Horsynergy

I believe soundness and performance come from supporting the whole horse, not just training the body. Horsynergy is more than a training program.

Through nutrition, nervous system-based bodywork, and thoughtful movement, I help horses rediscover balance, ease, and resilience. My work is rooted in supporting the body from the inside out. Nutrition forms the foundation, followed by nervous system–based bodywork to restore mobility, reduce chronic tension, and create space where the body has adapted or guarded. From there, movement therapy and

thoughtful training are used to build strength, balance, and coordination when the horse is ready. This approach applies equally to horses in rehabilitation and those in ongoing training, with longevity and soundness always at the forefront. It’s a philosophy that values balance, integration, and true collaboration between horse and human. The Celtic five-fold symbol woven into the brand represents the harmony found in nature and the importance of unity and interconnectedness. It serves as a reminder that when all systems are supported and working together, horses can move, learn, and exist with greater ease and resilience.

06/18/2026

Why does low sodium, low potassium, and a suppressed Na/K ratio represent stress physiology on an HTMA?

To answer that, we have to start with the body's survival response.

When a horse encounters a stressor, the adrenal glands release cortisol. One of cortisol's jobs is to increase the amount of glucose available in the bloodstream. Glucose is the brain's primary fuel source, and it also provides energy for the muscles needed to fight, flee, or otherwise survive the situation.

This response is designed to be temporary.

The problem is that many domestic horses are exposed to stressors day after day. Pain, confinement, social tension, metabolic dysfunction, environmental challenges, intense training, transportation, competition schedules, and chronic inflammation can all keep the stress response activated long after it should have shut off.

When stress becomes chronic, the HPA axis remains engaged and cortisol production becomes dysregulated.

At first, cortisol may remain elevated for extended periods. High cortisol comes with consequences.

Blood flow is diverted away from the digestive tract and toward tissues needed for survival. Protective stomach mucus production decreases, the risk of gastric ulceration increases, and gut motility changes. Intestinal barrier function can become compromised, allowing unwanted substances to enter the bloodstream and contribute to systemic inflammation.

The immune system also begins to suffer. Horses may become more susceptible to infections, chronic allergies, and delayed healing.

Meanwhile, cortisol continues increasing blood glucose levels.

Under natural conditions, a horse experiencing a true fight-or-flight response would use that glucose through intense physical activity. The muscles would rapidly consume the fuel that was released.

Domestic horses often do not get that opportunity.

The stress response is activated, but the physical completion of the response never occurs. Glucose remains elevated, increasing the workload on the pancreas, which must continually produce insulin to manage blood sugar levels.

It's important to understand that not all stress is harmful. Exercise is a form of stress, but when applied appropriately and followed by adequate recovery, it helps build resilience. Muscle contraction increases glucose uptake independent of insulin, which is one reason regular movement can be especially beneficial for horses with metabolic dysfunction or Cushing's. The problem is when stress becomes chronic and recovery never fully occurs.

For some horses, chronic stress comes from pain, inflammation, digestive dysfunction, or environmental challenges. For others, it may come from intense training schedules, frequent hauling, competition demands, and inadequate recovery. The source of the stress matters less than the body's ability to adapt and recover from it.

Over time, chronic stress begins to deplete the body's reserves.

On an HTMA, this often appears as declining sodium and potassium levels along with a suppressed sodium-to-potassium ratio.

These minerals are closely connected to adrenal function and the body's ability to adapt to stress.

As sodium and potassium decline, the effects extend far beyond the adrenal glands.

Sodium is essential for maintaining membrane electrical potential and the transport mechanisms that move nutrients into cells. It also contributes to the production of stomach acid, which is necessary for proper protein digestion.

Potassium depletion can contribute to increasing thyroid hormone resistance and the slowing of metabolic processes that often accompany chronic stress states.

From the body's perspective, this is an adaptive response. Slowing metabolism can be a way of conserving resources when stress has exceeded the system's ability to cope.

The problem is that what helps survival in the short term becomes a liability when it persists for months or years.

What began as a normal survival response eventually becomes a pattern of reduced resilience, impaired recovery, digestive dysfunction, immune compromise, metabolic slowing, and chronic fatigue.

This is why low sodium, low potassium, and a suppressed Na/K ratio on an HTMA are rarely just mineral problems.

They are often signs of a horse that has been carrying a stress burden for far too long.

06/15/2026

Many people think of the nervous system as having a gas pedal and a brake.

The sympathetic nervous system is often described as the "fight-or-flight" system, while the parasympathetic nervous system is called the "rest-and-digest" system.

While that description isn't entirely wrong, it's also incomplete.

