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indfulness

For a deeper understanding of what drives the Spanish Mustang relationship, dive into the central nervous system with Neil Ui'Breaslain as he paints a picture of how the conscious/subconscious partnership between horse and rider can make or break the desired, but too often ellusive, oneness...

While perusing this article one might imagine how the bond between Spanish Mustang and his person evolves.

Authored By: Neil UiBreaslain


Part One - Head First

Neurology is the science and understanding of the nervous system. By learning some general priciples concerning our own normally ignored, often abused, nervous system, we can turn it into an actual instrument, or agency, of reciprocal association with horses. The fact is, we come better equipped for functioning harmoniously with other living beings than most people could ever imagine.

Neurology tells us that both horses and their riders have what is known as a central processing region in their nervous system.

This central processing region is more commonly known as the brain. The horse's brain and the rider's brain are mostly the same, though one big difference stands out - the cerebrum, or cerebral cortex. In the rider this is that big mass of gray matter that fills up the cranium. In the horse it is that small mass of gray matter that fills up the 'knowledge bump'.

Nonetheless, at least in human beings, this cerebrum, or cerebral cortex, turns out to be the part of the brain which is the least needed.

Needed or not, it is heaped lavishly behind the human brow, while another part of the brain, the navigational requisite thalamus - used for standing, reclining, sensory integration, and orientation - is small, and buried near the underlying center of the inside of our head.

Buried even deeper inside the lower back of the head, and every bit as necessary as the thalamus, is the reticular system. This reticular system, made up of tissue known as reticular substance, is intricate and entangled. Its purpose is to be hounded by almost every activity of every means we have of sensing or perceiving, whether from an internal or external origin. It is therefore kept perpetually at work monitoring the aggregate of information coming from all sources.

If anything important passes through this reticular system, it stirs up cerebral activity. Cerebral activity is also called the associative processing of information. This is even more simply known as the thought process, or, in everyday terms, the consciousness.

If nothing important comes along, which is often enough, this same reticular system, with a little neural draft of serotonin, allows us to fall asleep.

When we reawaken, control of our equilibrium is shared, from deep inside the lower back of the head, between this reticular substance and the older portions of the cerebellum, making it possible for us to stand upright on our feet without any help from the cerebral cortex whatsoever.

Part Two- Our Thoughts May Stray

In this same area, i.e., the lower back of our head, more parts of our brain, the medulla, pons, mesencephalon, hypothalamus, and basal ganglia, along wiith the afore mentioned thalamus and cerebellum, make up the old brain or lower brain levels. Furthermore, and quite unforeseen, almost everything in our life comes under the direction of these lower brain levels, which are more commonly known as the subconscious.

Our thoughts can fairly well stray as they please without upsetting our undertakings, because, unless we become anxiously aware of what we are thinking or doing, which will override our habitual and innate characteristics, the wandering, inattentive consciousness, and the alert, serious-minded subconsciousness, act as a single unit, operating in concert.

This is so much the case that, these lower brain levels, taken all together, are the reason that anger, excitement, sexual activities, and reactions to pain or pleasure can occur without so much as a thought - or a cerebral cortex.

Part Three - We Could Join Together

Humans, having more cerebral cortex, use more cerebral activity, which is to say thoughtful associative processing of information.

Nonetheless, associating with horses quickly conveys to our mind that they are no less conscious than we are, though using mostly the lower brain levels. They are fully aware, in control of their own being, though using what is to us, the subconscious.

Remembering the idea that the consciousness and the subconsciousness work freely together, we can have a situation where the human acts as the consciousness, and the horse as the subconsciousness, the two working freely together as one unit or being!

Yet, just how to make that actually happen needs a somewhat lengthy explanation.

Part Four - This Way Is UP

Keeping off the ground, and in the saddle, is done by keeping the rider centered on the horse's back with reference to the vertical pull of gravity. This requires the use of special nerve endings ready made for that purpose. These are the pressure sensitive pacinian corpuscles in the skin.

As soon as the leg is thrown across the horse's back, these pacinian corpuscles in the skin begin transmitting information about rapid changes in pressure that are taking place against the limbs or body.

This information is carried along regular nerve paths to the reticular substance of the medulla, pons, and mesencephalon.

The number of impulses transmitted is directly related to the rate at which the changes are taking place.

Part Five - As The World Turns

To further foster staying with the saddle, detecting the orientation of the head with respect to the direction of gravitational pull (or any of the accelerational forces caused by movement) comes next.

Accelerational force means the pressure against something caused by speeding up or slowing down. These forces all act on gravitational sensors known as the utricle and saccule chambers. These utricle and saccule chambers are enlargements at the ends of the semicircular canals in the membranous labyrinth of the ear.

Once the orientation of the head with respect to the pull of gravity is known, sensors in the neck detect the orientation of the body in respect to the head.

