Understanding tremors and involuntary movement in Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease affects the nervous system in ways that gradually take control of the body away from the person living with it. Tremors, rigidity, involuntary movements, and difficulty with coordination are among the most visible symptoms, but what's less visible is the emotional toll. People with Parkinson's often describe feeling betrayed by their own body. They know what they want to do, they can see themselves doing it, but their hands, their arms, their legs won't cooperate.
Simple pleasures become sources of frustration. Holding a cup of tea, buttoning a shirt, writing a birthday card. And touching an animal. Something as basic as reaching out to stroke a horse becomes difficult or impossible when your hands won't stay still.
Medication helps manage symptoms for many people, but it doesn't eliminate them. Tremors and involuntary movements can persist even with optimal medication, and they tend to worsen with stress, anxiety, fatigue, or emotional upset. The crueller part is that the frustration of not being able to control the movements often increases the stress, which increases the movements, which increases the frustration. It's a cycle that's incredibly hard to break.
That's the situation we walked into with Eileen.
The visit
Majella was bringing Wally and Wilma to a residential care home for one of our Equine Wellbeing Visits. Eileen wasn't a permanent resident. She was there for rest and recuperation following surgery, and her Parkinson's symptoms were particularly pronounced during recovery. The physical stress of surgery, the disruption to routine, the unfamiliar environment, all of it had amplified her tremors and involuntary movements.
When Majella and the horses arrived in her room, Eileen's reaction was immediate. She was thrilled. Her face lit up, she started talking to Wally and Wilma straight away, and you could see how much she wanted to interact with them. She told Majella that she would love to pet the horses.
And then she said she couldn't.
The tremors and involuntary movements in her hands were too severe. She couldn't control them enough to reach out and touch the horses without fear of startling them or hurting them. She was worried about the animals, not herself. She didn't want her uncontrolled movements to frighten a horse or cause it to pull away, because that rejection would have been devastating in that moment.
This is something people outside the Parkinson's community rarely think about. It's not just that the tremors prevent physical tasks. They prevent connection. The person wants to reach out, to touch, to engage, and their body says no. And every time that happens, a little more of the world becomes off limits.
Majella told Eileen not to worry. She said she'd bring Wally over to her.
What happened next
Majella guided Wally to the side of Eileen's chair. Wally is a miniature Falabella, small enough to stand comfortably beside an armchair, and calm enough to be completely unbothered by unpredictable movements around him. He's been in rooms with wheelchairs, walking frames, medical equipment, and people whose bodies move in ways they can't control. None of it fazes him.
Wally sniffed around Eileen for a moment. Then he did something that nobody asked him to do and nobody could have predicted.
He gently lay his head on her lap.
Just rested it there. Still, warm, heavy enough to feel but gentle enough not to cause any discomfort. He didn't move. He didn't fidget. He just stayed.
And slowly, Eileen's tremors began to calm.
The involuntary movements in her hands, which had been constant and pronounced since Majella entered the room, started to reduce. Her fingers softened. Her arms settled. The rhythmic shaking that had been running through her body gradually eased until her hands were almost still.
Eileen looked down at her hands and couldn't believe what she was seeing. Neither could Majella. Neither could the care staff in the room.
They stayed like that for a long time. Wally with his head on her lap, Eileen with her hands resting on his neck, the room completely quiet. There were tears. From Eileen, from Majella, from the staff standing in the doorway. Not sad tears. The kind that come when you see something you didn't think was possible.
Why this happened
This isn't something Majella can replicate on demand, and she'd never promise a similar outcome to another person with Parkinson's. But what happened with Eileen isn't without explanation. There are real physiological and neurological reasons why the presence of an animal, and physical contact with a calm animal in particular, can temporarily reduce tremors and involuntary movement in Parkinson's patients.
