I don't believe the relaxation comes from a postural change or position of the head and neck. Plenty of horses exhibit tension and worry when their head/neck are low. And forcing their head down does not result in relaxation. In addition some horses display anxiety by "peanut rolling" their nose along the ground. So I think it is the actual position of the head/neck that creates the emotional calmness. I think the relaxation actually comes from a horse yielding his thought to the idea to lower its head/neck. It lets go of one idea - the idea that is triggering the anxiety- and accepts the new idea of following the feel of the pressure. The head/neck position is not what is important. It's the letting go of a worried or hard thought and replacing it with a softer thought. If you put a horse's head/neck down (say with a tie-down) but they are still thinking of raising it, the anxiety persists. I've experimented a lot with this to test my hypothesis and I believe it is a pretty sound proposal.
To be clear, nowhere in this video did I suggest to force the horse's head down. I teach the horse to drop the head and neck which in turn does relax the muscle in the neck, lower the heart rate and relax the horse overall. Postural changes in horses as well as humans allows the mind to shift from the fight or flight mode to rest and digest.
@@susanrainville5978 sorry but I did not suggest you forced the head and neck downwards in your video. Secondly, postural changes do not create shifts in the mind. It is the shift in the mind that creates the postural changes that creates the relaxation. Without the change of thought there is no relaxation. The change in thought PRECEDES the postural changes, not the other way around.
Snow falling off the roof… 👻
I don't believe the relaxation comes from a postural change or position of the head and neck. Plenty of horses exhibit tension and worry when their head/neck are low. And forcing their head down does not result in relaxation. In addition some horses display anxiety by "peanut rolling" their nose along the ground. So I think it is the actual position of the head/neck that creates the emotional calmness. I think the relaxation actually comes from a horse yielding his thought to the idea to lower its head/neck. It lets go of one idea - the idea that is triggering the anxiety- and accepts the new idea of following the feel of the pressure. The head/neck position is not what is important. It's the letting go of a worried or hard thought and replacing it with a softer thought. If you put a horse's head/neck down (say with a tie-down) but they are still thinking of raising it, the anxiety persists. I've experimented a lot with this to test my hypothesis and I believe it is a pretty sound proposal.
To be clear, nowhere in this video did I suggest to force the horse's head down. I teach the horse to drop the head and neck which in turn does relax the muscle in the neck, lower the heart rate and relax the horse overall. Postural changes in horses as well as humans allows the mind to shift from the fight or flight mode to rest and digest.
@@susanrainville5978 sorry but I did not suggest you forced the head and neck downwards in your video. Secondly, postural changes do not create shifts in the mind. It is the shift in the mind that creates the postural changes that creates the relaxation. Without the change of thought there is no relaxation. The change in thought PRECEDES the postural changes, not the other way around.