Horse Training and the Nervous System: What's Really Happening in Your Horse's Brain | Dr. Stephen Peters (Pt. 2)

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We say we want a willing horse. Then we climb on, and we start cramming. And when the horse gets tight, or slow, or stuck, we do the one thing that guarantees it gets worse — we add pressure. This is Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Stephen Peters, and this time he brought a horse's brain. Cut in half, in his hands, on the table between us. He points to the cingulate. He points to the little kidney-bean pituitary. And he shows me, physically, the difference between a horse who can talk itself back down and a horse who has no way back. That difference has a name. It's a chemical called GABA. An empowered horse can produce it — can send the "stand down" signal before the cortisol ever…