JoyRide Equestrian, LLC

14/12/2025

Fixing the fence with my helpers.

11/12/2025

Friends 🦄🦄

11/12/2025

☀️

11/12/2025

07/12/2025

Dragging the arena with my buddy.

07/12/2025

Handsome, very fuzzy boys’ photoshoot.

07/12/2025

Photo by Emma

02/12/2025

Most people underestimate what actually happens in the brain when stress, fear or overwhelm hits. We often talk about “mindset,” “self-control,” or “staying calm,” as if these are conscious choices always available. But biology doesn’t work that way.

There is a predictable, measurable sequence that occurs in any mammal under threat:

the limbic system takes control,
and higher-order thinking becomes limited or unavailable.

Once this shift happens, neither humans nor horses can reason, learn, or “behave better.” The body has already decided that survival comes first.

In humans, the prefrontal cortex is the seat of reasoning, planning, impulse control and reflective thinking. People assume it’s always accessible, but it only functions well when the nervous system feels safe.

During high sympathetic arousal -the classic fight-or-flight response - neural activity shifts away from the prefrontal cortex toward the faster, reactive survival circuits. Blood flow changes, stress hormones surge, and processing becomes rapid and instinctive rather than thoughtful.

Psychology sometimes calls this an amygdala hijack. It isn’t a literal hijacking, but it’s a helpful shorthand for limbic dominance overriding the slower, deliberate thinking pathways.

This is why a person in panic cannot “think their way out of it.”
Their thinking brain isn’t available.
Their biology is louder than your words.

So what happens in Dorsal Vagal | Shutdown?

In dorsal vagal states - freeze, collapse, dissociation - cognitive access is also reduced, but for different reasons. Instead of hyperarousal, the system goes into metabolic conservation. Energy and neural resources withdraw. Sensation dulls. Awareness shrinks. The person disconnects internally and externally.

Different pathway. Same outcome: limited access to higher cognition.
This isn’t a behavioural choice - it’s an autonomic reflex.

Horses also have an amygdala and limbic system that guide their threat responses. But their cognitive architecture is not like ours. They do not rely on a human-like prefrontal cortex for abstract reasoning, conceptual interpretation or narrative processing.

Their cognition is:
• immediate
• sensory-driven
• movement-oriented
• deeply tied to safety

So when a horse enters a sympathetic state - the spook, bolt, brace, reactive movement, heightened startle - nothing is being “hijacked.” There is no “thinking brain” to override in the human sense.

Their survival circuits simply take full priority.
They are not being stubborn or disrespectful.
They are over their THRESHOLD.

A horse in a limbic-driven state may respond to pressure or cues, but that isn’t learning. That is reflex. Behavioural compliance in high arousal happens through survival reflexes, not understanding.

High sympathetic activation produces:
• reflexive movement
• startle responses
• defensive behaviours
• impulsive decisions

Learning requires access to exploratory, social, perceptive pathways - the parts of the brain that only activate when the nervous system is regulated enough.

A horse in a survival state is not being disobedient. They are being biologically accurate.

Why does your nervous system matter to your horse?

When a horse is overwhelmed, they look for safety cues through:
• your breathing
• your muscle tension
• your posture
• your rhythm and movement
• your internal steadiness or lack of it

This is supported by research on social buffering and emotional contagion in herd animals. Horses read nervous systems, not instructions. If you escalate - tightening, shouting, pulling, bracing - you amplify the horse’s threat response. Their system mirrors yours.

Regulation is not passivity.
It’s grounded action instead of reactive action.

When you regulate:
• their heart rate shifts
• their startle threshold lowers
• their sensory field widens
• curiosity reappears
• movement becomes organised instead of chaotic

The nervous system returns to learning only when it feels safe.
You cannot instruct it back into place.

Why "CALM DOWN" doesn't work us or horses...

A person in panic cannot access higher reasoning.
A horse in sympathetic overload cannot “listen” or process cues.

Calm is not a command. Calm is a physiological state.

You cannot talk someone out of limbic dominance.
You cannot train a horse out of survival activation.

Both systems must come back into regulation first.

And for horses, the fastest pathway back to regulation is your nervous system.

This is an important nuance: Learning doesn't only happen in calm.

There is a healthy, regulated form of sympathetic activation where learning thrives - alert, engaged, energised, curious. The body is active, but the system is not overwhelmed.

This is where:
• play
• exploration
• liberty
• movement-based learning
• athletic training
• problem-solving

naturally occur.

Over-arousal shuts learning down. Healthy activation supports it.

The goal is not to force calm. The goal is to stay within the window where the system is “switched on” but still able to process information.

We are not anthropomorphising, we are talking biology here.

Everything described here is grounded in measurable physiology:
• vagal tone
• cortisol levels
• heart-rate variability
• limbic activation
• muscle tension patterns
• attentional narrowing
• metabolic shifts

This is not softness or emotion or opinion. This is mammalian survival architecture.

When you understand this:
• you stop blaming horses for being afraid
• you stop personalising behaviour
• you stop expecting logic in a survival state
• you stop fighting biology
• you start working with the nervous system

This is the foundation of compassionate, ethical, effective horsemanship.

At The Whole Horse Journey, this is exactly what we teach:
work with the nervous system, not against it.
Safety first. Connection first. Biology first.

01/12/2025

💤 💤

Photos by Mary.

