Hi Anna >>>Is it that it mimics eating and thus a soothing, calming memory related action or is it something physiological? I'll see if I can find more info on that.
There is a physiological aspect to eating as well. The eyes, mouth and salivary glands are main controllers of the parasympathetic nervous system which triggers relaxation. So letting them eat a bit, whether it be grazing or a crunchie or bit of grain, does help trigger relaxation. The other reasons we use food is that it helps them keep breathing more deeply as opposed to holding their breath and it creates a pleasant experience association with the activity. One of the steps we use with starting young horses or reschooling older ones is to have a person walk up from behind, to the head of the horse, saying whoa as they are walking and immediately give them a bit of food. What it helps with is things coming up from behind. This is also why we do the saddle pad sliding off the horse from both sides and behind, as the pad slides off we say whoa and they get a crunchie off of the saddle pad on the ground. Christine writes about it in one of her books. All the training that Christine does is based on the TTEAM approach as she started working here when she was 18 and had spent six weeks working with my sister Linda. The other thing is to watch how horses eat, whether it be grass or other food, if they are eating in a relaxed way they are probably just processing what you are doing, if they start grabbing a food it can be an indication of nervousness. Think about people, some people eat frantically when then are nervous and others stop eating - same goes for horses in my experience. The head down can have a calming effect if you consider posture in terms of a horses response to things. Head up, usually means a tight back putting the horse in potential preparation for flight; when the head is down the back is usually more relaxed and then are not ready to run. However, they can quickly change from one posture to another should the situation change, but then, so can we. Robyn Icelandic Horse Farm Robyn Hood & Phil Pretty Vernon BC Canada www.icefarm.com
