Repetition vs. Refinement: The Missing Piece for Your Dog or Horse (and You) #143

We've all heard "practice makes perfect." But what if repeating the same movement is actually making things worse?

In this episode, Mary unpacks one of the most important distinctions in nervous system-based movement work: the difference between repetition and refinement. While repetition strengthens existing patterns, refinement invites the nervous system to reorganize—to discover a better way of moving rather than simply doing the same thing more.

This concept applies directly to all of us, including our horses and dogs. Whether you're working to help your horse move more freely through their back, or supporting a dog who developed compensatory movement habits after an injury, simply repeating movements may reinforce the very patterns you're trying to change.

What refinement offers instead is the opportunity for the nervous system to reorganize: more parts of the body participating, less unnecessary effort, more distributed and supported movement.

Mary closes with four practical questions you can apply to your own movement and your work with your animals—starting with: what changes if I just slow down?

KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Repetition reinforces existing patterns—including unhealthy ones. Repeating a movement doesn't guarantee improvement. If compensations or inefficient habits are already present, repetition can make them harder to change over time.
2. Refinement helps the nervous system reorganize, not just repeat. Where repetition makes a pattern stronger, refinement makes the mover smarter—inviting the nervous system to discover a better, more efficient option.
3. Slowing down is not optional—it's the mechanism. The nervous system needs time and space to sense something new. Slower, smaller movements allow the brain to notice alternatives it can't perceive at full speed or intensity.
4. More parts participating means less wear and tear. When movement becomes more distributed across the whole body—rather than concentrated in a few overworked areas—effort decreases and comfort increases.
5. Strength is best built from organized movement. Once refined organization is established, building strength becomes more effective and less damaging. Refinement comes first; strengthening follows.
6. This is an ongoing process, not a one-time fix. Life constantly challenges our movement habits. Regular refinement—for you and your animals—continues to offer benefit over time.

Four questions to apply to your movement work:

• What changes if I slow down?
• What changes if I make it smaller?
• What changes if I alter my timing?
• What if I shift from pushing through to offering support?

Resources:

Grab your FREE video training to help your dog. 🐕 https://www.marydebono.com/lovedog 💥

💥Learn how the Feldenkrais MethodⓇ can help improve your seat, position, and balance on your horse! Free rider videos masterclass: https://www.marydebono.com/rider 💥

Get Mary’s bestselling, award-winning book, “Grow Young with Your Dog,” for a super low price at: https://tinyurl.com/growyoungwithyourdog. Demonstration videos are included at no extra cost. ⬅️⬅️⬅️

All information is for general educational purposes ONLY and doesn't constitute medical or veterinary advice or professional training advice. Please consult a qualified healthcare provider if you, your horse, or your dog are unwell or injured.  Always use extreme caution when interacting with horses and dogs.

About the Host:

Mary Debono is a pioneer in animal and human wellness, blending her expertise as an international clinician, best-selling author, and certified Feldenkrais Method® practitioner. With over three decades of experience, Mary developed Debono Moves, a groundbreaking approach that enhances the performance, well-being, and partnership of animals and their humans.

Mary's innovative approach draws from the Feldenkrais Method®, tailored specifically for horse and dog enthusiasts.  Her methods have helped animals and humans:

• Improve athletic ability and performance
• Enhance confidence and reduce anxiety
• Reduce physical limitations and discomfort
• Deepen the human-animal bond

Mary's flagship online programs, "Move with Your Horse" and "Easier Movement, Happier Dogs," provide animal enthusiasts with an innovative approach that combines the concepts of Feldenkrais® with her signature hands-on work for horses and dogs (Debono Moves). Through this transformative approach, both people and their animal companions discover greater harmony, ease, and connection.

TRANSCRIPT:

Today, I'd love to share with you something that I think can completely change how you help your horse or dog move better. And that's the difference between repetition and refinement. And by the way, this difference will help you move better and feel better as well. Okay, so we've all heard the saying, practice makes perfect, right? That if you, if, if you think something's working or you want something to be better, you just keep repeating it.

