a client or ourselves in this process, thus setting things up so that everyone’s safety can be maintained is the goal.

22. Include opportunities for our equines to expand their window of tolerance through the invitation to explore and experience new things with an internal locus of control.

Enhancing the Client Equine Bond

Understanding our equine partners’ brains can be very powerful in helping us understand what may be happening for both our equine and our client during a session and in facilitating and supporting the development of a relationship between the client and our equine/s which will hopefully lead to healing and growth for the client (and maybe us too!) Some key points to remember include the following:

1. Equines DO have the ability to experience and express varied emotions and to read and respond to these emotions in others (including us) which both allows us to explore these emotions ‘one step removed’ with our clients through our animals’ experiences and stories and invites clients to experience a genuine and reciprocal emotional connection and relationship with our animals.

2. Equines, like humans, are social animals. While the research has not explained much of what is precisely happening within the equine brain during social or bonding interactions with other equines or with humans (yet) we do know that they, like us, possessed an evolutionary need to form attachments, that they can express their own emotions and read/ respond to those in others (equine and human), that they are attuned to chemical changes in our bodies related to emotional experiences and can participate in co-regulation with both equines and humans. This further supports our conclusion in point #1 above.

3. Equines simply do not have the parts or functioning of the brain that would allow them to plan or seek revenge, intend to harm anyone, hold grudges, tell lies, misrepresent themselves or judge others. They show us their truth and they see us as we are in that moment. This can be an incredibly powerful experience for a client and we can trust (and encourage them to trust) that it is real.  No equine professional facade at work here! This is where I come back to the Rogerian conditions of empathy, genuineness and unconditional positive regard.  Equines truly are uniquely and incredibly well designed to offer this!A slightly different perspective on this is to consider that, without the PFC assessment phase most humans have, equines’ emotional expression can be considered ‘purer’ than ours and can be easier to observe and learn from. It can sometimes be challenging to decipher what a human is feeling from their behaviour, at least in part because of the extra layers of analysis that are applied in between emotion and behaviour. Once we have the awareness of how they differ from us, equines can be easier to understand and, for our clients, perhaps easier to believe and then form connections with. Ideally this can be a bridge towards also developing healthier relationships with humans too, but our equines can provide a safer place to start.

4. Equine do not (we think) possess the ability for categorical perception. While this creates additional safety considerations (e.g. allowing them enough time to scrutinise familiar objects that have moved) there is also an up-side to this that can be very helpful within an EFW/ EAS environment. While our (human) ability in this area allows us to recognise that a chair is still a chair even if it has fallen over, this aspect of our brain functioning can also lead us to making (sometimes unconscious) assumptions about different ‘categories’ of people.  This can lead to various “ism’s” and prejudices that equines simply do not (and cannot) partake in. For clients who have been victim to judgement, discrimination and assumption from other humans, knowing that equines will treat each human they encounter as a unique and new individual can be refreshing. This perspective can also go a long way towards creating that ‘invitation to exist in my presence’ we talk about throughout every step of training at Healing Hooves. Understanding, honouring and forming relationships with equines as they truly are (rather than assuming they are either like us or inferior to us ) also provides us and our clients a new frame of reference for ‘different’ as not having anything to do with superiority or inferiority.  Equines are intelligent and well designed for life as it evolved for them. We have a different evolutionary story with different needs and thus different brains. There are many possible applications of this within our work with clients.

5. Remember that an equine is not a mirror and not all they do is about us or our client! It is a popular narrative in our field to view everything the equine does as being about us, often described as some form of reflection of our internal state. When we think about it this is a rather narcissistic perspective which doesn’t make space for the equine’s true self in the relationship and interaction. Yes an equine is going to respond to what is happening within our nervous system, and they may well do this more authentically and clearly than other humans do. But their response is about far more than us – it’s also about them, the broader context, their past and more.  Where we go with this is our client work is going to depend on many factors (which we explore within our EFW training) but we, as those responsible for our equines wellbeing, need to always see the equine and his/ her own being in these interactions and relationships.

