by Colin Dangaard

Electricity, that’s why. Sit on a horse and you are being charged with current that enlivens every cell in your body, mobilizing neurotransmitters that excite the pleasure center of the brain. Electricity is what the Earth produces while spinning, fueled with heat from its molten core. It is vital to every living creature. It operates the human brain – and all other brains.
A live body produces electricity in relation to its mass. The bigger the mass, the stronger the field. The average horse has a field several times stronger than the average person.  
Mostly we are insulated from the electricity produced by the planet, because we wear rubber-soled shoes, walk on asphalt, wood, etc. The horse has four barefoot “conductors” on the earth to deliver the planet’s negative electrons up into your body to equalize your positive charge. Like the earth, your body, and the body of the horse, are mostly water and minerals, both excellent conductors of electricity.
The human body functions best “grounded,” much as other electrical equipment needs to be grounded in a building. All power outlets have a grounding wire. A computer plugged into an ungrounded outlet will most certainly “fry.” The human brain is a very complicated, delicate, live computer so extraordinary it has billions of moving parts that are replenished constantly. It can also “fry” with a drastic electrical change.
In their best-selling book EARTHING, authors Clinton Ober, Stephen T. Sinatra, MD and Martin Zucker write: “Connecting to the Earth restores your body’s natural internal electrical stability and rhythms, which in turn promotes normal functioning of body systems, including the cardiovascular, respiratory, digestive and immune systems. It remedies an electron deficiency to reduce inflammation – the common cause of disease. It shifts the nervous system from a stress-dominated mode, to one of calmness.”
Inspired by what I learned in EARTHING, I took off the shoes from my wife Linda, who suffers dementia, and on her lengthy daily walks she was barefoot, on concrete paths in our large backyard. Within a couple of weeks I noticed subtle changes.  She walked more certainly, talked more, and laughed and smiled a lot. She was definitely more happy.
I queried her physician, Dr George J. Danial, MD, andasked if this wasn’t some crazy idea, making her go barefoot. He texted back: “Not stupid, but sensible and logical. This is a great physical stimulation that simply worked for her. It made her enjoy walking, running, laughing, sleeping and talking more and more. Through the Peripheral Nervous System the Central Nervous System is stimulated and therefore the positive effects.”
David Perlmutter,MD., in his best-selling book BRAIN MAKER sees a vital connection between the digestive system and brain function.  If your gut is unhealthy, so is your brain. Modern lifestyle and diet, he reports, have depleted vast varieties of gut flora that constitute a healthy microbiome –trillions of organisms that live in your body and outnumber cells ten to one. He says modern living is becoming incompatible with man’s DNA that has remained unchanged for millions of years. Microbiologically speaking, we are disconnecting ourselves from the Earth.
The writers of EARTHING say there is a proven link between a healthy microbiome and a grounded body.
 The Earth generates so much electricity it takes 5,000 lightning strikes a minute to neutralize energy that could otherwise endanger life. Early man identified a connection between the Earth and the function of other animals. The Roman Empire produced some of the finest mounted warriors the world had known, yet they rode bareback, believing the “Earth spirit” rose up through the horse and into the body of the warriors, thus empowering them. They wanted nothing to interfere with this flow of energy.
Today there are bareback riders who insist that being as close as sweat to the horse produces a euphoria unrealized by the “insulation” of a saddle. They ride bareback with the same passion and conviction as did Roman warriors two thousand years ago. Their sweaty rear ends provide a perfect conductor for electricity from horse to human.  
When as individuals we produce a sudden abundance of electricity by, say, walking across a carpet, this electricity is released when we touch a metal door knob that is actually “grounded” to the earth via a grounded building. We see, feel and hear the “spark.” It is a dramatic release of positive charge that on a horse, with its bare hooves on the ground, would be released more passively.  
Although electricity is as old as the planet, it has been less than 200 years since modern man figured how to harness and use it. We actually still do not know what it IS; we have learned only how to control it.
Early civilizations may not have identified electricity, but they were aware the Earth was producing an energy ancient Chinese called “chi” and EasternIndians called “prana.” In every civilization the Earth was identified with a force that infuses all life.
The authors of EARTHING quote scientific studies revealing that “electron deficiency from loss of direct contact with the earth” is related to all chronic inflammation issues in the body—inflammation being the cause of most diseases.
Electrical engineer Roger Applewhite published a study in 2005 confirming electrons move from the Earth to the body and vice versa when the body is grounded. The effect is sufficient to maintain the body in the same negative-charge electrical potential as the Earth. Added Applewhite: “We hypothesize that this flow of free electrons into the body is the mechanism by which inflammation is brought down. Grounding powerfully reduces electromagnetic fields on the body.”
It is well recognized that horses kept in stalls for long periods suffer more ailments than horses in the pasture. This prompts the question: Could there be a link between these maladies and rubber mats installed by caring owners who think they are “saving” the horse’s legs. Rubber stall mats, even if covered with woodshavings, would definitely prevent the free flow of electrons between the horse and the Earth.
Long plane flights produce “jet lag,” which comes about when a body has been disconnected from the Earth for a long period, while also enduring the stress of going through time zones. The authors of EARTHING quote studies showing this “lag” can be remedied by spending a few minutes with feet naked on bare earth, after a long flight, thus “grounding” the body and reducing it to the same negative charge profile as the Earth.    
A rider on a horse is similarly grounded and a feeling a well being excites the neurotransmitters in the brain all the way to the “pleasure center.” This happiness is compounded because the horse also “feels” it, according to Temple Grandin writing in her book ANIMALS IN TRANSLATION, adding: “They have super-sensitive sensory apparatus.”
In this state of compatibility, explains Grandin, communication between horse and human is at its best. Her studies show the sensory apparatus of the horse projects and receives communication in pictures which in turn are transmitted bio-electrically.   
In can be argued that positive “earthing” effects experienced by a rider on a horse could also be achieved by somebody wearing rubber-soled shoes when he pets a dog whose feet are “grounded.” The overload of positive electrons in the person would be neutralized by the instant rush of negative electrons from the Earth and up through the dog’s body and into the body of the person via the hand. It would be like touching a doorknob, but there would be no spark. Which could explain why people are instinctively drawn to pet dogs! They are subconsciously reaching for relief from electron deficiency. Petting dogs makes people feel good!
It could also be argued a similar sense of wellbeing could be induced by a fine glass of wine, a couple of beers, or being intimate with an attractive somebody of the opposite sex. Which might explain why we are always trying to get those stimuli together.
Horse owners have it all. He and she can throw a bottle of wine in the saddle bag, ride into the woods -- and even be followed by the dog. All bases are covered.