How does the equine brain develop “spooks?
The horse has been stereotyped as a “dumb” animal, but nothing could be farther from the truth. The equine brain is marvelously suited to its tasks of survival, locomotion, foraging, and herd behavior. The horse has a “photographic” memory, so it checks out its environment according to the photograph it stores and anything diverging from that image is either investigated or is a cause for fear and flight. We call this scanning and selecting. When the horse scans and selects, it uses all its sensory apparatus – eyes, ears, nose, hooves, skin, and taste. Also, the horse responds much more quickly to memory triggers, especially long-term memory, because its brain is not clouded by imagination, reason, and rationalization. So, the horse s reactions stay precise and ever at the ready unless the chemical pathway involving that memory is changed, overlaid or erased. This is the elegantly simple job of Wright-ESCT and it works in 95% of the cases we have treated. In the early stages of habit f
