Horsynergy, Houston, TX (2026)

08/07/2026

What does whole horse rehabilitation actually look like?

To me, it looks less like chasing milestones...
..and more like patiently creating the conditions for change.

These before and after photos represent nearly two years of decompression time paired with thoughtful rehab.

Rehabilitation doesn't happen on a schedule.

It happens at the speed the individual horse can integrate physically, mentally, emotionally, and, I believe, spiritually.

Boone is a 9 year old gelding with a history of injuries among other things.

Like many horses recovering from injury, the majority of his interactions with people eventually became about management: treatments, bandage changes, medications, restrictions.

Those things were completely necessary and appropriate for his situation, but over time, they changed what human interaction meant to him.

Touch stopped predicting comfort and began predicting that something was about to be done to him.

I don't think he necessarily resented people; more he resented what people had come to represent.

One of the things this experience has reminded me of is something I try to keep in the back of my mind with every horse.

Every interaction is either a deposit or a withdrawal from the relationship.

Withdrawals are unavoidable. Injuries happen, medical care is necessary, and boundaries have to be maintained.

Those moments are part of responsible horsemanship, but they also remind me how important it is to continually make deposits when we can.

Moments where the horse experiences people as a source of safety rather than simply a source of expectation, moments of listening, and moments of curiosity.

Over the past months, we've supported him from many different directions: mineral balance, hoof balance, movement, environment, his relationship to people, his relationship to touch, and his nervous system.

All of those pieces worked together and slowly, his expression changed and he began seeking connection again.

Healing isn't something we do to horses. It's something we create the conditions for. Rehabilitation isn't about giving them something they never had. It's about removing the barriers so they can return to who they always had the capacity to be.

And sometimes the most important part is simply having the patience to let it unfold.

08/06/2026

Sometimes posture tells us more about the nervous system than the musculoskeletal system.

I was working with a horse recently who became anxious during the mounting process.

She would stand at the mounting block, but she wasn't truly comfortable.

Her head was elevated, her back was braced, and her muscles were tense.

One detail kept catching my attention.

The moment I stepped onto the mounting block and my head rose above hers, she immediately turned her head so she could put me in her off-side eye (in this case, her right eye). As soon as she anticipated seeing me on both sides, she could no longer comfortably keep me in her left eye.

She wasn't just reacting to the mechanics of mounting. She was telling me how vulnerable that transition felt to her.

Rather than allowing her to immediately reposition herself, I gently asked her to stay with me and keep me in her left eye.

The moment her expression softened, I stepped back down.

Then we repeated it. Again and again and again.

As her confidence grew, we gradually added another layer.

A hand resting lightly on her back and eventually, a leg over.

Always waiting for her nervous system to say, "I'm still with you."

As her anxiety faded, her posture changed all by itself.

Her head lowered, her withers began to lift, and the muscles through her back softened.

Her posture reflected a different internal state.

We often think of posture as something we create mechanically, but sometimes posture is the outward expression of whether the horse feels safe enough to organize differently.

This doesn't mean every postural challenge is emotional.

Pain, hoof balance, dental balance, nutrition, chronic muscle contraction, and movement habits all matter too.

But this horse was a beautiful reminder that sometimes postural change can be the result of a conversation between two nervous systems.

08/04/2026

Our horses don't just respond to what we do. They also respond to how we are.

I recently came across a post discussing the human nervous system's impact on the canine, and it made me think about how often we see the same thing with horses.

The post was talking about dog breeds that have a reputation for being more energetic, sensitive, or high-strung. While those breeds may naturally have a greater tendency toward vigilance or reactivity, they often appear very different depending on the nervous system of the person handling them.

A worried, anxious person can unintentionally amplify those tendencies.

A grounded, regulated person often creates the conditions for that same dog to settle, think, and organize themselves more easily.

The breed hasn't changed.

The nervous system they're interacting with has.

I think the same principle applies to horses.

Some breeds and individuals are naturally more reactive, more sensitive, or quicker to notice changes in their environment than others. Those tendencies are real.

But genetics are only part of the story.

