17/01/2022
A happy nervous system has to have healthy facsia, and healthy facsia has to have a happy nervous system.
Fascia and the nervous system are so intimately connected, we can’t treat one without the other. We have so much to learn about both still.
The enemy of a happy nervous system is restricted fascia. Fascial restrictions can keep the “dial” on the sympathetic system turned up more than it needs to be.
The sympathetic nervous system is the “fight or flight” part. When that dial is up too high it can keep your horse from being able to relax.
Example: a horse with ulcers will have a vagus nerve that is firing intense alert signals to their brain.
You’re asking them to relax and carry their head below the level of the clouds and it’s a constant battle.
It doesn’t help that horses are naturally prey animals. They are wired to be ready to run from a lion in the woods.
Their brain is getting signals from ulcers that signal an awful lot like “lion in the woods!” while you’re telling them, “relax”…?
If left untreated, those patterns get stored in the fascia and if we don’t manually change that we deal with the trapped-in, tense, faulty patterns.
Both physical and emotional trauma is stored in the fascia.
Since fascia stores 10 times more nerve endings than any other tissue, the fascia will lock in the trauma in the nervous system as well.
Physical limitations are actually the nervous system protecting the body.
🤚🏻 One very powerful treatment for regulating the nervous system..touch.
🤚🏻Regulates fear and stress
🤚🏻Elicits safety signals in the nervous system
🤚🏻Decreases stress response
🤚🏻Decreases blood pressure, heart rate, and respiratory rate
🤚🏻Increases oxytocin release
Start touching your horse with your hands, not just grooming tools.
After you groom them, run your hands over them regularly.
If you have time, spend 10 minutes rubbing all over them like you would massage a babies back.
Turn down the volume on the sympathetic dial and help their nervous system relax.
📸: Mary DuMond