These two branches of the autonomic nervous system don't simply switch on and off. They operate together on a dynamic spectrum, constantly adjusting the body's internal environment to meet changing demands and they both require energy.

Even resting, repairing tissues, digesting food, and maintaining healthy cellular function draws on the body’s resources.

The real question isn't whether the sympathetic nervous system is active.

It always is.

The question is: How active is it?

This is where the concept of Sympathetic Base Activity (SBA) becomes important.

SBA is the background level of sympathetic nervous system activity that helps maintain normal function. It regulates heart rate, blood pressure, circulation, organ function, and countless other processes that keep a horse alive and functioning.

A healthy horse has an appropriate level of sympathetic activity that can increase when needed and return to baseline when the challenge has passed.

Problems begin when that baseline gradually shifts upward.

Pain, injury, chronic inflammation, emotional stress, metabolic dysfunction, environmental pressures, and unresolved protective patterns can all increase sympathetic base activity.

When SBA remains elevated for long periods of time, it begins changing the horse's internal environment.

Muscle tone increases, lymphatic flow becomes less efficient, blood flow patterns shift and signals traveling to organs are altered.

The body begins operating from a state of protection.

These changes have consequences. Take for example circulation. Both vasoconstriction (narrowing of blood vessels) and vasodilation (widening of blood vessels) can result from increased SBA.

When tissues experience prolonged vasoconstriction, less oxygen, fluid, and nutrition reach the area. Waste products are removed less efficiently. Fascia can become increasingly adhered and restricted, while metabolic byproducts become trapped within the tissues.

The opposite response leads to fluid accumulation and edema.

Over time, these changes affect how the entire horse functions.

The gamma loop is also affected.

As sympathetic base activity increases, muscle tone rises and protective movement patterns become reinforced. What may have begun as a temporary adaptation can eventually become a chronic state of tension that persists long after the original cause is gone.

The effects of elevated sympathetic base activity extend beyond muscles and movement.

When the body remains in a prolonged state of physiological readiness, it places increasing demands on the hormonal systems responsible for managing stress.

In my next post, we'll look at what happens when those stress-adaptation systems are asked to work overtime for months or years at a time and how that process shows up on an HTMA.

📷 Same horse. Different baseline.

06/13/2026

I've had quite a few new people join this page recently, so I thought it might be a good time to reintroduce myself and share a little about what I do.

My name is Lauren, and I'm the owner of Horsynergy.

At my core, I'm a horse trainer.

That's where this journey started, and it's still the foundation of everything I do today.

Like many trainers, I started out trying to solve the problems that showed up in front of me, but over time, I began running into horses whose challenges didn't seem purely behavioral.

The more horses I worked with, the more I realized that behavior doesn't happen in a vacuum.

So I started studying anatomy, posture, and bodywork in an effort to better understand what the horse might be experiencing physically.

That answered some questions, but it also created new ones.

That curiosity eventually led me into the world of nutrition, mineral balancing, and stress physiology.

The deeper I looked, the more I found that everything was connected.

Pull on one thread and the entire system responds.

That's where the name Horsynergy comes from.

It reflects my belief that horses cannot be fully understood by looking at training, bodywork, nutrition, movement, or management in isolation.

The most meaningful changes often happen when we recognize how those pieces influence one another.

My approach is collaborative rather than prescriptive.

I don't believe there is one right answer for every horse.

I believe in asking better questions.

I believe in understanding the horse in front of us rather than forcing them into a predetermined formula.

And most of all, I believe that horses do the best they can with the resources available to them.

Whether I'm working through a training challenge, evaluating posture, discussing nutrition, or exploring nervous system regulation, my goal is always the same:

To help horses and their people find greater balance, understanding, and partnership.

06/11/2026

The motor and sensory systems are two sides of the same coin.

There is always sensory information coming in and motor output going out.

The sensory system informs the motor system. The motor system creates new sensory information. That new sensory information then influences future motor output. The process is continuous.

We can enter the loop from either side. Sometimes we begin with sensory input and allow that to influence motor output. Other times we focus on motor activity and allow the resulting sensory information to update the system.

The techniques used in Equine Hanna Somatics®️ sit at different points along this spectrum.

𝐌𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐛𝐲: 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐚 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭

Means Whereby is primarily a sensory intervention.

In this technique, we move the horse's body for them.

The horse is not responsible for generating the movement. Instead, the movement itself creates sensory information.

That sensory information helps the horse become aware of a body part or a relationship within the body that may have fallen outside of conscious awareness.

In a very practical sense, Means Whereby can help the horse understand what we are asking so they'll eventually be able to actively participate.

