01/06/2026
Yes! Nervous-system-informed training is not a method, or a bandwagon. It is a lens through which to view the whole horse and human experience. It takes into account the biology that exists whether or not we are aware of it, or talk about it. If we choose to ignore it, we are missing a huge part of the picture.
I’ve been seeing some comments lately from people saying they are tired of hearing about the nervous system. That they don’t want to hear about regulation again. That it feels overdone, irritating, or unnecessary. Some people openly mock it. Some dismiss it as a trend. Some lump it into the category of “woo” and move on.
I want to speak to that, not to defend anything and not to convince anyone, but to explain why this conversation keeps resurfacing and why it actually can’t disappear.
The nervous system is not a method or a belief system. It isn’t something you choose to follow or ignore. It is basic mammalian biology. Every horse experiences the world through their nervous system. Every interaction, every cue, every moment of pressure, release, learning, confusion, fear, curiosity, or ease is filtered through it first.
Whether we talk about training, handling, management, or behaviour, what we are really talking about is how a horse’s nervous system is responding to what is happening around them and to us. Naming it does not create it. It simply makes it visible. It exists with or without our approval.
So why does it provoke so much resistance?
Often because nervous system awareness quietly challenges the way many of us were taught. Traditional horsemanship focused heavily on outcomes. Did the horse do the thing. Did the behaviour stop. Did the technique work. Internal state was rarely part of the discussion unless behaviour became extreme.
The nervous system shifts the lens. It asks us to consider not just what the horse is doing, but what state they are in while doing it. A horse can appear calm while holding tension. A quiet horse can be shut down rather than settled. A compliant horse can still be operating under chronic stress. None of this means people were doing harm intentionally, but it does invite a more honest look at what we may have missed when nervous system function was not part of the picture.
That can feel uncomfortable, especially if someone has built years of experience, identity, or professional confidence around approaches that never required this layer of reflection. It can feel like an accusation, even when it is not meant that way.
There is also another layer that matters.
Nervous system conversations do not stop with horses. They inevitably include the human. Our frustration, urgency, fear, confidence, exhaustion, and emotional regulation all influence the horse in front of us. That is not a judgement, but it can feel exposing. For some people, it is easier to dismiss the concept entirely than to acknowledge that their own state plays a role. Many people are not yet aware of how their own nervous system affects them, which can make it difficult to recognise this dynamic in another being.
It is also worth saying this plainly. There is a lot of noise in the nervous system space right now. Oversimplification exists. Concepts get flattened. Language gets borrowed without depth. Some information is shared without enough skill, context, or humility in application. That does not make the underlying biology invalid, but it does help explain why some people feel sceptical or irritated by how it is presented.
Real nervous system work is not about labelling every response, diagnosing states from a single sign, or pretending we can fully measure a horse’s internal experience. While we can measure things like heart rate, cortisol, and patterns of physiological stress, interpreting internal experience always requires caution, skill, and context. Biology is real, but it is not simplistic.
What is very clear is that learning and stress are closely linked. When a nervous system is highly activated, the parts of the brain responsible for processing, memory, and pattern recognition do not function optimally. This is true across mammals. Learning requires enough internal safety and cognitive space to take in information. That does not mean horses should never be challenged. It means capacity matters.
Nervous system awareness does not mean we stop asking things of horses. It does not mean boundaries disappear. It does not mean training becomes vague or permissive. In practice, it often makes training more efficient, not less, because we are working with the horse’s capacity rather than against it.
It also helps explain why one method works beautifully for one horse and creates resistance or fallout in another. Nervous systems vary. Sensitivity varies. History matters. What feels manageable to one individual can be overwhelming to another, in both horses and humans.
Many good horse people have worked intuitively with nervous system principles for decades without ever naming them. This conversation is not about invalidating experience. It is about adding language, understanding, and precision to what good horsemen and horsewomen have often felt and observed already.
At The Whole Horse Journey, we talk about the nervous system because it sits underneath everything else. Whether you call it training, partnership, horsemanship, or ownership, you are always interacting with a living nervous system.
Ignoring that does not make it irrelevant. It simply makes it unseen.
And perhaps the more interesting question is not why this conversation keeps coming up, but why it feels tiring to some people. Horses are not asking us for perfection or ideology. They are asking us to understand how they experience the world.
That understanding starts with biology and deepens with humility.