Every interaction between horse and human is also an interaction between two nervous systems.

Horses read our breathing, muscle tone, movement quality, attention, and emotional state. They don't simply respond to the cue we intend to give. They respond to the entire picture.

We've all seen a version of this.

An owner struggles with a particular behavior, then hands the lead rope to a trainer and suddenly the horse softens, the pushing stops and the dancing around disappears. The horse seems to take a breath.

Sometimes that's because the trainer has clearer timing or more experience.

But sometimes part of what changes is the nervous system entering the conversation.

That doesn't mean we have to be perfectly calm all the time and it certainly doesn't mean we can simply act calm.

Horses are remarkably good at detecting incongruence. We can soften our voice and slow our movements, but if internally we're anxious, frustrated, or anticipating something going wrong, there's often a mismatch between what our body is saying and what we're trying to communicate.

Regulation isn't about putting on a performance.

It's about becoming more aware of our own internal state and learning how to genuinely return to a place of organization and presence.

That presence creates conditions that make it easier for the horse to regulate alongside us.

Notice I said easier.

Because our nervous system is only one piece of the puzzle.

A horse living with pain, chronic muscle tension, nutritional imbalances, poor hoof balance, social stress, or a history of frightening experiences may still struggle to regulate, even with the most grounded person in the world standing beside them.

Everything is connected.

But I do think this is one of the places where we, as humans, have the greatest opportunity to grow.

We are the only participant in the relationship who can intentionally work on our own nervous system.

The more awareness we develop of what we're bringing into the interaction, the more thoughtfully we can show up for the horse in front of us.

06/26/2026

One of the concepts I find most fascinating in anatomy is the relationship between shape and function.

The structure of the body influences what movements are possible, while repeated movement patterns gradually influence the structure itself. It's a continuous conversation between form and function.

We can see this principle throughout the horse's body.

Take the spine, for example.

The equine spine contains a series of natural curves that help it function as an efficient system for managing force.

Between the poll and the upper neck, the spine forms a slight kyphosis. Through the mid neck and thorax it transitions into lordosis, before returning to kyphosis through the thoracolumbar region.

In simple terms, these alternating curves create a structure that behaves much like a coiled spring.

As the horse moves, the curves help absorb, distribute, store, and release that energy.

The greatest ranges of dorsoventral flexion and extension occur at the poll, the base of the neck, and the lumbosacral junction but movement is not limited to flexion and extension.

The spine also moves laterally through side bending and rotationally through the counter-rotation of the shoulders and pelvis.

These movement patterns have evolutionary roots.

Lateral bending (side to side motion) and dorsoventral movement (wave-like motion) can be traced back to aquatic locomotion. As vertebrates transitioned onto land, rotational mechanics became increasingly important for generating torque and efficiency.

In many ways, the limbs began doing what the water once did; feeding force into the body and helping propel movement forward.

The same relationship between shape and function can be seen in individual bones.

Bones are not perfectly straight structures. Many contain subtle twists and spirals that influence how they articulate and move.

For example, when the hip flexes, the femur naturally rotates outward, the tibia rotates inward, and the cannon bone rotates outward again. These opposing rotations help create a spring-like mechanism within the limb.

Energy can be stored during loading and then released during propulsion, reducing the amount of muscular effort required for movement. The horse is not relying solely on muscular strength but also utilizing the elastic design built into its anatomy.

As trainers and riders, I think this perspective is important.

We need to understand the structures we are influencing so we don’t accidentally create restrictions.

That starts with making sure the horse has access to all three frames of movement: dorsoventral flexion and extension, lateral bending, and axial rotation.

The lateral frame is the familiar right and left bend that creates a C-shape through the spine. Even on a straight line, the horse is not actually straight. With every stride, the body alternates between a subtle left bend and right bend as weight shifts from one hind limb to the other.

You can also observe this movement through the head and neck. In a relaxed walk, the nose will gently oscillate from side to side. When the nose tips slightly right, the right hind is carrying more weight. When it tips left, the left hind is carrying more weight.

