little farm

14/03/2024

Thank you Sofia and my beautiful children for making this all possible. ❤

05/03/2024

All my clients are uneek and wonderful However today I had Phillip. Phillip wanted to learn to ride a horse and today marked the start of the horse bug. I'm very proud of what was accomplished today. Phillip is completely blind, he saddled and fitter gear to Perry. He learnt about aware in the saddle and how to halt using a half halt. Phillip was a pleasure to work with, not to mention Perry was a sweet patient horse, like usual. Hard to believe this horse nearly ended up at the knackers.

14/02/2024

Hey everyone I have some internet briefly. We are all okay, no damage to property or ponies. There is a massive amount of damage done to Mirboo North. Staying positive and swinging the chainsaw today. Thank you everyone for reaching out it means the world to us to know we are thought of. ❤

05/02/2024

Little paddock Royal chimes
Suited to a child or small adult 13.3 3/4 hh riding pony.
If your looking for the sweetest mount and drop dead georgous. Chimes will take care of any rider of all ages. This mare really is a genuine childs pony, she tries her hardest to please her riders . serious enquiries 0477 570 855
2023 and earlier https://youtu.be/hdBGuEsCctA?si=b-TudMCQjki8B1lR
2024 https://youtu.be/vJCp8L1nwCs?si=Zylyrcny-biUu_mq

05/02/2024

Little Paddock Royal Chimes
Suited to child or small adult. Riding pony mare 13.3 3/4. Reachout if you are wanting the safest, sweetest pony that is drop dead georgous. Ring Natasha 0477 570 855

15/01/2024

Depression is a bitch, jumps up and bites you when you least expect it. I rarely talk about this topic. I woke up and just needing lots of self talk today. As a suffer most of my life, it's a daily conversation. I'm a very private person who says a lot of nothing usually. Some days are harder than others. I have learnt the skills to prevent a spiral out of control. While I'm not in a dark hole, just feeling a bit debilitated by it today. Made myself go to the shops, clean sheets, tidy my bedroom and just about to do some gardening. Fore planning is not happening right now, baby steps. Sending love to everyone who has supported, been patient and kind on this roller coaster called life. 💗

02/01/2024

✨✨✨✨

20/12/2023

Chimes is still looking for a home. Beautiful kind mare. 13.3 and a bit hh

10/12/2023

https://youtu.be/bvsbvbGFKo0?si=8l4cAtLXLZuJFv_L

In 2008, Luise and Julie went to Warendorf, Germany's "City of Horses" to interview Dr Gerd Heuschmann, a whistleblowing FEI veterinarian of budding notoriet...

07/12/2023

Yep

20/11/2023

One more to go. Shilo is past her due date.

19/11/2023

19/11/2023

The first of many pics from a huge weekend. Jane and Othello are really coming along nicely. 1 seconds and 1 first. Today's working Equitation official anwe competition.

14/11/2023

Brilliant article. I agree with so much of this. I'm always encouraging riders to slow down. Give you ponies time to process and build confidence. Enjoy❤

Comparative neurobiology of horse and human.

Horses and humans are both mammals.
Our brains may not be the same size, but they are almost identical in their structure and function.

Why can our brains look so similar but our behaviours and sensitivity to the world look so different?

The area in the picture highlighted is the prefrontal cortex or the (PFC). Its job in humans, horses, dogs, dolphins, elephants, cats, mice, rats, all mammals, and even birds is to carry out "higher executive functions" such as:

🧠 problem solving
🧠 decision making
🧠 reasoning
🧠 risk assessment
🧠 forward planning
🧠 impulse control
🧠 intention

Obviously, these executive functions are more advanced in humans than in other species of mammals, but this part of the brain plays a pivotal role in higher levels of learning beyond primal behaviours and learning survival skills.

So why aren't we seeing these higher executive functioning skills and behaviours in horses as much as what we see them in dogs, dolphins, elephants and even birds?

Ultimately it comes down to safety!

The latest neuroscience research suggests that when the brain feels unsafe it causes the body to produce stress response hormones and these stress response hormones cause the PFC to go "offline".
This means that subcortical regions of the brain (deeper parts of the brain) such as the primal brain (AKA limbic system, survival brain, flight/fight brain) completely take over to increase the chances of survival.

Feeling unsafe causes the feeling of fear and it is fear that gets this party started.

So behaviours come from two areas:

1. The PFC, carrying out problem solving skills, reasoning, impulse control, forward planning etc. that may be interpreted as "obedience" and "partnership".

2. The primal brain, carrying out reactive survival behaviours. This brain does NOT carry out impulse control, forward planning, problem solving, etc. It just reacts to the world. This brain heavily relies on patterns and consistency. This brain will cause freeze/flight/fight behaviours such as shutting down, bolting, biting, rearing, bucking, kicking, barging, etc.

Which brain is the domesticated horse spending most of it's time in?
It's primal brain!

This is why we don't get to see their full intellectual and cognitive potential because most of the time, domesticated horses are perceiving their world in a fearful way to some degree.

We can help our horses with this!

Feeling fearful is the OPPOSITE to feeling calm.
If we want to help our horses access their PFC then we MUST do whatever it takes to help them feel calm.

☝️ ONLY when a brain feels calm can it slow down enough to develop TRUE confidence. Only when the brain feels confident will it access TRUE cognition (PFC).

☝️ We first need to understand that when we get "bad behaviour" from our horses, it's not intentional or naughty or rude. What you are seeing is either a horse that is just reacting to the fear they feel or they are carrying out their "coping mechanism" in response to their anticipation of feeling fear.

☝️ Try to remove expectations that your horse should "know better".
"Knowing better" implies that all behaviours are coming from the PFC and there should be some impulse control and reasoning. Unless your horse feels calm, they can't access the PFC to "know better".

THIS STARTS WITH YOU!!!

You need to be consciously aware if YOU feel calm first. If you feel calm, your horse will have a better chance at feeling calm. Expecting them to feel calm when you don't is unfair.

The best way to create calmness is to intentionally be SLOW!!!
SLOW EVERYTHING you do down.
SLOW your movement down.
SLOW your talking down.
SLOW your walking down.
SLOW your breathing down.
SLOW your horse down.
If you feel too slow, then you're going slow enough.

Calmness is slow, not fast.

This will help you and your horse to connect and feel safe together.
When the brain feels stressed, the stress response hormones cause the body to speed up.

Stress = speed

We can reverse engineer this process and create a calm mind through slow intentional movement and a relaxed posture.

The by-product of a calm brain is confidence and cognition (PFC access).

Happy brain training 🧠
Charlotte 😊

Photo: Credit: Adult horse (equine) brain, sagittal section. Michael Frank, Royal Veterinary College. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

19/10/2023

More pink photos, Miss Cc this time.

17/10/2023

Perry didn't approve of pink