The “Reptile Mind” (limbic system) is a set of brain structures that support a variety of functions including emotion, behavior, long term memory, smell and automatic processes in the body. This system, which manages “fight or flight” chemicals, is considered a more primitive part of the brain, since common ancestors of both reptiles and mammals had well developed limbic systems.
The Reptile Mind makes choices for us. It provides a “no brainer” immediate response to danger – survival reflex – that automatically affects the endocrine and the autonomic nervous systems so that there is minimal lag time to the response. If you’ve ever snatched your hand back just in time to avoid being bitten by a bee, or grabbed hold of something without even realizing it was there in order to avoid falling, you have experienced the work of the Reptile Mind. It bypasses the logical part of the mind, the part that assesses and chooses.
A mother mouse will fight to defend its young from a predator that could eat the mouse in one bite. A tiny shrew will fight when backed into a corner by a giant human. Every hamster owner that has reached into a cage and been bitten by a normally friendly pet knows that the size or power of the danger source makes no difference to the Reptile Mind. This is because the Reptile Mind has no capacity for logical thought. A good thing, too, because under certain circumstances, thinking is slow compared to Reptile Mind response. A quick bite on a fox’s nose by a mouse, or on a human’s hand by a shrew (or a hamster) can provide just enough time to escape – no decision making process needed.
The Reptile Mind keeps horses alive in the wild. There is no time for cogitating on how to respond when a mountain lion leaps from a rock above or a snake hisses from the path – survival depends on lightning quick responses. The Reptile Mind – the limbic system – takes over the thinking processes.
A horse cannot make choices when Reptile Mind is in control!
Reptile Mind is the reactive mind. It takes over when stimulated to action, and it takes the place of choice. While the limbic system is engaged, the “Thinking Mind” (the mind that can analyze and make choices) is inoperable. A horse can and does make choices all the time: what it wants to eat, who it wants to stand next to in the herd, whether it wants to stand in the shade or the sun, whether it wants to come to you when you call or keep grazing. We will see in future articles that a horse’s choices include decisions about going along with the request of humans, no matter how the human presents the request. However, when the Reptile Brain is engaged, any potential for choice is lost – a horse’s body must respond to the imperatives of the limbic system hormones and chemicals that flood its body.
Even memories of emotions associated with an experience can bring about Reptile Mind behavior, since storage of emotional memories is part of the limbic system function. The memory of fear associated with an experience can cause behaviors such as freezing, rapid heartbeat, increased respiration, and stress-hormone release when a similar experience is encountered – even when the second experience would not normally be fearful. (Positive emotional memories are stored as well, however negative emotions are generally more powerful for horses as they involve survival itself).
Avoiding Reptile Mind
It is obvious that it is best to avoid causing a horse’s Reptile Mind to take over in reaction to an outside stimulus. Survival reflex can make your horse more liable to survive in a life-and-death situation, but what Reptile Mind reacts to in every day situations is not likely to be appropriate.
Horses will spook at the darndest things – but they don’t have to. Fortunately, long-term memory for a given experience is not instantaneously formed, but is instead assimilated slowly into long-term storage over a period of time – and during this time the memory can be modified. This is why – for horse and rider’s sake – it is advised to get back on the saddle right away after a fall!
Additionally, emotional input after an experience can influence the strength of the subsequent memory of that experience. Rewards for a job well done can truly cement the long-term memory of an experience. Similarly, a negative emotion, such as brought about by punishment or even by a negative reaction of another person (or horse) , can equally cement the memory of that experience – but also help trigger Reptile Mind in the future.
When the colt panicked in the trailer, his Reptile Mind took over. It flooded his body with hormones and chemicals and overrode his lack of experience with jumping down from a height. It caused him to leap out of the trailer without consideration for how far down the ground might be – thank goodness it wasn’t a cliff with a hundred foot drop, because Reptile Mind doesn’t think, it just forces action.
If the colt’s foster mother had been upset or if the colt had hurt himself landing, the emotion associated with the memory of leaping out of the trailer would be negative. This emotional memory would be stored with the trailer experience and would help trigger the Reptile Mind reaction in the future. The colt might start associating trailers with fear, and eventually could even develop a problem with loading.
But instead what happened is that Jess was unconcerned, so much so that the colt was able to just go to her and nurse. The nursing was pleasurable, thus associating that positive emotional memory with the memory of the trailer experience. Since Jess goes in and out of the trailer often, the colt does, too. His long term memory for the trailer experience is modified – positively – each time that Reptile Mind is not evoked. And in turn, this means that in the future memories of experiences with the trailer will be such that the trailer becomes an ordinary thing – no reason for Reptile Mind to be alerted.
Next: How to charm the snake
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