05/05/2024
Mind growing!!!!
This past week I participated in Module 1 of Equine Hanna Somatics training. I had no idea that this week would change my life forever! I never knew that this method would release the pain I have experienced in my body for over 20 years. Excited to continue on this journey!
Chronic recurring muscle tension - where does it come from and why does it keep coming back? It's all in the BRAIN!
Regardless of the original cause, when muscle tension has been present for a while, it becomes habituated - this means the baseline tension levels of the affected muscles increases to match what the brain has adapted to as the ānew normal.ā This new normal baseline (aka resting muscle tone) is maintained by the brain stem continuously, except when it is temporarily over-ridden by excitement (food/friends/fear), inhibited by focused effort (training/performance), or disrupted by peripheral nervous system stimulation and reflexes (bodywork/chiro/manual therapies).
Drugs donāt affect this brain stem mediated muscle tension either, but can somewhat ease the resulting aches and pains it causes - temporarily - because once the inhibition or voluntary effort comes to an end, the unconscious tension pattern always reasserts itself - until it is changed. This can and often does go on for years, and is the basic neuroscience-based explanation for why stubborn habits, posture and muscle tension keep coming backā¦
Of course itās possible that in the current situation, a horse is experiencing acute stress or pain that is causing a worried expression and to bracing or compensation in the body, but SO OFTEN I hear from horse owners that they have tried everything to make sure the horse has been treated and trained correctly, and has their basci needs met with friends, forage and freedom to move, but the lameness, stiffness, soreness and crookedness JUST KEEPS COMING BACK. This suggests to me that most horses with posture, movement or soundness issues (statistically 80% are clinically unsound) are still experiencing old tension patterns that may have started as useful compensations for injuries or traumas in the past, but are still showing up in the body!
The good news is that chronic unconscious muscle tension like this is easily reversed once itās identified and you understand that it is the result of impulses coming from the brain, NOT from trauma or tension being āheldā or stored in the body or muscles themselves, as most people mistakenly believe. (This is not my opinion btw, this is basic neuroscience and neuromuscular physiology available in almost any decent textbook on these subjects, but for some reason is still regarded as ānewā in the medical, veterinary, equine training and bodywork industries).
To correct the chronic tension, we need to cause a specific part of the equine brain to re-adjust the baseline tension levels it has learned to maintain as the ācurrent neutral.ā Unfortunately, most therapies, bodywork or training methods available to us today are either interacting only with the peripheral nervous system and spinal cord, or are relying on inhibition by the conscious parts of the brain, rather than activating the unconscious parts of the brain that actually control muscle tension and relaxation LEVELS (not just in the moment).
Luckily, there is a way to access those parts of the brain! We can do it by using a natural reflex called Pandiculation - a reflex that is already embedded in the horses nervous system programming, and is designed to do exactly this - to bring awareness of the tension to the right parts of the brain, and then reset them back to the original resting length! This is what we teach bodyworkers and horse owners to do with Equine Hanna SomaticsĀ®, which is not bodywork per se (although it can look like it from the outside) but is a movement-based training method in which the horse participates voluntarily (this is the KEY to accessing the right part of the horses brain to affect resting muscle tone). You can learn to DIY the basics from our intro instructional video, or find an EHS practitioner to work with you and your horse here: www.equinehannasomatics.org