The rotational frame can be observed by watching the barrel swing from side to side. As a hind limb steps forward, the rib cage rotates to create room for that limb to advance beneath the body. This axial rotation and lateral bending are coupled movements.

The dorsoventral frame involves the spine's ability to lengthen and shorten. We influence this through training exercises that encourage extension, as well as collection.

When all three frames remain available, the horse can effectively use the spring-like design built into its body.

When one frame becomes restricted, or blocked by the rider’s preferences or gear, the horse often compensates elsewhere.

Horses already possess an extraordinary system for managing force.

The question becomes: are we helping that system function as it was designed to, or are we unintentionally working against it?

06/24/2026

After my recent posts on sympathetic base activity, the gamma loop, stress physiology, and Senara's story, a reasonable question is:

"So what do we do about it?"

When we look at patterns like elevated sympathetic base activity, chronic muscle tension, an overactive gamma loop, or stress physiology on an HTMA, we're looking at adaptations.

The horse's body is responding to the environment and circumstances as best it knows how. It's important to remember that those circumstances might not be in the present and the horse can still be reacting to something from the past.

That means lasting change usually comes from addressing the factors that convinced the body it needed those adaptations in the first place.

For me, that often starts with three questions.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞?

Sometimes we focus so much on supplements, therapies, and protocols that we forget to look at the obvious sources of stress.

Herd dynamics, confinement, heat, insects, pain, digestive discomfort or intense training demands.

Not every stressor can be eliminated, but reducing the overall stress load can give the nervous system more opportunities to return toward homeostasis.

𝐃𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐬?

Adaptation requires energy.

A horse cannot regulate well if it doesn't have the nutritional resources to support regulation.

For horses showing stress physiology patterns on an HTMA, one of the things I look at is sodium intake.

Many horses need additional salt that is divided between meals along with access to free choice loose salt.

Supporting sodium status helps support hydration, digestion, and protein utilization which improves the absorption of the naturally occurring potassium found in forage.

Just as importantly, I want to make sure the horse is consuming enough calories overall. A body that is underfed, even subtly, is less likely to feel safe enough to move out of a chronic stress pattern.

Digestive support is also worth exploring. The gut and nervous system are constantly communicating, and improving digestive comfort often improves regulation as well.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐝𝐨 𝐰𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭?

A body that has spent months or years practicing tension becomes very good at tension.

Sometimes it needs help discovering another option.

The goal is to interrupt protective patterns, restore mobility, and help the nervous system recognize that it no longer needs to maintain the same level of vigilance.

As resting muscle tone begins to normalize, the body often gains access to movement options that were previously unavailable.

Their relationship to connection also matters.

Attunement work, neutral touch, and interactions that prioritize safety rather than performance can help a horse develop a different relationship with human contact.

Learning that connection can feel safe is every bit as important as nutrition or bodywork.

Ultimately, I don't think there is a single solution to elevated sympathetic base activity, an overactive gamma loop, or stress physiology.

There is only a process of helping the horse feel safer, move better, recover more efficiently, and access the resources needed for regulation.

06/19/2026

Senara is one of my personal horses. She is a mustang who has taught me so much about stress physiology and the long game of healing.

She was my pick for the Players Choice Extreme Mustang Makeover in 2020 and by that time, she had already lived through at least two major stress events: the roundup itself, and three years in government holding. Then came the intensity of training for the competition.

At the time, I didn’t fully understand how deeply those experiences would shape her long-term physiology.

Over the years, her skin began telling a story.

What began as seasonal sensitivity slowly progressed into something much more significant. She developed worsening allergies, rubbing her mane and tail raw, creating lesions on her chest and belly, and reacting strongly to insect bites; especially no-see-ums. Certain feeds like alfalfa and flax seemed to make things worse, too.

After I had her allergy tested and started stepping back to look at the bigger picture, I began to suspect that this wasn’t only about immune reactivity; it was about capacity.

After the competition, I gave her extended turnout in a herd environment to decompress. While that kind of reset can be incredibly helpful for many horses, in her case it only went so far.

All horses come with a history, and sometimes the physiology we’re working with today is still carrying the imprint of earlier experiences, even when the current environment is calm.