6. There will be times when a client sees/ interprets something quite different in our equines’ behaviour. For example, if an equine walks away from a client, that client may experience rejection, abandonment, judgement and a wide range of other emotions. I don’t suggest we immediately challenge this out loud to the client, but I do recommend that we reframe it for our own understanding and get curious about what may be happening for the client in that moment. How we respond to the client will depend on many factors. Yes, the client may be projecting parts of themselves onto the equine and his actions, and/or being triggered to past hurts from other relationships in that moment.  The client may benefit from being invited and allowed to feel and express this part and these emotions and to keep it ‘indirect’ and (safely) about the equine and the present moment until they are ready to connect the dots for themselves. Or, the client may simply be making some of the same assumptions almost all people do about why equines do what they do, in which case a reframe may be appropriate.

7. The equine prey response can help us – and our clients – better understand, discuss and take up a relationship with the human prey response including within trauma. This provides us with an opportunity to normalise and respect the stress response AND explore where we get stuck and how to address this.  We explore this in depth in Healing Hooves trainings when we explore the functional v. dysfunctional alarm response.  A deeper understanding of the equine prey response can guide and support our own understanding and how we can integrate a truly trauma sensitive awareness into our EFW/EAS approach.

8. Understanding our equines ‘as they really are’ invites a client to connect initially through where we are the same and then to find deeper levels of connection through honouring, making space for and celebrating the differences. This ties in really well with the attachment model (from Dr. Gordon Neufeld) we teach in Healing Hooves trainings and can be a wonderful way to support a client in deepening their attachments – initially with the equines and then with themselves and others in their lives.

Are We Anthropomorphising?

Anthropomorphism is essentially ascribing human characteristics or behaviour to animals.

Are we guilty of anthropomorphism in EFW/ EAS?

I suggest that this depends on our approach.

In terms of exploring the clients’ experience in response to the animal, where this is focused on the clients’ own emotions, thoughts, behaviours and process this is probably not anthropomorphism.  If the client’s emotional response is grounded in something they believe the horse is thinking, intending or feeling then this may well be anthropomorphism, but I rarely challenge them purely for the sake of correcting their knowledge, as my job is to support their wellbeing and growth, not to teach them equine neuroscience. Provided this does not put anyone’s wellbeing (including that of the equine at risk. This is an area we explore in depth during foundations and focus training at Healing Hooves.

In terms of exploring, discussing, and observing the expression of an animals’ emotions we have plenty of evidence to support animals having rich emotional lives and experiencing some of the same emotions we do. That being said, none of us can safely make assumptions about another’s emotions even when that other is human, so when we are exploring our animals’ emotions with a client, or seeking to interpret our animals’ behaviours ourselves in terms of what they may be experiencing emotionally, I encourage we exercise caution about making assumptions, that we keep our ‘conclusions’ about others’ experiences tentative, that we listen a little better and a little longer, and that we seek to better know and understand the context. It’s also important to remember that our equine partners process their emotions differently than we do as we have extra ‘checkpoints’ in our brain between stimulus and action than equines do.

Where we may well be stepping into more dangerous ground is when we start speculating about the horses’ thought processes and particularly any time we assign pre-planned intent to a horse’s behaviour. Horses don’t plot revenge, hold grudges, deliberately cause us harm with intent, or assign blame.  How do I know this? Because these are all cognitive processes that require a dorso lateral prefrontal cortex; which we know horses do not have.  Is there a possibility that there is some form of this processing that happens in another part of the equine brain that neuroscientists don’t know about yet?  There may be! But from what I’ve studied so far, I don’t think that is very likely and certainly it is not present any where close to the same extent as it is in humans.

Janet added,  “a third factor here is that equine intelligence can often be explained by the superiority of horses’ memories. Without a (dorso lateral) prefrontal cortex, horses’ memories are more “pure” than humans.”  She also noted a need for caution: “when we ascribe a level of consciousness to equine emotion or thought. And when assuming that knowledge of past and future have the same effect on a horse that they have on a human.”