The movement becomes information.

𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐌𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫

Kinetic Mirroring sits closer to the middle of the spectrum because it is simultaneously a sensory and motor event.

With Kinetic Mirroring, we bring the origin and insertion of a muscle closer together.

This creates mechanical tension through the tendon, stimulating sensory receptors called Golgi tendon organs.

The Golgi tendon organs send sensory information to the spinal cord.

That sensory signal then passes through an interneuron and synapses back onto the lower motor neurons (alpha and gamma) controlling that same muscle.

The result is inhibitory motor output that temporarily lengthens the muscle.

In other words, we use a hands-on technique to create a sensory event that immediately influences motor output.

The sensory side and motor side are working together in real time.

𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐲 𝐏𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐌𝐨𝐬𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭

Voluntary pandiculation sits furthest toward the motor side of the spectrum.

Unlike Means Whereby or Kinetic Mirroring, the horse is now generating the movement themselves.

This is where the horse actively contracts the muscle and then slowly releases it.

The goal is the complete cycle of contraction and controlled release.

During a pandiculation, the voluntary motor cortex sends excitatory signals to create the contraction and inhibitory signals to allow the gradual release.

That slow return to neutral in the eccentric phase is arguably the most important part of the process.

The nervous system has an opportunity to compare what it intended to do with what actually happened throughout the movement.

This is where feedback movement becomes so valuable.

Rather than relying on an old motor program, the horse is actively updating the information available to the nervous system.

This helps normalize resting muscle tone and restore the system toward homeostasis.

𝐃𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐩

These techniques provide multiple ways to interact with the motor-sensory system.

Depending on the horse, their current level of awareness, and the amount of participation they can offer in that moment, one avenue may be more useful than another.

The most lasting changes occur when the horse is able to actively participate in the process.

06/08/2026

How can a horse remain chronically tense long after the original cause is gone?

To answer that, we have to talk about something called the gamma loop.

The gamma loop is one of the nervous system's mechanisms for regulating muscle tension and movement. Its job is to help the brain monitor what's happening in the muscles so it can maintain posture, coordinate movement, and respond to changes in the environment.

To understand how it works, we need to define two types of motor neurons.

Alpha motor neurons connect to the muscle fibers that produce force and create movement. These are called extrafusal fibers.

Gamma motor neurons connect to specialized sensory fibers inside structures called muscle spindles. These are called intrafusal fibers.

Muscle spindles are stretch receptors. They constantly provide information to the brain about muscle length and changes in muscle length. They are one of the primary ways the nervous system knows where the body is in space, a sense known as proprioception.

Wrapped around each spindle are sensory nerve endings. When the spindle detects a change, those sensory neurons send information back into the nervous system, helping regulate the activity of the alpha motor neurons that control the muscle itself.

In other words, muscle length is not determined solely by commands coming down from the brain. It is also influenced by the ongoing conversation happening within the gamma loop itself.

When a movement occurs, alpha and gamma motor neurons fire together. This process is called alpha-gamma co-activation.

As the muscle contracts, the spindle contracts as well. This allows the spindle to continue monitoring changes in length throughout the movement.

Under normal circumstances, this system works beautifully.

A muscle changes contracts, the spindle detects the change, and the nervous system responds appropriately then the muscle returns to a neutral resting baseline.

The system continually updates itself based on incoming sensory information.

Problems arise when the gamma motor neurons become overactive creating an increased level of muscle tension or chronic contraction. The original cause can be repetitive movement, pain, injury, emotional stress, compensation, or a combination of factors.

Over time, the shortened muscle adapts to its new resting length. The muscle spindle also adapts and becomes increasingly sensitive to stretch.

At that point, even small amounts of lengthening can trigger the stretch reflex, causing the muscle to contract again.

The result is a self-perpetuating cycle: the muscle is shortened, the spindle becomes hypersensitive to stretch, stretch triggers contraction, the muscle shortens again, and the cycle repeats.

Eventually, the nervous system begins accepting this shortened state as normal. The brain's internal map of the body adapts to the new resting length, making the pattern increasingly automatic and unconscious.

What may have begun as a useful protective response gradually becomes the horse's normal.

This is how chronic tension can become habituated.

It's also important to understand that muscles don't exist in isolation.

Pain, immobility, and visceral discomfort can influence this system.

Sensory information from internal organs also feeds into this system. The nervous system does not completely separate information coming from muscles, joints, and organs. These signals converge and influence one another.

A horse experiencing gastric discomfort, for example, may develop protective muscular contractions around the affected region. Visceral sensory input can increase the activity of gamma motor neurons, which increases muscle spindle sensitivity and raises baseline muscle tone in surrounding tissues.