A few years ago, I shifted my focus with her and started paying closer attention to her nervous system state and posture.

My working theory was if a horse is spending most of her energy maintaining a protective posture, there is less available for everything else (immune regulation, digestion, and recovery).

So we started there.

Slowly, through nervous system-oriented work and posture awareness, she began to improve and her histamine response lessened.

I still wanted to understand what was happening underneath the surface so I ran a hair tissue mineral analysis (HTMA).

Her results showed two dominant inflammatory patterns: a calcium shell pattern alongside stress physiology.

In the early stages of stress, the body mobilizes resources. Cortisol rises, adrenaline increases, and calcium is more readily excreted as the system shifts into high alert.

When stress becomes prolonged and unresolved, the physiology shifts again.

Instead of staying in a high-output state, the body begins to downregulate. Metabolism slows, the stress-adaptation system becomes less responsive, and we often see what is described as “slow oxidation” on HTMA patterns.

In this state, instead of calcium being properly utilized or excreted, it begins to accumulate in soft tissues as part of a protective adaptation.

Calcium has a stabilizing effect on nerve and muscle tissue. When it accumulates in higher amounts in soft tissue, it raises the threshold for stimulation. In simple terms, it makes the system less reactive.

When a horse’s environment, training history, or internal stress load exceeds its capacity to cope, the body can shift into a state of dampened responsiveness essentially reducing how much the system “feels.”

Alongside it, Senara also showed stress physiology patterns: low sodium, low potassium, and a suppressed Na/K ratio.

This combination often reflects a system that has been managing stress for a long time.

From a nervous system perspective, it aligns closely with the patterns I’ve been describing in previous posts. When sympathetic base activity stays elevated over time, the entire internal environment begins to shift to accommodate it.

With Senara, I slowly increased and divided her sodium intake into two meals, ensured her mineral balance wasn’t being pushed further out of range, and prioritized consistent, low-intensity movement to support circulation and lymphatic flow.

I also created a track system for my horses so more movement was encouraged throughout the day.

Over time, her system began to respond and while this is still an ongoing process, what I’ve learned from her is this:

Sometimes what looks like an allergy problem on the surface is actually a reflection of a system that has been working at the edge of its capacity for a long time.

06/18/2026

Why does low sodium, low potassium, and a suppressed Na/K ratio represent stress physiology on an HTMA?

To answer that, we have to start with the body's survival response.

When a horse encounters a stressor, the adrenal glands release cortisol. One of cortisol's jobs is to increase the amount of glucose available in the bloodstream. Glucose is the brain's primary fuel source, and it also provides energy for the muscles needed to fight, flee, or otherwise survive the situation.

This response is designed to be temporary.

The problem is that many domestic horses are exposed to stressors day after day. Pain, confinement, social tension, metabolic dysfunction, environmental challenges, intense training, transportation, competition schedules, and chronic inflammation can all keep the stress response activated long after it should have shut off.

When stress becomes chronic, the HPA axis remains engaged and cortisol production becomes dysregulated.

At first, cortisol may remain elevated for extended periods. High cortisol comes with consequences.

Blood flow is diverted away from the digestive tract and toward tissues needed for survival. Protective stomach mucus production decreases, the risk of gastric ulceration increases, and gut motility changes. Intestinal barrier function can become compromised, allowing unwanted substances to enter the bloodstream and contribute to systemic inflammation.

The immune system also begins to suffer. Horses may become more susceptible to infections, chronic allergies, and delayed healing.

Meanwhile, cortisol continues increasing blood glucose levels.

Under natural conditions, a horse experiencing a true fight-or-flight response would use that glucose through intense physical activity. The muscles would rapidly consume the fuel that was released.

Domestic horses often do not get that opportunity.

The stress response is activated, but the physical completion of the response never occurs. Glucose remains elevated, increasing the workload on the pancreas, which must continually produce insulin to manage blood sugar levels.

It's important to understand that not all stress is harmful. Exercise is a form of stress, but when applied appropriately and followed by adequate recovery, it helps build resilience. Muscle contraction increases glucose uptake independent of insulin, which is one reason regular movement can be especially beneficial for horses with metabolic dysfunction or Cushing's. The problem is when stress becomes chronic and recovery never fully occurs.

