04/08/2025
In this clip Clayton is working with Lil Miss Texas a yearling by Rawhides Slide out of SPD Freckled Olena. Texas has a bright future with her breeders and owners Tom and Ashleigh Cole.
There’s a lot of cool stuff going on in this session and we can’t help ourselves but share one other thing in particular with you.
Learning to regulate their nervous system is something we keep high on the list for all the horses that come through our program. What does that mean? Well like us a horse’s nervous system impacts all aspects of a horse’s body and health in a profound way. In a nut shell the nervous system is the circuitry that is the brain, spinal cord, and all of the nerves found throughout their entire body. For the science geeks here’s a juicey full of big fancy neurophysiological words explanation…
“In order to behave appropriately within a shifting environment, the horse’s brain must gather information from sensory receptors such as the retinae and epithelial somatosensory receptors, and convey these via the sensory branches of the peripheral nervous system (PNS) to the spine, and then the brain. Following a process of integration, influenced by a combination of genomic, genetic, and epigenetic processes as well as prior experience (learning), and appropriate behavioral response is issued….” (S.D. McBride, M.O. Parker, K. Roberts, A. Hemmings, Applied Neurophysiology of the Horse; Implications for Training, Husbandry, and Welfare., 2017)
In short it’s their retinae that sees that plastic bag blowing across the arena and their epithelial receptors that feel your long rain coat brush their flank and take that message to the brain via their nerve circuitry. Their individual combination of genomic, genetic, and epigenetic processes determines quite a bit but one of the most impactful influences most of us have available to work with is their experience.
In our opinion one of the coolest things Lil Miss Texas shows us in this clip is just how much genomic, genetic, and epigenetic processes play a role. This filly’s stress resilience is already high meaning her window of tolerance is pretty darn big. She is confident and thinking. Her flight response is lower than one who may be bred differently. Now don’t confuse flight response with feel. She is one feely little girl but she is confident and she is processing at lightening speed. We’re looking to enhance her processing system not detract from it. Lil Miss Texas is also a clean slate when it comes to experience so the stage is perfectly set.
For Clayton all of the above meant he had to firm up a bit in order to become relevant in this session. No different than a horse firming up on another horse just not nearly as fast, strong, or toothy. This filly is not dull by any means she just doesn’t begin with the belief that he takes priority over what is going on at that moment in her environment. For the record none of them do because why would they? Off camera literally all the other babies and horses were bucking farting and running around. Probably safe to say we’ve all see mature horses struggle to maintain focus with that kind of circus going on. Lil Miss Texas being drawn by it sure won’t be held against her but it does create the perfect opportunity for her to begin learning how to regulate her nervous system. How to focus. How to be with a person. How to be present in the conversation. That doesn’t mean she isn’t allowed to look away we just want her to understand she can look away and still stay in the conversation. You see her get that figured out in this session. We’d like to think someday when she’s at a show and someone’s horse gets loose or someone in the crowd causes a commotion at most she might glance over but not lose focus on the job at hand. Building a horse that can hear our whisper despite outside noise is important no matter what their future holds.
With that in mind watch closely how she responds to pressure and relief. You’ll see her up regulate (looking to leave, kick out) but what’s really cool is you’ll see her down regulate just as fast. I sound like Rain Woman as many times as I commented on her going to her mouth and cocking that back foot. But knowing its her genetics that are responsible for her brain and PNS circuitry I was in awe at the speed with which she was processing. She is truly currently almost exclusively a product of her breeding. Her nervous system has been built to process, to regulate. Her acetylcholine kicks in and says this guy might be a little dangerous. Then her norepinephrine kicks in and gets her body moving. Last when we watch her stop moving and work her mouth we know her brain has created dopamine and she is getting a big serving of “reward” for her choice to settle and focus. The best thing? She is bridging that reward chemistry not just to Clayton but to being handled. This builds a horse that is the first to volunteer for work because they feel good about the work because the work makes them feel good.
And that my friends is about one of the coolest things we think a person can do with horse.
