ABSTRACT
A beneficial psychological and neuro-regulatory environment provides a healthy and nurturing dynamic; conversely, the first signs of illness or distress can often be detected in poorly coordinated and precipitate movements. Physiotherapy and biomechanics are concerned with the study of the following aspects of the horse: Neurophysiology: equine brain structure and psychology, anxiety and muscular tonus, the development of spatial cognition and proprioception, and proprioceptors and the sensorimotor system; and Development and adaptation of neurophysiological response: neuromotor rehabilitation following injury, preparatory stretching and suppling exercises, and progress in performance. The limbic lobe, discovered by Broca in 1878, is a convolution that surrounds the brain stem. While an evolutionary legacy of reptilian characteristics is evident, the lobe is endowed with a more advanced section which is free of the stereotypical behaviour of the more primitive part of the brain. The horse’s muscles provide the earliest indications of anxiety. Muscular tonus is closely involved with variations in in its psychological state.
