Dynamic Unity

12/03/2024

The horse evolves constantly, and we need to evolve the same way. Mastering the forces around the Center of Mass, the new understanding of balance control, demands daily adaptation of many muscles, tendons, and fascia. As muscles and fascia evolve in constant coordination, the horse physique can evolve in improper coordination, and it is our job to feel and correct it. It is very easy to be fooled by feeling. We get used to an incorrect feeling. Working alone is a problem as we spend days or weeks before we realize that the horse went in the wrong direction, which is more difficult to correct. I faced this problem. My luck is that all my life, I have ridden four to eight or more horses per day. They were all different, and one helped me recognize the wrong evolution that another horse developed.
Video lessons are useful. After live training, they are the second most efficient solution, as I can point out a developing problem before it becomes a problem or even pathology. There is also the constant evolution of science and the refinement of the practical application. Many horse difficulties are easier to correct with today’s knowledge than they were a few years or even a few months ago. The concept of the Center of Mass, for instance, The evolution from linear thinking, makes possible an education that was a struggle, thinking that balance control was a linear control of forces. Before Steven Levin explained the Center of Mass, I felt the constant lateral shifts with every horse and felt they were part of balance control but not as important as they truly are. Today, instead of trying to increase the balance through the greater tone of my body or the false theory of shifting the weight backward, I focus on channeling the numerous and minute lateral shifts. It is easier and more effective.
The knowledge evolves constantly, and if we don’t evolve, we go backward. I don’t understand why riders need to believe that they know all. We talked about that with Betsy this morning. We have worked together for decades, and we are very comfortable with the fact that we need each other knowledge. Betsy evolves considerably in her riding, and I evolve considerably thanks to her scientific research. Without the practical application, the research goes nowhere, and we need to constantly question the practical application with new knowledge to go anywhere. The covered brutality, part of the equestrian world, tries to forcefully achieve what the training techniques cannot achieve. The reason is that conventional thinking reduces the horse’s part of the performance to obedience to the rider’s directive. This is arrogant and ineffective. The horse coordinates many systems that are out of reach of the rider’s control. Whatever authors believed was the result of their skill was, for a significant part, the horse’s willingness and sophisticated mental processing. Only now has science reached a level of understanding, exposing that horses have done it for centuries despite archaic and even false theories. Our authentic leadership is our knowledge, not our capacity to impose our views. Knowledge engenders intellectual modesty, allowing us to consider the horse’s reaction as a solution that might be better than anything printed in the book. This acceptance engenders respect and kindness.
Jean Luc

11/19/2024

Yellowstone fans that are real horse people got a little confusing information on the Sunday, November 17, 2024 episode. This popular show appears to take pride in its western production on being very authentic - yet some how they had a BIG mistake with treating a horse with intramuscular Banamine.

What is the BIG deal? In this Yellowstone episode a horse was administered Banamine (Flunixin Meglumine) intramuscularly. Yet the nonsteroidal, anti-inflammatory is only administered orally (in the mouth) or intravenously (in the vein). Remember Banamine is never recommend to be administered to horses any other way.

Why not? Banamine causes muscle damage when injected intramuscularly! There are spores of bacteria known as clostridium that can rest in healthy muscle; however, the bacteria may awaken if the muscle becomes damaged from an IM injection particularly when Banamine is administered this way. This may cause clostridial myositis - which is a serious and sometimes fatal disease. Post injection signs of a problem would be swelling and a painful injection site with gas underneath the skin. The bacterial toxins may migrate into the bloodstream causing depression, colic, fever and a lose of appetite. Treatment by a licensed DVM is necessary if you make this mistake. Supportive care, antibiotics, and possibly a surgical excision of the infected injected site may be necessary.

This episode of Yellowstone was a good reminder - what is entertaining may not always be real and correct. Check with your equine veterinarian if you are unsure how to administer Banamine.

11/15/2024

09/05/2024

“Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?” (Charles Buchowski)
Can you remember the rider you were before the equestrian world told you who you should be? Who you were was the real rider. Who you are entering the show ring is marketing. Carl Jung says we devote the first half of our life to forming a healthy ego. The second half is going inward and letting go of it. Once you enter the second half, you discover the real nature and value of your horse and, through your horse, the real person you are. The earlier you enter the second half, the better rider you become. Showing can be just ego, and you exploit a talented but dysfunctional horse until pathology ends his career. Showing can also be a partnership where your value is your capacity to prepare efficiently the horse’s physique for the athletic demand of the performance.

Teaching the horse to coordinate his physique efficiently is delightful. It quickly became the primary purpose of our life with the horse. The showing can be part of our partnership, but the pleasure in the show ring is the capacity to prepare the horse’s physique for the movement in one stride or two. Our value as a rider is the capacity to adjust to the situation when the preparation is not optimum, which includes not forcing the horse when his body coordination is not optimum. Once we reach this level of knowledge and ethics, the judge’s score is an insignificant detail. You leave the ring with a sound horse and pass the vet without needing another corticoid injection.