From the horse's perspective, this is a protective strategy. The nervous system is attempting to guard and stabilize an area it perceives as vulnerable.

The challenge is that these protective contractions can persist long after the original problem improves, gradually becoming part of the horse's habitual posture and movement patterns.

When we talk about restoring movement, we're talking about helping the nervous system update its map of the body.

** image from clinicalpub.com

06/05/2026

Why we avoid using and creating conditioned cues in Equine Hanna Somatics®️.

We try to avoid conditioned cues in Equine Hanna Somatics because we want to access a different category of movement than what most horses (and us) spend the majority of their lives using.

Broadly speaking, there are two major categories of movement: feedforward movement and feedback movement.

Feedforward movement is based on previously learned motor programs.

These are movements the nervous system has practiced enough times that they can be executed automatically from an existing motor plan with very little ongoing sensory involvement.

This is essentially what people are describing when they refer to “muscle memory.”

Once the movement begins, it largely unfolds according to the pre-established program. It is typically fast, smooth, efficient, and familiar.

Most of the movements we and our horses perform throughout daily life fall into this category.

The nervous system predicts what is about to happen based on past experience and prepares accordingly.

Part of this process involves something called corollary discharge, which is essentially communication from the motor system to the sensory system about the intended movement that is about to occur.

The nervous system generates an expectation ahead of time then afterward sensory feedback is compared against that prediction to determine accuracy and make future refinements.

Feedback movement works differently.

Feedback movement involves ongoing two-way communication between the sensory and motor systems throughout the movement itself.

The nervous system is continuously comparing intention with reality and making adjustments in real time.

This type of movement is especially important when learning something new or when reestablishing awareness in areas that have become habituated through chronic tension or motor-sensory amnesia.

It is slower, less automatic, and much more sensory-rich.

That distinction is one of the reasons we intentionally avoid creating highly conditioned, predictable responses during EHS sessions.

If we repeatedly use a conditioned cue or the same cue to pick up a foot, the horse can begin executing a learned motor program before there is meaningful sensory engagement with the movement itself.

The response becomes anticipated rather than explored.

Instead, we intentionally use novel, changing, and creative approaches to encourage the horse to follow a feel rather than a cue and stay engaged in feedback-based movement.

We want the nervous system actively participating throughout the process rather than simply running a familiar program.

Once the movement becomes associated with a conditioned cue and begins shifting toward feedforward ex*****on, the neurological quality of the process changes.

The horse may reproduce the shape of the movement without necessarily engaging in the same depth of sensory recalibration, and from a learning perspective, this distinction matters significantly.

Of all the sensory information constantly entering the nervous system, only a very small percentage (about 2%) has the opportunity to be encoded into short-term memory, which is the first step in learning.

One of the things that increases the likelihood of learning is active response and real-time sensory engagement.

Feedback movement dramatically increases that opportunity because the nervous system is participating throughout the movement rather than simply replaying an already established motor program.

From the EHS perspective, that ongoing sensory participation is where much of the change actually happens through restoring the nervous system’s ability to sense, adjust, and reorganize itself in real time.

06/04/2026

One of the major consequences of chronic contraction and motor-sensory amnesia is that muscles stop functioning in relationship to one another the way they were designed to.

Muscles are meant to work in coordination.

When one muscle contracts and shortens, its partner should lengthen and yield so movement can occur smoothly and efficiently.

Then they switch roles.

This alternating relationship is what creates fluid movement but chronic contraction changes that relationship over time.

Two important things can happen that interfere with healthy function: stretch weakness and reciprocal inhibition.

Stretch weakness occurs when one muscle remains chronically shortened, mechanically trapping its partner in a lengthened position.

A muscle held in a chronically lengthened state loses its ability to generate force effectively and it begins functioning as though it is weak.

This is important because the issue is not necessarily developmental weakness.

At the same time, there is also a neurological component occurring through reciprocal inhibition.

Normally, when one muscle contracts, the nervous system automatically sends inhibitory signals to its antagonist so the opposing muscle can relax and stay out of the way of the movement.

This process allows muscles to take turns efficiently but when a muscle remains chronically contracted, those inhibitory signals continue as well.

So now the opposing muscle is dealing with both a mechanical disadvantage and ongoing neurological inhibition.

It is being lengthened mechanically while simultaneously receiving signals discouraging contraction.

Over time, this significantly changes how the horse is able to organize movement and because these patterns become habituated within the nervous system, the horse often no longer perceives them consciously.