01/12/2025

Fun chilly outing today with Hera and Emma/Secret at Cindy’s! Hera nickered three times at the horse in the mirror. Emma and Secret worked on stretching and relaxing and building connection gradually. Hera mastered the relax part 🤣 Thanks Mary for coming too!

29/11/2025

Pictured are the winners of the carrot race and axe throw, and second place winners!!

I think these games are now an annual Thanksgiving tradition 💙

29/11/2025

This is NOT anthropomorphism - it’s mammalian neuroscience. To be clear.

Most horse people have heard the term trigger stacking, but few truly understand what’s happening inside the horse’s body when it occurs. And fewer realise that humans experience the exact same nervous-system process.

This is not “treating horses like humans.” This is a biological truth.
Horses and humans share the same basic mammalian nervous system:

• sympathetic (fight/flight)
• parasympathetic (rest/digest)
• vagus nerve
• thresholds
• stress hormones
• startle responses

So comparing the experience is not only valid but it helps people understand, relate, and develop compassion.

So let us look at YOU the human reading this:

Think of a day like this:

• didn’t sleep well
• you’re running late
• the kids are shouting
• you stub your toe
• your phone keeps pinging
• someone snaps at you
• you’re worried about money
• the traffic is heavy
• you spill your coffee

You hold it together… until someone asks something tiny of you:

“Can you just... ?”

And suddenly you:

• snap
• cry
• shut down
• withdraw
• feel overwhelmed
• can’t cope
• overreact to something small

People think it was “the last thing.” But you know it wasn’t.
It was everything before it that pushed you past threshold.

This is trigger stacking.

And your reaction was NOT a meltdown, or disobedience, or manipulation. It was your nervous system saying:

“I cannot take one more demand.” and guess what friends? Horses are no different. Not because they are human like but because we share the same biological wiring. Isn't that just fascinating to comprehend?

Now, lets translate that from a horse's perspective...

A horse’s day might look like:

• didn’t sleep lying down
• herd tension
• flies irritating
• heat or humidity
• slight hoof discomfort
• a loud noise earlier
• a new horse on the farm
• a human arriving stressed
• pressure from the halter
• the saddle pinching
• uncertainty about what’s coming next

None of these alone may cause a big reaction. But inside the body, each one is adding sympathetic charge and slowly building on top of eachother stacking and stacking...

• small adrenaline spikes
• cortisol accumulation
• reduction in vagal tone
• increased muscle tension
• faster startle reflex
• sensory overload
• hypervigilance

Just like a human, the horse’s system is slowly filling the bucket.
Then the final moment happens when it all becomes too much:

• “Walk on.”
• “Just stand still.”
• “One more try.”
• someone closes a gate too loudly
• a bird takes off
• a leaf rustles
• your energy spikes

And the horse:

• spooks
• bolts
• balks
• bucks
• freezes
• shuts down
• refuses

People say, UGH “That came out of nowhere.” But it didn’t. It really did not. It came from every single moment that added to the stack.... Just like you.

This is NOT humanising horses. It is recognising shared mammalian reality.

When horses (and humans) experience multiple stressors, the same biological cascade happens:

• sympathetic activation rises
• cortisol stays elevated
• heart-rate variability decreases
• prefrontal cortex (thinking brain) goes offline
• limbic system (survival brain) takes over
• proprioception changes
• muscles brace
• breath shortens
• tolerance shrinks

This is why neither horse nor human can “think clearly” once the stack is high.

Neither is “naughty.”
Neither is “difficult.”
Neither is “dramatic.”

Both are overwhelmed. Let us please see it for what it is, in eachother and in horses.

And this is not anthropomorphising. Anthropomorphism is actually giving horses human thoughts, motives, or stories. This is different.

This is comparing shared physiology:

✓ We both have amygdalas
✓ We both have vagus nerves
✓ We both produce cortisol + adrenaline
✓ We both have startle reflexes
✓ We both have thresholds
✓ We both get overwhelmed
✓ We both shut down when we exceed capacity

This isn’t “treating horses like humans.” It’s understanding horses better by recognising what is universal to all mammals. You have lived through trigger stacking. You know what it feels like.

So when you see a horse “explode,” or “go blank,” or “overreact,” or “say no” - instead of judging, you understand.

You feel compassion. You soften. You respond differently.

This is why relating horse and human nervous systems is not anthropomorphism - it’s empathy rooted in biology.

How do we support our horses through trigger stacking?
Preventing the stack means supporting the nervous system:

Environmental

• herd stability
• forage
• movement
• predictable routine

Physical

• pain checks
• saddle fit
• hoof care
• vet care
• bodywork

Relational

• clear, consistent boundaries
• choice
• slowing down
• not pushing past threshold

Co-regulation

• you regulate first
• stable breath
• soft intention
• calm posture
• reading early signs

You are either lowering the stack… or unintentionally adding to it.

Horses don’t “react out of nowhere.” They react when their system can no longer cope, the same way you do.

When you realise this, everything shifts:

• behaviour becomes communication
• resistance becomes protection
• “naughty” becomes overwhelmed
• training becomes partnership
• pressure becomes patience
• correction becomes compassion

And the horse softens - not because they’re forced to… but because they finally feel safe. Just like you do when someone holds space for you, stays regulated when you can’t, listens without judgment, and meets you with gentleness instead of pressure.

We are not so different when it comes to how we feel things in our bodies. Meet the horse the way you would want to be met. ❤️