Get Back On: The Neuroscience of Remounting After a Fall

In this episode Nancy McLean explores a listener question about whether to remount after a fall, using Dr. Stephen Peters' research and a review by McBride et al. to explain how equine learning, myelination, and long-term potentiation shape behavior. Nancy explains how automaticity, basal ganglia consolidation, and dopamine-driven rewards can help overwrite fearful responses, and she shares a real-life example of calmly remounting to reinforce positive patterns. Key takeaway: when horse and rider are uninjured, a calm remount and rewarded repetition can help redirect the horse's neural pathways and prevent lasting fear responses.

You can listen to Get Back On: The Neuroscience of Remounting After a Fall online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Get Back On: The Neuroscience of Remounting After a Fall is an episode from Conversations in Equine Science by Nancy McLean.

This episode is 18:45 long.

This episode was published on May 18, 2026.

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