At the same time, the receptors of the semicircular canals in the ears also detect the rate at which the head, or the whole person, is turning, and if in a short or elongated curve.

In short then, the combined effect of the gravity sensors, the pressure sensitive cells in the skin, and the sensors in the neck, the feet, and in the rest of the joints throughout the body, is to keep the cerebellum, mesencephalon, and reticular substance advised of the full situation of the rider in relation to the moving horse and the ground.

Consequently, the rate of change of these three factors, the rider, the horse, and the ground, are integrated into a subconscious prediction of the overall arrangement of the situation a few seconds, or even a few minutes ahead of time, along with the prediction of the necessary movement of the head, trunk, and limbs, that will be needed to adjust the rider accordingly. Appropriate motor signals are sent out to the muscles for smooth anticipation of the changes taking place.

The rider can thereby be swept confidently by the horse through the difficulties of their course and arrive triumphantly at their destination.

But mark carefully in your mind - conscious visual images from the eyes may also help, - if and only if, movement of the horse is slow enough, and only by the simple determination of whether the rider is still upright.

Part Six - Charming The Toter

Convinced, at last, that the rider is not going to be left behind, let us turn our attention to the horse.

Merely spending time together, and being able to speak the same language, does not necessarily give instant and total domination, with unquestioning obedience, as is already well known by anyone who has children.

Mastering by force stimulates the punishment center, the perifornical nuclei of the horse's hypothalamus, giving rise to that particular pattern of behavior known as rage.

The more primal the bloodline the faster and more intense the rage reaction will be. That is to say, a horse such as the Spanish Mustang will put up with less forceful and dominating behavior from the rider.

At the very same time, this same horse will be the most responsive to kindness, as well as more tolerant of bungling foolishness.

Moreover, the way the human touches the horse travels through the tactile nervous system, into the reticular substance of the brain, and is analyzed by all sorts of subconscious sensitivities. How easily some people can put a horse or a baby at rest, while another, seemingly doing the same thing, cannot.

The tactile senses are hard to fool.

Part Seven - Keeping in Touch

Touch and the tactile senses - The pleasing conection between our own consciousness and the consciousnes of the horse.

The horse and rider come together, or unite, through each other's tactile senses, as their respective nervious systems go through all that long and complicated integration processing by the cerebellum, mesencephalon, and reticular substance.

Kept advised, thereby, of the full situation of each one in relation to the other, they both are fully aware, consciously or subconsciously, of every movement of the other, as well as every necessary movement of the head, trunk, and limbs, that will be needed to adjust either one to the intentions of the other, making it easy to anticipate the other's wishes, which Spanish Mustangs are wont to do.

Part Eight - A Rewarding Thought

New and novel experiences always excite the cerebral cortex.

Repetition of an experience over and over deadens this response. This deadening by repetition is known as becoming habituated, wherein no further learning takes place.

But this habituation can be prevented if it so happens that the experience carries with it some reward (or punishment).

Emotional pleasing, that is to say, earning or winning the affections of the horse, and promoting that affection as a reward, is an easy and effective way of also promoting learning - as well as a willingness from the horse, or anyone, to give of themselves.

However, many modern day show stock saddles, including some roping and cutting saddles, depend on the rider staying with them by sheer might and main, even to leaning back and bracing oneself forcefully against the stirrups.

This riding of the saddle rather than the horse overrides such a large percentage of the neural impulse traffic to the lower brain levels that the intended task before the horse and rider is severely hampered, having the tendency to create a cranky rider.

Crankiness in turn, further inhibits the flow of neural impulses, interfering with the processes of the cerebral cortex which are working in conjunction with the lower brain levels. Crankiness interferes even with the hormonal operations, making the internal and external situations progressively deteriorate.

Part Nine - Journey's End

Take it calm and easy, is an old range rider saying.

Calm and easy of mind brings us back to using our head in the first place when in the saddle. We keep mindful of the horse's heart as printed on his face; mindful of our surroundings, letting our subconscious take care of the incidentals of keeping us in the saddle while we watch what we are doing on the job.

If our eyes are on the trail ahead (or the jump, etc.), and we are calm in the saddle, then we transmit our every move and posture instantly to the horse through it's pacinian corpuscles and other sensors. At the same time, and in the same manner, we also know, subconsciously, exactly where the horse's feet are, etc., underneath us.

Likewise, if we suddenly become consciously aware of these things, and look down to see, it will almost certainly upset the smooth neural flow in the horse, making him stumble or break stride in his functioning .

In the end, then, mindfulness travels gently outward into our surroundings, through the full circle of events, and returns to our hidden, internal reward center that lies along the course of our medial forebrain bundle and the ventromedial nuclei of our hypothalamus.

The pleasant feelings of satisfaction increase the intensity of our cerebral cortex's thought processes, and render us, both the horse and rider together, peaceful, docile, and tame.

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