Wednesday, March 3, 2021

Vibration cures nervousness in horses

I promise to always send you guys German revolutionary ideas in horsecare. 

Here's the next. Attach vibrators to your horse's sides, that vibrate independently, to soothe fear responses. I would actually like to know if such a thing actually has a positive effect on a horse. 

Here we go:


 

https://equi-beats.com/produkt/basic-set/

The two equi-beats vibrate alternately on the right and left of the horse's body.

This is called bilateral stimulation and it can reduce negative emotions such as stress or anxiety, even "bad habits".

This has been proven in humans and mice. And our experience shows that it works with horses too!

OK then: )

I own a training e-collar for my donkey. It can be adjusted finely, down to simple vibration, to discourage braying the entire neighborhood awake when she's upset. It can go from vibrate like your cell phone to a sharp electric jolt. The jolt is not necessary. 

I once pondered if a vibration would discourage Mag from doing something undesirable. Um.....no.

If he routinely destroyed fences, yes! If he tried to kill the neighbor's cat, yes. (??) But no seriously, Mag would be traumatized by something that tickled him, massaged him. Unless I'm wrong.

Change my mind: )

 


4 comments:

AareneX said...

I wanted to see the science, so I went hunting. (Of course I did).

And...yes, bi-lateral stimulation (BLS) is used as an element in treating post-traumatic stress disorder. My questions: has stimulation been tried on just one side? Or on more than two points? Have there been double-blind studies?

Most importantly: has anybody compared BLS therapy to just having a cat sit on the patient's lap?

AareneX said...

oops, forgot the citation: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5061320/

TeresaA said...

I’m sceptical that this would work.

lytha said...

Thanks Aarene! I've heard about the eye movement therapy but not the vibration. Kitties are proven to reduce blood pressure, but we'll see if vibration can help horses.