Parasympathetic activation through touch. When a person touches or is touched by a warm, calm animal, the body's parasympathetic nervous system (the "rest and digest" system) is activated. This counters the sympathetic nervous system (the "fight or flight" system) that drives much of the tension and hyperactivity in the body. For a person with Parkinson's, whose motor system is already compromised, this shift towards parasympathetic dominance can have a visible calming effect on involuntary movements. The weight and warmth of Wally's head on Eileen's lap provided sustained, gentle pressure. This type of deep pressure input is known to activate parasympathetic responses and reduce physiological arousal. It's the same principle behind weighted blankets, which are widely used for anxiety and sensory regulation.
Oxytocin release. Physical contact with animals triggers the release of oxytocin, sometimes called the bonding hormone. Oxytocin has documented effects on reducing cortisol (the stress hormone) and promoting feelings of calm and safety. For Eileen, whose tremors were being amplified by the stress of being in an unfamiliar care setting post-surgery, that reduction in cortisol may have directly contributed to the reduction in involuntary movement. Research into human-animal interaction consistently shows that even brief periods of contact with a calm animal produce measurable decreases in heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels.
Focused attention and present-moment awareness. Tremors in Parkinson's disease are often worse when the person is at rest and not focused on a specific task. This is why "resting tremors" are one of the hallmark symptoms. When Eileen's attention was entirely focused on Wally, on the feel of his coat, the weight of his head, the warmth of his body, her brain was engaged in a way that resting in a chair alone simply doesn't provide. That focused sensory engagement can temporarily interrupt the neural patterns that produce involuntary movement. It doesn't cure anything. But in that moment, it created a window where her body did what she wanted it to do.
Emotional regulation reducing motor symptoms. Parkinson's tremors are strongly influenced by emotional state. Anxiety, frustration, sadness, and loneliness all make symptoms worse. The reverse is also true. Moments of genuine calm, happiness, and emotional connection can reduce symptoms. What Eileen experienced with Wally wasn't just physical contact. It was an emotional experience. She'd been told she couldn't touch the horses because of her tremors. Then a horse came to her instead, laid his head in her lap, and gave her something she thought she'd lost: the ability to connect through touch. That emotional shift, from frustration and limitation to joy and connection, likely contributed as much to the calming of her tremors as the physical contact itself.
What Wally and Wilma do that can't be taught
Majella has said many times that Wally and Wilma find the people who need them most during visits. They gravitate towards the quietest person in the room. They linger with the resident who hasn't been touched by another living being in weeks. They settle beside the person whose body is in distress.
Nobody trains this. You can train a horse to be calm indoors, to tolerate medical equipment, to walk through corridors and stand beside wheelchairs. But you can't train a horse to lay his head on a stranger's lap at exactly the right moment. That's something Wally did on his own, and it's something Majella has seen him and Wilma do repeatedly across dozens of visits.
There's a growing body of research into how horses read human physiological states. Horses can detect changes in heart rate, breathing patterns, cortisol levels, and muscle tension in the humans around them. They're prey animals, which means their survival has depended for thousands of years on being able to read the emotional and physical state of other beings quickly and accurately. What looks like intuition is actually a finely tuned sensory system responding to signals that humans aren't consciously aware they're sending.
Eileen was sending distress signals that Wally picked up on. And he responded in the way horses respond to a distressed herd member. He moved closer and he stayed.
If you work with Parkinson's patients or manage a care facility
We'd never claim that equine visits can treat Parkinson's disease or replace any medical intervention. What we can say is that the response we see from residents with Parkinson's, dementia, depression, and social isolation is consistently powerful, and often surprises care staff who have been working with those residents for months or years.
Our Equine Wellbeing Visits bring Wally and Wilma into nursing homes, dementia care centres, residential care homes, and day care facilities. Visits last 1.5 hours, and Majella works with your care team to identify the residents who would benefit most. The horses visit communal areas and individual rooms, and they're fully comfortable in indoor clinical environments.
Visits are €200 within a 25-mile radius of Cloonlara, Co. Clare. For locations further afield, get in touch and we'll work out the details.
If you've got residents who are isolated, struggling with the emotional impact of chronic illness, or simply not responding to your current activities programme, this is worth a conversation. Ring Majella or send a message.