So what about my stories?  Sometimes when I share one of my stories with a young client they ask, “Did this really happen?” My response is that some of the events (e.g. the day the water trough broke and the fact that Maggie regularly chases her egg when I’m feeding the horses) did and/ or do happen, and that the animals’ behaviour in situations described in the story fit with how I see them behaving in those and in similar situations. However, the discussions between the horses and what they were thinking at those times are both speculative and fictional. Is there anthropomorphism in there? Definitely, but I’m OK with that when it’s clearly within the context of a story.

What about the Mystery?

As much as I’m seeking in this course to understand more about how equine brains work and to apply this in ways which will hopefully enhance the effectiveness and safety of EFW/ EAS, I still feel a strong need to acknowledge that there remains much I, and we as a species, don’t understand, and perhaps never will!

Some (ok, lots!) will be pieces that I just don’t understand yet, and that I can seek to learn about, and share with my students, as I continue my own learning journey. I’m confident I will learn some of these pieces from you, my students, as we discuss the material in this course together! There are no doubt many other pieces that even the neuroscientists haven’t figured out yet, but will do in time.

I believe there’s a third piece here too though – aspects that may remain a mystery to all of us, and I’m good with that.

There are the times when one of my horses ‘shows up’ for a client at exactly the right moment and in exactly the right way. Like the day I was with a client in our back pasture doing some trauma work, with the horses spread out over a 15 acre pasture. Just as he was processing an intense moment of feeling alone, insignificant and abandoned, my whole herd drew in close. Lucky coincidence? Perhaps, but I’ve witnessed this sort of thing happen too many times now to explain it that way. Did they feel and respond to my client’s emotion? Research certainly indicates that they can perceive emotions in others, but that doesn’t fully explain their response that day. Were they tapping into some form of ‘knowing’ that we don’t yet understand? Neuroscience would suggest their brains are not built that way, but certainly can’t rule it out.

An area of research which comes to mind here is Heartmath. The following short video provides a bit of an introduction to Heartmath and horses:

You can also find more information about heartmath here: https://www.heartmath.org/heart-coherence/ and about the research completed with horses here: https://equusmagazine.com/blog-equus/california-study-documents-horse-heart-rate-coherence-and-links-to-human-interaction/

There are also many anecdotes which show things like dogs knowing when their owners are on their way home, even when the timing is different from any normal routines and their owner is many miles away; animals finding their way through unknown territory to old homes (or owners) well beyond what their sense of smell could explain; and animals who seem to sense and respond to a human’s distress or danger even when separated by several hundred miles. I don’t have an explanation for these examples and when I ran this past Janet she stated, “neuroscience has not yet begun to study such examples or attempt to provide explanations for it.”  An interesting (if somewhat controversial in academic circles!) book if this area of discussion interests you is, “Dogs that know when their owners are coming home and other unexplained powers of animals‘ by Rupert Sheldrake PhD.  Dr. Sheldrake suggests that these phenomena depend, at least to some extent, on the bond between the human and animal. Thus it comes back to attachment again!

One of my favourite quotes comes to my mind here:

“I would rather live in a world where my life is surrounded by mystery than live in a world so small that my mind could comprehend it.”
Harry Emerson Fosdick.

So, while I will continue in my quest to understand more, I’m also Ok with some aspects of the equine brain, and how they input into our EFW/ EAS sessions, remaining a bit of a mystery. In fact I celebrate it!

Discussion and Reflection

• Please share and reflect upon any additional application/s of the material you have thought  of – to equine care, horsemanship and EAS/ EFW (or to your own equine context if different) – both with regards to safety and the effectiveness of our sessions.
• How do anticipate what you’ve learned in this course will impact how you interact with and care for equines?
• Please also let me know if you have any questions or feedback for me on this part of the course!