Training Theory: Two Brains

horse with two brainsThere is evidence that LIKE the human brain, sensory stimulation actually develops a horse’s brain. Learning facilitates more learning. The more you stimulate and teach your horse, the more neural pathways are developed along which new learning can take place. It’s like adding on to a railroad system. Once the tracks are laid to one destination, the learning process for another destination can travel to the first stop freely and be required to build only the portion that goes to the next learning stop. With enough track, your horse’s brain activity will be criss-crossing all over the place, picking up new “tricks” more easily all of the time.

By the same token, if a track has been laid to a bad behavior, care must be taken to stop stimulating and/or rewarding that behavior so that the “bad” neural pathway can “atrophy”. If the horse is again stimulated in the same way that he was when he learned the bad behavior, the pathway can become strong and polished again. See Reinforcement Theory

A horse’s brain is different than a human brain. While both equine and human brains have two sides, horses have a less-developed corpus callosum, which is the connective tissue between the two hemispheres of the brain that allows messages to go from one side of the brain to the other. The human brain has a very well developed communication cross-over there.

Common knowlege has been that, in horses, learning from experience on one side of his body is frequently not immediately accessible to the other side because of this lack of two-way communication. However, new information has come to light about horse learning and brain function. Laura (comments below) has posited that, “although the Corpus Callosum is underdeveloped, the Optic Chiasm in the horse’s brain directly and instantly affects the opposite side of the brain with its thick myelin crossover on the underneath part of the horse’s brain. It’s such a large avenue of myelin that it’s like the Autobahn. So, it seems that with the horse seeing and experiencing training on its left side that then the right side would also be learning to some extent.” So, cross-over communication is happening, just in a different way than the human brain processes.

This makes sense to me, as I have worked with some horses who seem to learn both sides when the first is taught – although it seems to me that the 2nd side is often not learned as well. But foot work is a dance, and even if his brain on the 2nd side is learning the response, the footwork needs to become muscle memory. Therefore his 2nd side starts out less adept if equally educated. Maybe horses CAN learn in stereo, and we have been misunderstanding all along.

Brain communication aside, most horses are also decidedly one-handed: preferring to perform on the left side or right side of their body (again much like humans being right or left handed). There is usually more resistance on the side that is not so adept. His physical musculature and coordination may not be as well developed on that side either. He will have a “good side” and a “bad” side. Rule of thumb is that you must practice and work twice as frequently on his “bad” side as his good side. Resist the urge to avoid his bad side training. It is not as instantly rewarding for you, but in the long run it is critical to your success.

Also, don’t always attribute his “off side” being worse because of poor brain function. Be sure that it is not just that you tend to train more consistently with the mounting side because most trainers work there more often and are right handed.

(There is some evidence that a horse who picks up the 2nd side training more quickly than the original training on his dominant side has a special talent that lends itself to becoming a good performance horse.)

Again, please read the comments below by “Laura”, who kindly and expertly has offerd updates to this information with some reference links.

We certainly don’t know everything. Please share your expertise and experiences. Comment on what is already written or Suggest a Category and Educate us about it. Grow Horse-Pros.com©

5 thoughts on “Training Theory: Two Brains

  1. Here’s an article citing an MRI of the horse’s brain and how they learn which debunks teaching everything to a horse on both sides. It even shows
    how large the Corpus Callosum actually is. And it’s fairly big given the overall space of the horse’s brain. I was under the misunderstanding that the Corpus Callosum was diminutive. Not so. Time to set my own misunderstandings correctly.

    The equine brain MRI findings are beautifully presented:

    https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?type=printable&id=10.1371/journal.pone.0213814

    This was an interesting article also:
    Your Horse’s Brain (A Myth Debunked):
    https://cooperativehorse.com/2020/02/your-horses-brain-a-myth-debunked/

    And your point about a loss of learning on the horse’s offside is believed due to that we humans are mostly right handed tend to work the mostly the left side of the horse more. So we tend to make our horses more heavy with left side learning than the right. We create the imbalance. I’m looking for the study on that…let you know.

    And I love your website and its approach to learning both for the human and the horse. Keep up the great work!

    1. You continue to amaze. I will read your references and digest. In the meantime, I will alter my article to point readers to your comments below so that they can get more up-to-date information.

      I am not an “expert” and always love input that ads to or corrects any understandings that I have. It takes a world to train an horse. :*) There’s no such thing as knowing too much.

  2. Although the Corpus Callosum is underdeveloped, the Optic Chiasm in the horse’s brain directly and instantly affects the opposite side of the brain with its thick myelin crossover on the underneath part of the horse’s brain. It’s such a large avenue of myelin that it’s like the Autobahn. So, it seems that with the horse seeing and experiencing training on its left side that then the right side would also be learning to some extent.

    1. Hi Laura:
      This is a very interesting fact that I did not know. Thank you very much for sharing it!
      It explains why horses DO learn on both sides sometimes, although it seems that there is some loss of understanding on the off side in my experience: less perfection of understanding.
      Maybe there is less crossover with exercises that require more touch and less sight such as teaching move-over cues on their body. I will be thinking this over. Very interesting. Thanks again.

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