Subtler aspects of horses muscles and what massage means to me

I have been re-reading the great and very respected book "Physical Therapy and Massage for the Horse" by Jean Marie Denoix and Jean Pierre Pailloux. (Thanks goes to Wiola with Kingley (Wiola's blog), who reminder me of it again). It is not a very light read and will take a bit of time and brainpower to understand the intricacies of the quite scientific sounding language, but it is SO packed full of information I think every horse owner/rider should read it before they even get on a horse. Here I wanted to really just touch a point that I found very interesting, and something I certainly was never told when I was learning about horses and riding. In the end of this blog I also wanted to speak a bit about what massage and healing actually mean to me... Enjoy reading!

Differentation and relationship between gymnastic and cybernetic muscles

We all know, tht the amazing feather like performance of a classically trained dressage horse is achieved gradually and in steps. Over time, the bigger, slower and clumsier movements of both the horse and rider become more controlled and coordinated. What actually happens during this process? Why does the finesse always come after a long time and only from experience? According to Denoix and Pailloux the finesse is achieved by neurophysiological development and by the diversification of muscular roles. And by distinguishing between the roles of  gymnastic and cybernetic muscles. As in everything in the living being, the roles of these two kinds of muscle complement each other, but have a very distinguished individual functions.

What are these muscles?

The gymnastic muscles are the stronger and most important skeletal muscles responsible for power and impulsion. Those are the muscles we see and those are the muscles most of us place all of our focus on.

In contrast, the cybernetic muscles have higher level of nerve endings per muscle, which makes their movement much more precise, think of muscles on the eyelid or the muzzle. These sensitive cybernetic muscles are also located deep within the body. Most importanly around the articular joints, for example around the joints of the spinal column. It is these cybernetic muscles that respond to the riders more subtle commands.

For the subtler, sensitive cybernetic muscles to be effective and to achieve any kind of balance and finesse when riding a horse, few conditions must be met. For example if the horse is stressed or fearful the gymnastic muscles take over, locking the muscles and joints. Finesse of movement cannot co exist with overwork. As the book puts it "The horse is not mindlessly altruistic, a machine which builds muscle simply in order to compete". Also the bigger sceletal, gymnastic muscles need to be in good health, supple and free of pain and tightness before any of the finer aspects of harmonious movement aided by the cybernetic musculature can be achieved.

What does massage and healing really mean to me?

I know I tend to lean towards very scientific posts and have a tendency to keep them really practical. Truthfully, the scientific / practical part of me is only really a half, (or maybe one third) of the story of who I am and how I see life and how I work with horses, or any animals to that matter.

Massage is kind of a living experience, feeling the living tissue under the skin with my own living tissue on my fingertips. I believe "the feel" is something that no one can teach you, it is something that comes after years of practice and after feeling several hundered different horses under your fingers. You also learn to read the horse - those subtle signals of pain and comfort. Tiny look from the corner of his eye, little flicker of the whiskers... It does become like a dance between two living beings. As Denoix and Pailloux say in the forementioned book, "it is impossible to heal with one's hands if the desire to comfort is not also there". It is simply not enough to learn a technique or a routine of massage. One must love what one does and one must have an unconditional desire to heal and to help.

In particular when working with a difficult horse, I often center myself for few seconds and silently ask the horse "how can I help". Maybe this is just to help my own subconsious to focus and I dont really stop and wait for a concrete answer to come, but who am I to say that is all it is? I just put the intention out there - open my mind and let the nature do the rest.

My question for a while has been - without sensitivity and finesse in everything we do with horses can true horsemanship really exist? On the back of that, and many other similar thoughts, I am currently having a funny old break from riding. I just don't really have a need or desire to ride. I feel I have so much learning to do about how to put this same aspect into my riding, not to mention to find the right horse, yard etc, although those are the more practical aspect of this question. I really want to feel I am doing the right thing for the horse and most importantly for myself. I dont want to ride for "selfish" purposes, just because I fancied a ride or want to win rosettes (not that with my current riding skills I would anyway!!! hehe!!). I want it to be something more.... and currently I am struggling to put it in words, not to even mention in practice. I am not talking about the "fearful middle aged woman doing parelli" - syndrome here either (and I am not quite middle aged, yet!!). It is something else than that. I want the horse to WANT to work with me and me to ENJOY everyday working with that horse.

Maybe one of you has an answer? Otherwise I am stuck being a happy hacker for the rest of my life. And to be honest, that doesnt really satisfy me either. So I am stuck not riding at all at the moment!

Thank you for taking your time to read my thoughts. I leave you with one of my favourite quotes from one of my all time favourite book's

"Only with the heart one sees clearly. What is essential is invisible to the eye"

(Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Little Prince)

Massage and a straight horse - why is this important?

As I mentioned in the end of my last blog post ,  I have spent a bit of time thinking and studying what crookedness / straightness in horses actually is and how as a massage therapist I can be part of the team helping the horse be more straight and hence carry itself and the rider better. I have read several great articles and websites by different people who have done some great in depth study in the subject. Some are indeed coming from a bit different angles, but the message across them appers to be exactly the same:

If your horse is not supple it cannot be truly straight.

A stiff horse is not a straight horse.

Only if your horse is supple it can be straight.