For some horses, chronic stress comes from pain, inflammation, digestive dysfunction, or environmental challenges. For others, it may come from intense training schedules, frequent hauling, competition demands, and inadequate recovery. The source of the stress matters less than the body's ability to adapt and recover from it.

Over time, chronic stress begins to deplete the body's reserves.

On an HTMA, this often appears as declining sodium and potassium levels along with a suppressed sodium-to-potassium ratio.

These minerals are closely connected to adrenal function and the body's ability to adapt to stress.

As sodium and potassium decline, the effects extend far beyond the adrenal glands.

Sodium is essential for maintaining membrane electrical potential and the transport mechanisms that move nutrients into cells. It also contributes to the production of stomach acid, which is necessary for proper protein digestion.

Potassium depletion can contribute to increasing thyroid hormone resistance and the slowing of metabolic processes that often accompany chronic stress states.

From the body's perspective, this is an adaptive response. Slowing metabolism can be a way of conserving resources when stress has exceeded the system's ability to cope.

The problem is that what helps survival in the short term becomes a liability when it persists for months or years.

What began as a normal survival response eventually becomes a pattern of reduced resilience, impaired recovery, digestive dysfunction, immune compromise, metabolic slowing, and chronic fatigue.

This is why low sodium, low potassium, and a suppressed Na/K ratio on an HTMA are rarely just mineral problems.

They are often signs of a horse that has been carrying a stress burden for far too long.

06/15/2026

Many people think of the nervous system as having a gas pedal and a brake.

The sympathetic nervous system is often described as the "fight-or-flight" system, while the parasympathetic nervous system is called the "rest-and-digest" system.

While that description isn't entirely wrong, it's also incomplete.

These two branches of the autonomic nervous system don't simply switch on and off. They operate together on a dynamic spectrum, constantly adjusting the body's internal environment to meet changing demands and they both require energy.

Even resting, repairing tissues, digesting food, and maintaining healthy cellular function draws on the body’s resources.

The real question isn't whether the sympathetic nervous system is active.

It always is.

The question is: How active is it?

This is where the concept of Sympathetic Base Activity (SBA) becomes important.

SBA is the background level of sympathetic nervous system activity that helps maintain normal function. It regulates heart rate, blood pressure, circulation, organ function, and countless other processes that keep a horse alive and functioning.

A healthy horse has an appropriate level of sympathetic activity that can increase when needed and return to baseline when the challenge has passed.

Problems begin when that baseline gradually shifts upward.

Pain, injury, chronic inflammation, emotional stress, metabolic dysfunction, environmental pressures, and unresolved protective patterns can all increase sympathetic base activity.

When SBA remains elevated for long periods of time, it begins changing the horse's internal environment.

Muscle tone increases, lymphatic flow becomes less efficient, blood flow patterns shift and signals traveling to organs are altered.

The body begins operating from a state of protection.

These changes have consequences. Take for example circulation. Both vasoconstriction (narrowing of blood vessels) and vasodilation (widening of blood vessels) can result from increased SBA.

When tissues experience prolonged vasoconstriction, less oxygen, fluid, and nutrition reach the area. Waste products are removed less efficiently. Fascia can become increasingly adhered and restricted, while metabolic byproducts become trapped within the tissues.

The opposite response leads to fluid accumulation and edema.

Over time, these changes affect how the entire horse functions.

The gamma loop is also affected.

As sympathetic base activity increases, muscle tone rises and protective movement patterns become reinforced. What may have begun as a temporary adaptation can eventually become a chronic state of tension that persists long after the original cause is gone.

The effects of elevated sympathetic base activity extend beyond muscles and movement.

When the body remains in a prolonged state of physiological readiness, it places increasing demands on the hormonal systems responsible for managing stress.

In my next post, we'll look at what happens when those stress-adaptation systems are asked to work overtime for months or years at a time and how that process shows up on an HTMA.

📷 Same horse. Different baseline.