And, you know, you think, oh, the more I repeat this, right, the more reps equals better results. But when we're working with a nervous system, which is what we all are dealing with, right, Whether you're dealing with yourself, your horse or your dog, you're dealing with the nervous system, that logic kind of falls apart because we may be simply reinforcing unhealthy movement patterns or patterns of behavior. So this is a really important distinction.

Now, repetition does have its place, right? You can build familiar familiarity with something, right? It can just become more natural feeling if you repeat it, right? If it's done in a safe way, you can build strength through repetition and you can build habits, if that is what you want to build habits, right? But when repetition is simply mechanical, you're just repeating something over and over, right? The same muscles are going to dominate, like that same motor control pattern will be activated.

So the same coordination patterns get reinforced and compensations can get stronger. In other words, you know, the way an animal or yourself is compensating for something that will actually get stronger, right? And those may be very inefficient and unhealthy movement habits. So if you think about it like, okay, I'll give you a horse example first. Someone may think, oh, I need to, you know, help my horse learn how to quote, unquote, get on the bid and round their back.

And the horse does it the same way all the time. And maybe that way is not healthy, that it is not really comfortable, that it creates strain in certain areas. So in other words, there's certain ways that the horse is moving or not moving their spine that are increasing strain on some areas and having other areas not do their share. And maybe they're not getting the support of the rib cage, for example, the sternum and the ribs are not working in harmony with the spine.

See that? Very, very commonly. So simply doing the movement, having the horse round their back, whether through, you know, you set up physical obstacles or you have a, you know, gymnastics or many, many different ways of doing it, of course, and, you know, doing it through different dressage movements, but you may be simply reinforcing inefficient habits of movement for that horse. Okay, same thing with a dog. Again, this is a common thing.

Humans do it, horses do it, dogs do it. That we're using our spines inefficiently. So in other words, some parts of them are being overworked. Maybe the parts that naturally have more range of motion and certain, you know, degrees of freedom, and we're overusing them and under using others. Or it could be a habit specific to that dog. Maybe there was a light injury or some, you know, valid reason why the dog started compensating and using themselves in that way.

And over time it simply became a habit and now it's actually causing damage. So, and, or you think of it with a person, maybe every time they focus, they tighten their jaw, or every time they lift weights or a certain particular exercise that they do, they tighten their jaw. So simply doing that movement over and over again, right. Is actually going to create damage. So we have to think about this, right?

So that repetition has its limits. You may have heard me tell this story before, if you're an og, if you've been listening to the podcast a while, but I had a woman come to one of my in person workshops and she was very proud of the fact that she did 800 crunches every morning. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't even want to count to 800.

Seems like a lot of time and effort. Anyway, she thought she was helping her back. Instead, she was constantly dealing with back pain. And when she was doing Feldenkrais awareness through movement lessons with the group, she found them really, really difficult. And meanwhile, she was, you know, had the 12 pack abs. She was, you know, very, you know, muscular in, in. And she was a runner. And she did all these things constantly to improve herself, but she was taking her habits and simply reinforcing them.

So when she was invited via the Feldenkrais method to slow down and to do things like bending through the rib cage, softening the chest, she couldn't do it at first. But then as, as I guided her into learning how to let go and to have variation in how she moved, she completely transformed. And she couldn't believe how her back pain went away. And she thought, I remember her telling me, she goes, I thought I was doing the right thing by working my muscles every day, but she was again, just reinforcing unhealthy habits.

And I'm talking, when I talk, talking about habits, it's not just the 800 crunches was an maybe unhealthy habit. It was the movement patterns she was using to do that. Okay, so this is an important distinction. But instead, in the Feldenkrais method with me, she learned how to refine her movement. And yes, and the same thing with your horse and your dog. It involves slowing down. And with our animals, we use our hands to help guide them so they can feel, oh, this is a different way of moving than what I was doing before.

We take them through very gentle, passive movements. And, you know, we use small variations. We, you know, small changes in direction. It's all very subtle, very safe, so it doesn't alarm the nervous system. And we invite more parts to participate so more parts of their body kind of like get online and help, you know, share the load of working. You know, there is a certain amount of effort involved in moving through life, but the more parts of the animal, the more parts of yourself as well, right?

