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Not that far off from humans.

It’s common to see a horse lick, chew, or yawn in a training session and hear that it means they’ve “processed” what just happened. The belief comes from a real observation: these behaviours often appear when a horse shifts from a heightened state back toward calm.

The link here is the nervous system. Licking, chewing, and yawning are behaviours connected to the parasympathetic nervous system. Sometimes they appear after the sympathetic nervous system has been activated and then deactivated, as the body returns to recovery and calm. Other times they show up when the horse is already relaxed, as part of maintaining parasympathetic activity. In both cases these behaviours are not proof of learning. They are indicators of state.

When horses are in a calmer, parasympathetic state, learning and memory formation are more likely. That is the connection people noticed. The behaviour is not the learning. The behaviour is a window into the horse’s physiology that supports learning.

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A common scenario in traditional training might look like this:

1. Pressure is applied.

2. The horse tries different options to find relief.

3. The horse finds the behaviour that makes the pressure stop.

4. The moment pressure stops, the horse experiences relief.

5. As the sympathetic response deactivates, parasympathetic activity re-engages and the body returns toward calm.

This is often the moment we see licking, chewing, yawning, or blowing out.

What is really happening in that moment is a combination of two things:

1. “If I do this, the pressure stops.”

2. “Thank goodness the pressure finally stopped.”

Quick summary: In this example, the horse licks and chews at the same time it discovers the behaviour that turns pressure off, so it is easy to misread that as understanding the lesson. The licking and chewing is not about the content of the lesson. It reflects the horse’s learning state. It tells us the nervous system is down-regulating after arousal and that what preceded the release was aversive or stressful enough to require regulation.

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Licking, chewing, and yawning don’t only appear after stress. They can also show up when a horse is already relaxed, quietly resting, dozing, or digesting. In those moments the behaviours are part of maintaining parasympathetic activity, not recovering from stress.

And this is why I always pause and ask: what came before the lick, chew, blow out, shake, or yawn? Was there a stressor the horse is coming down from, or are they already calm and connected? Because that context tells you whether you’re seeing regulation or maintenance, and that difference changes everything about how you interpret what’s happening.

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Why does this matter?

It might seem like splitting hairs. After all, if the horse looks calmer and shows licking and chewing, isn’t that what counts? But the nuance matters because how we interpret behaviour shapes how we train.

When we mistake these behaviours for signs of understanding, we stop looking for what caused them. We might unintentionally celebrate the moment a horse finally found relief instead of asking why they needed relief in the first place.

If we reward ourselves for creating just enough stress to trigger a lick and chew, we risk normalizing a cycle of tension and release. Over time this can make stress an expected part of learning, something the horse must endure to find comfort.

But learning doesn’t require distress. A horse in a regulated, safe, parasympathetic state is not only capable of learning, they’re primed for it. When we see licking and chewing for what it really is, a reflection of the nervous system, we can shift our focus toward the conditions that keep the horse regulated from the start.

When we start viewing behaviour through the lens of physiology, our priorities shift. Because when calm becomes the baseline, learning becomes effortless.

🙌🏻 a Hormone, that has More molecules than just D3(what most docs test for, unless ya ask).

Most people think of vitamin D as a nutrient you get from the sun or a supplement you take in winter. But calling it a vitamin is actually a misnomer. Vitamin D is a steroid hormone, and that distinction changes everything about how we understand its role in the body.
True vitamins are compounds the body cannot make on its own and must obtain from food. Vitamin D does not fit that definition. When your skin is exposed to UVB sunlight, your body synthesises its own vitamin D from cholesterol, converts it in the liver and then the kidneys into its active hormonal form, calcitriol, and releases it to act on receptors throughout the body. That is a hormone pathway, not a vitamin pathway.
And like all hormones, vitamin D does far more than one job. It regulates calcium and bone metabolism, yes, but it also modulates immune function, influences gene expression, supports cardiovascular health, regulates mood and brain function, and plays a direct role in thyroid health. Vitamin D receptors are found in virtually every cell and tissue in the body, including the thyroid gland itself.
For thyroid patients this is particularly significant. Low vitamin D is consistently associated with Hashimoto's, higher thyroid antibody levels, and poor immune regulation. Restoring vitamin D to optimal levels, not just adequate, is often a foundational step in calming autoimmune thyroid activity.
When you understand that vitamin D is a hormone, you stop treating it as an optional supplement and start treating it as an essential part of your endocrine system.
Why vitamin D matters for thyroid health specifically:

Vitamin D receptors are present in thyroid tissue
Low levels are strongly associated with Hashimoto's and elevated antibodies
It plays a central role in immune regulation and Th1/Th2 balance
Deficiency contributes to chronic inflammation
It works synergistically with magnesium, zinc and selenium for thyroid function
Optimal levels sit between 100 and 150 nmol/L, well above the conventional sufficiency threshold

If you have a thyroid condition and have never had your vitamin D tested, it belongs at the top of your next blood test request.

The MTHFR and folate conversation almost always skips the vitamin sitting one step above it.

A lot of people now know their MTHFR status, take methylfolate, maybe add B6, and watch their homocysteine. What rarely comes up is that the enzymes doing this work do not run on folate and B6 alone. They run on parts built from riboflavin, plain old vitamin B2.

Here is the chain in plain terms. Your body takes riboflavin and turns it into two working parts, called FAD and FMN. Those parts are not optional add-ons. They are built into the machines that activate the other B vitamins. The enzyme that recycles folate, MTHFR, has a piece of riboflavin locked inside it. The enzyme that converts B6 into its active form has a piece of riboflavin inside it too. And the step that lets B12 do its job in the same cycle depends on a riboflavin part as well. Riboflavin sits upstream of all three.

This matters most for the famous MTHFR variant. The common version of that gene, the one millions of people carry, does not just work a little slower. The actual problem is that the enzyme loses its grip on its riboflavin part more easily. The riboflavin falls out, and the enzyme goes quiet. Several studies have shown that giving riboflavin to people with this exact genotype lowers their homocysteine, because it helps the unstable enzyme hold its working part in place. You are not forcing the pathway. You are handing a wobbly enzyme back the piece it keeps dropping.

Now the honest limits, because this is easy to oversell. Most people are not riboflavin deficient. In well-fed populations, frank B2 deficiency is uncommon, so for the average person already getting enough, more riboflavin does not push anything higher. The strongest evidence is specific: it is in people who carry the MTHFR TT genotype, and the clearest effect has been on blood pressure and homocysteine in that group, not a general energy or mood claim. This is also not a reason to ignore folate or B6. It is a reason to recognize that fixing those while riboflavin runs low can leave the bottleneck in place. The point is not take more B2. The point is that the pathway people obsess over has a quiet first step, and if that step is short, the expensive downstream vitamins cannot do what the label promises.

Amenyah SD, et al. Biochimie. 2020
Pejchal R, et al. Biochemistry. 2006
Barile A, et al. Sci Rep. 2020
Dominguez-Salas P, et al. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013

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Your brain is not just “thinking”, it’s constantly communicating in powerful loops.

A fascinating study shows that the cerebellum (traditionally linked to movement) is deeply connected with the cerebral cortex through complex, cross-hemisphere pathways. These connections are not limited to motor control… they also extend into cognition and higher mental functions.

This means your brain works as an integrated network, where movement, thinking, and behavior are tightly linked.

Improving how you move, learn, and interact with your environment can literally reshape how your brain communicates. The brain is not modular. It’s deeply interconnected. Not everyone gets access to what I share about mental health behind the scenes. If you don’t want to miss it, join now before it grows: https://www.patreon.com/betterbrain

Reference: Palesi et al., Sci Rep, 2017