This is one reason why compensation patterns can persist long after the original injury, stressor, or protective response has resolved.

The nervous system has adapted to the pattern and now recognizes it as familiar.
In Equine Hanna Somatics®️, we aim to restore awareness so the horse's nervous system can regain the ability to sense that other options exist.

** This image illustrates a classic agonist-antagonist relationship. If everything is functioning smoothly, when the biceps contract, the elbow is flexed and when the triceps contract, the elbow extends.

06/02/2026

When we talk about posture through the Equine Hanna Somatics®️ lens, we are ultimately talking about muscle tone.

Muscle tone is the ongoing level of tension present within a muscle, even when the body is at rest.

Passive muscle tone refers to the passive viscoelastic properties of the tissue itself. Muscle tissue has both elastic qualities that allow them to return to shape, and viscous qualities that resist deformation and slowly dissipate force.

But muscle tone is not just passive tissue tension.

It is also actively regulated by the nervous system through tonic muscle contraction.

There are several layers to this active tone.

Resting muscle tone is the baseline level of tension that prevents the body from becoming completely slack.

Postural muscle tone organizes the body in relationship to gravity and helps coordinate how different body parts orient to one another.

Tonic contraction refers to the sustained low-level activity within postural muscles that create stability and support.

These are primarily slow-twitch muscles designed for endurance and efficiency. They work continuously in the background with very little conscious awareness.

Together, these layers create what we could think of as the horse’s habitual resting muscle tone: the steady level of tension and organization the nervous system defaults to automatically.

When that resting tone is neutral, the horse can organize effortlessly and move without unnecessary interference to range of motion, but when chronic increases in tone develop either above or below the vertebral column, posture begins to shift.

Over time, those patterns can become habituated.

In EHS, we often describe these as Green Light or Red Light postural patterns or even a combination of the two.

A horse with increased extensor tone above the vertebral column may organize into a Green Light posture characterized by a contracted back, elevated head and neck carriage, and camped-out limbs.

A horse with increased flexor tone below the vertebral column may organize into a Red Light posture characterized by shortened abdominals, a tucked pelvis, and camped-under limbs.

The important thing to understand is that these patterns are not simply “bad habits” or isolated training issues.

They reflect the nervous system’s current default organization and because that organization exists in the background automatically, the horse often no longer realizes they are holding those patterns.

That habitual resting tone then influences everything layered on top of it: posture, coordination, balance, movement quality, and available range of motion.

This is why, in EHS, the goal is to help the nervous system regain access to movement options that have gradually become obscured beneath layers of chronic contraction and habituated muscle tone.

05/30/2026

Fun Fact: my degree is in anthropology and although my focus was primarily cultural anthropology, I also spent time studying archaeology, linguistics, and physical anthropology.

In physical anthropology, a large part of what we looked at involved evolutionary adaptations and how anatomy reflects function.

Things like the placement of the foramen magnum in quadrupeds versus bipeds, differences in locomotion strategies, or how molar structure changes depending on diet and feeding behavior.

I recently completed Level 2 in Equine Hanna Somatics®️ and the protocols centered around the head, neck and thoracic limb so naturally the thoracic sling was part of the discussion.

One of the things that often gets emphasized in horse anatomy discussions is that horses do not have a bony attachment connecting the front limbs to the trunk.

Instead, the thoracic limbs are suspended primarily through muscular and fascial attachments.

And while that sometimes gets presented as something especially unusual or unique to horses, it actually reflects a very common adaptation among quadrupedal animals.

Most quadrupeds either lack clavicles entirely or only retain very small vestigial remnants of them because a rigid collar bone can interfere with efficient forelimb movement and stride length in animals designed for running.

Removing that bony connection allows greater freedom of motion through the shoulder girdle and helps maximize shock absorption.

In contrast, animals that reach, grasp, climb, swing, or fly tend to retain well-developed clavicles because they benefit from a more stable and reinforced attachment between the forelimb and trunk.

Humans are a good example of this.

Since we do not weight-bear through our arms during locomotion, gravity and ground reaction forces are not helping hold the forelimbs against the body the way they do in quadrupeds.

The clavicle helps stabilize the shoulder girdle and creates a stronger anchor point for upper body musculature involved in reaching, lifting, and manipulating objects.

This conversation from the EHS course reminded me so much of what we studied in physical anthropology: that anatomy is rarely arbitrary and that structure tends to reflect functional demands over time.

When you start looking at anatomy through that lens, the absence of a collar bone in horses becomes less of an anatomical oddity and more of a logical adaptation for an animal designed to travel quickly and efficiently over long distances on four limbs.

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http://www.horsynergy.com/

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