Then that load feels easier, it becomes easier, and there's less damage, less wear and tear. So, you know, when we're talking about this idea of refinement, we're using our hands. It's like we're asking questions with our hands. And one of the questions can be, you know, can this movement become more distributed? Can it feel easier? Can it feel more supported, more reversible? You know, is there a sense of ease and effortlessness for a movement, either for myself or for my horse or dog I'm working with?

And you know, refinement helps improve organization, it encourages more functional use, it reduces unnecessary effort, minimizes wear and tear, and it engages the nervous system in learning. This is a key part, right? The dog or the horse or the human's nervous system is learning a better way to move. Right? Nothing is being imposed, but you're giving yourself or your animal time and space to discover more ease in life, to discover how to move with greater ease.

This is super important. So it's not a matter of just pushing more. It's quite the opposite. It takes slowing down to give the nervous system time to figure out another option. And then to, to, you know, with our animals, we're providing input through our hands to say, oh, what about this? What if I supported you here? How would that feel? So again, we're helping the animal discover more refined movement.

And again, we do this in our own movement through the Feldenkrais method with the animals. I use a method that I call the bono moves. It's a hands on, gentle, hands on work. Right. But, you know, it's it's all about changing what feels familiar and habitual in a safe way so that the nervous system, the dog, the horse, or your own can discover something even better, can refine what it's doing.

So, you know, a key distinction you can think of between, you know, repetition and refinement is that repetition strengthens existing patterns. That's what it's doing. It's strengthening existing patterns. Refinement helps reorganize them. Gives the brain, the, you know, the nervous system an opportunity to say, hey, this isn't working as well as I thought it was. Try something else, something that feels better, right? So you can think of it this way.

You know, repetition makes a pattern stronger. Refinement makes someone smarter. And then from there, and this is important because we all want strength. We want strength for ourselves and for our animals. When you're well organized, then first of all you feel more powerful because all the parts are working in harmony. So you, you automatically have more strength. And those muscles that were chronically contracted, they're actually weaker. So you're giving.

So again, you, you automatically gain strength when you have a healthier organization. And then from there you can do things like in a human's case, lifting weights, climbing hills, rucking, you know, whatever you want to do to build strength, then you can do it. But you're doing it from a place of refined movement. Same thing with our animals once we help them. And it's an ongoing process, by the way.

This isn't a one and done. It's like, oh, I refine my movement or my animals movement, now I'm done for the rest of my life. No, doesn't work that way because life is always, you know, kind of challenging us and we, we lose some of the refinement. We always have the opportunity to improve. And the same with our horses and dogs. So just say, now you're helping your, your animal have more refined, more balanced, freer movement.

Right now they can build strength from that place. They can get stronger from that place of refinement. So, you know, again, we're not just asking for more movement, right? We're asking for healthier movement. So instead of doing more repetitions, I invite you to think about some questions and ask, for example, what changes if I slow down? And you can apply this to yourself, like moving through life, working out whatever you want.

And you can also apply it to your interactions with your animals, whether it's the hands on de bono moves. You know, if you're, if you're in my programs and you've been learning that. Or maybe you're playing around with the free resources as well. Or in anything you're doing with your animals, your horse, your dog, you know, what changes if I slow down? What changes if I make it smaller, whatever that ask is.

Like if it's an ask with your hands or if it's, you know, anything you're doing with them. What if you just make it smaller? What changes? What changes if I alter my timing? Ah, that's a big one. And what changes if you shift your mindset from kind of making something happen to supporting. Either supporting yourself or supporting your animal? If I just think of. Instead of pushing through, if I just think, what if I offer some support?

What does that look like? What happens if I do that? So just, you know, I'll leave you with this little, little nugget. You know, you don't need more repetitions. You may just need more refinement. And then see where that takes you and your animal friends. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate that you're listening to the podcast, and I look forward to talking to you again soon.

Bye for now.