So, to understand this, one needs to

1.) Understand what is a not-straight ie crooked horse

2.) Have at least a basic idea on how to make this crooked horse straight and supple

First of all, all horses, and people to that matter are naturally crooked / one handed. Most horses are what Marijke De Jong (Academic Art of Riding) calls "right bended". An image of a banana on a table with the bulging side on the right and a hollow side on the left, gives you and idea what this means. What happens in a horse like this is some of the following

• Right Fore (RF) has a much better coordination and leads the movement. This shoulder often appears, a bit bigger and more muscled. When on a right bended circle horse often "falls" inside on this shoulder. Left Fore (LF) will then be the opposite, worse coordination, appear smaller and weaker. When on a left bended circle, the horse prefers to make the circle bigger.
• Left Hind (LH) Is the stronger and more pushing of the hind legs. It is often stiffer in the musculature and less bendy. As in the front, the opposite is true for the Right hind (RH)
• Saddle sometimes falls to the "inside of the banana" ie to the left in this case, and causes a rub on the right side of the back.
• As a whole the muscles on the left side are shorter and weaker and the opposite on the right.
• Horse will find working on the right rein a bit harder.

This video explains the above very clearly

What I see as a massage therapist, is a picture that is not often quite this clear, but will always have elements of it in the horses body, and I can normally tell which rein the horse is much stiffer and more willing. The whole picture is obviously complicated by many things such as the riders own balance and crookedness, how well or badly the tack fits the horse, previous or current injuries, shoeing etc.

It is obviously up to the rider to educate themselves to ride the horse better. But massage can be used as a great help in making the horse more comfortable during this process and as a tool in relieving all those tight areas that have resulted from the crooked way of going. It can give really good result when carefully used hand in hand with the correct schooling methods.

Again, Marijke de Jong talks about what are the building blocks of straighter horse.

• The horse needs to be able to stretch laterally on circle on both sides, starting with in hand work and building up to lunging and finally riding.
•  
• The horse must have relaxed back muscles in order to get forward and down movement.

These two points are interconnected to each other and cannot exist without one another. This really highlights the importance of keeping your horses back muscles supple!

• Thirdly, the horses must be able to step under on a circle. This is needed to shift weight from the naturally heavier front end, to the stronger back end. The both hind legs need to be equally strong and balanced to be able to carry the weight of the rider in a straight line.

See the video above for a very clear explanation!

As I mentioned above, the picture is never this clear in the horses body and hence I think it is important to always massage the whole horse very thoroughly. It is also a very well known fact that pain or an injury can show up in a very different way in each horses body. So it is not always very clear where the problem lies, even the horses, say, left shoulder is very tight or he is unable to pick the left canter. Very often when horses have soreness on say on the right fore, they prefer to take the weight off that leg and hence make the left shoulder/neck/leg area very tight and sore, with the actual right side having little or no muscle stiffness.

For anyone wanting to know more, below are some great resources you can read. the Equinestudies website has a great forum where anyone can ask questions and read about problems other people have encountered!

http://www.equinestudies.org/

http://www.scienceofmotion.com/

http://academicartofriding.com/

http://www.classicaldressage.co.uk/Straightness/straightness.html

I look forward to hearing your comments and I hope to be able to meet some of you on day in person!

Susanna

Interesting research - Barefoot rehab at Rockley Farm

Those of you who are my friends on Facebook already know that I have followed Nic Barker's blog

 http://rockleyfarm.blogspot.com/

for a while. The blog includes updates on hoof rehabilitation and information about barefoot performance, very interesting!

It is very easy to be stuck in the world of your "own modality" of rehab, type of riding or style of horsemanship and thinking that it is the only way (dare I say,  some people think the best way..) to help or be with a horse. It does us SO much good to look outside the box and see how other people deal with issues we all are bound to encounter with our horses - and then make an informed decison based on this new knowledge we have aqcuired.

I knew nothing about barefoot trimming and its use in rehab until one of my customer's horse Kingley was sent to Rockley Farm in Devon, UK. You can read all about young Kingsley and his struggle with navicular disease here

Blog about Kingsley's rehab - click here. 

Here is a video of me massaging Kingsley after he came back from Rockley Farm

As you know,  I feel it is our responsibility as owners and riders to find the best information available and put it in practice. Wiola and Pauline - Kinglsey's owners, certainly did that. They did their homework and Kingsley is now on a road to recovery.

One think in particular made me think - kind of one of those paradigm shifts that really makes perfect sense once you hear it - was when I read one of the latest blogs Nic published about hoof balance and landing

Hoof balance and landing -click here

 Nic starts by talking about how asymmetric hooves land and how horses, particularly with lamenes issues need to be allowed to compensate this way. On the blog there is also a great video where this is shown in slow motion. Nic goes to say: "Here's something to think about - all the horses in these clips grow asymmetric hooves but those hooves load evenly. If you try to trim the hooves to make them appear more symmetrical, you will adversely affect how the hooves load and these horses will become much less capable - or will even go lame."

I do hope it makes you think as much it has made me think :)

Here is another interesting post from Nic relating to the same subject

Hooves and symmetry - click here

In this post you can clearly see the difference in the shape of the hoof when the horse is allowed to grow such hoof shape that supports and reflects the current "need" the horse has for that particular shape of hoof.

That relates nicely to other issues with horses crookedness... Why are they crooked in the first place? How to help them become balanced? How to teach horse to move in balance with a straight body? Please do read this article by Dr Deb Bennett

Teaching your horse how to carry himself straight - click here

 It gives some amazing insight into the issue of crookedness as well as a theory why do horses move crooked.

More about that later!!