06/13/2026

I've had quite a few new people join this page recently, so I thought it might be a good time to reintroduce myself and share a little about what I do.

My name is Lauren, and I'm the owner of Horsynergy.

At my core, I'm a horse trainer.

That's where this journey started, and it's still the foundation of everything I do today.

Like many trainers, I started out trying to solve the problems that showed up in front of me, but over time, I began running into horses whose challenges didn't seem purely behavioral.

The more horses I worked with, the more I realized that behavior doesn't happen in a vacuum.

So I started studying anatomy, posture, and bodywork in an effort to better understand what the horse might be experiencing physically.

That answered some questions, but it also created new ones.

That curiosity eventually led me into the world of nutrition, mineral balancing, and stress physiology.

The deeper I looked, the more I found that everything was connected.

Pull on one thread and the entire system responds.

That's where the name Horsynergy comes from.

It reflects my belief that horses cannot be fully understood by looking at training, bodywork, nutrition, movement, or management in isolation.

The most meaningful changes often happen when we recognize how those pieces influence one another.

My approach is collaborative rather than prescriptive.

I don't believe there is one right answer for every horse.

I believe in asking better questions.

I believe in understanding the horse in front of us rather than forcing them into a predetermined formula.

And most of all, I believe that horses do the best they can with the resources available to them.

Whether I'm working through a training challenge, evaluating posture, discussing nutrition, or exploring nervous system regulation, my goal is always the same:

To help horses and their people find greater balance, understanding, and partnership.

06/11/2026

The motor and sensory systems are two sides of the same coin.

There is always sensory information coming in and motor output going out.

The sensory system informs the motor system. The motor system creates new sensory information. That new sensory information then influences future motor output. The process is continuous.

We can enter the loop from either side. Sometimes we begin with sensory input and allow that to influence motor output. Other times we focus on motor activity and allow the resulting sensory information to update the system.

The techniques used in Equine Hanna Somatics®️ sit at different points along this spectrum.

𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐲: 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭

Means Whereby is primarily a sensory intervention.

In this technique, we move the horse's body for them.

The horse is not responsible for generating the movement. Instead, the movement itself creates sensory information.

That sensory information helps the horse become aware of a body part or a relationship within the body that may have fallen outside of conscious awareness.

In a very practical sense, Means Whereby can help the horse understand what we are asking so they'll eventually be able to actively participate.

The movement becomes information.

𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐌𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫

Kinetic Mirroring sits closer to the middle of the spectrum because it is simultaneously a sensory and motor event.

With Kinetic Mirroring, we bring the origin and insertion of a muscle closer together.

This creates mechanical tension through the tendon, stimulating sensory receptors called Golgi tendon organs.

The Golgi tendon organs send sensory information to the spinal cord.

That sensory signal then passes through an interneuron and synapses back onto the lower motor neurons (alpha and gamma) controlling that same muscle.

The result is inhibitory motor output that temporarily lengthens the muscle.

In other words, we use a hands-on technique to create a sensory event that immediately influences motor output.

The sensory side and motor side are working together in real time.

𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭

Voluntary pandiculation sits furthest toward the motor side of the spectrum.

Unlike Means Whereby or Kinetic Mirroring, the horse is now generating the movement themselves.

This is where the horse actively contracts the muscle and then slowly releases it.

The goal is the complete cycle of contraction and controlled release.

During a pandiculation, the voluntary motor cortex sends excitatory signals to create the contraction and inhibitory signals to allow the gradual release.

That slow return to neutral in the eccentric phase is arguably the most important part of the process.

The nervous system has an opportunity to compare what it intended to do with what actually happened throughout the movement.

This is where feedback movement becomes so valuable.

Rather than relying on an old motor program, the horse is actively updating the information available to the nervous system.

This helps normalize resting muscle tone and restore the system toward homeostasis.

𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐩

These techniques provide multiple ways to interact with the motor-sensory system.

Depending on the horse, their current level of awareness, and the amount of participation they can offer in that moment, one avenue may be more useful than another.

The most lasting changes occur when the horse is able to actively participate in the process.

Horsynergy

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