How can we liberate ourselves from the pressure created by the system? Simply by learning how the horse’s physique effectively functions. The concept of obedience to the rider aids lets us believe that we can micromanage each instant of the horse’s athletic performance. This is not the cutting age; it is the dark age. Advanced knowledge demonstrates that, to the contrary, the horse coordinates for the performance, numerous systems that are out of our physical influence. Advanced understanding of the horse’s body function sends the concept of obedience to the horse museum as a heretical belief that has hampered the horse’s performances for centuries. The horse willingly coordinates his physique for the performance. What we interpret as resistance or disobedience are difficulties related to the horse’s morphology or athleticism and the horse’s nature, which protects against muscle imbalance or other issues instead of analyzing them. If knowledgeable, we are the ones who can identify the cause of the horse’s difficulty and correct it through appropriate gymnastics. If we are not knowledgeable, we can learn. The practical application of new knowledge is a fascinating journey.

Tradition is the pressure of dead people. They never pretended to know all; they offered their experience as a work in transition, a stopover along the way. They believed the hind legs propel the body upward from their advanced position under the horse’s belly. Of course, this is not true, but they believe it is because the naked eye cannot register fast movements. It took advanced technology to realize that at impact and during the first half of the stance, the alighting hind and front legs excerpt a braking phase. It took research to understand the concept of storage and reuse of elastic energy. Yes, it is useful to engage the hind legs, but not for the reason our ancestors explained. The elastic energy stored in the tendons, fascia aponeurosis, and muscles during the decelerating phase is used for the propulsive phase. Science deeply changes the meaning of the classical literature. It is not the engagement of the hind legs that allows balance control; it is how the back muscles manage the hind legs thrust forward through the thoracolumbar and cervical spine.

This is where a paradigm shift is necessary. The hind legs induce a force into the thoracolumbar spine in the direction of motion. The back muscles, supported by the core muscles, convert the hind legs thrust into forward motion, horizontal forces, balance control, upward forces, and other forces. Traditional equitation principles don’t permit educating the back muscle efficiently. It is doable through harmonic tensegrity, a subtle interaction of forces between the rider and the horse’s whole physique. It cannot be done efficiently through biomechanical thinking. Biomechanics helps understand how the horse’s body functions, but the advanced understanding of fascial connection, close kinematics chain, and kinetic energy places the interaction between the rider and the horse at a more dynamic and sophisticated level. The horse can feel touches that are too subtle for a human to feel. When we are told ”more legs,” we are told a piece of advice that guarantees our failure. It is the same when we are told that fitting the saddle to the horse’s back muscles imbalance corrects the back muscles imbalance. It’s the same when we are told that trimming the hoof properly balances the whole horse. One element of truth needs to remain one element of truth, not the whole picture.

What fascinates me with the tensegrity approach, and this is true for the riders, and for the horses, it is to see horses and riders discover aptitudes that were there all along but burrowed under rules and regulations. Knowledge of equine biomechanics and the practical application of knowledge through the biotensegrity approach allows us to be who we are before the equestrian world told us who we should be.
Jean Luc

09/03/2024

“It is hard to tell which is worse: the large diffusion of things that are not true or the suppression of things that are true.” (Harriet Martineau)
Aggressive marketing largely diffuses things that are not true and pushes the rider into the corner. The problem is that most misinformation is based on an element of truth but is so distorted or inflated that it becomes misinformation.
The rider is at the center of the problem. The rider, not the saddle, can identify and correct back muscle imbalance. The rider is the one who can unload the forelegs, educating the horse’s back muscles to convert the hind legs thrust into upward forces, not the hoof care provider. The rider is the one who can prevent cervical arthritis, as many lesions observed in the necropsy room are consistent with compressive forces. Of course, the rider needs to evolve from an equitation compressing the horse between the hind legs and the bit. Trying to release a contracted muscle without considering whether it compensates for dysfunction in another muscle group could further imbalance and stress the affected joints.
The rider needs knowledge and the capacity to apply new knowledge. The rider can succeed but not by accepting to be pushed into the corner. The center of the equine peripheral industry is the rider. Therapies and shoeing help, but the rider is the one who can correct the kinematic abnormality before it becomes an injury. The rider can identify and correct the back dysfunction that causes the kinematics abnormality. But to do so, the rider needs the intellectual modesty to accept that the horse conceives and executes a large part of the performance. The rider assists the horse's mental processing. The concept of obedience to the rider’s aid is obsolete. Our task is to understand the performance’s athletic demand and assist and guide the horse’s mental processing in the right direction. We talk about evolving from biomechanics to biotensegrity because knowledge of body parts does not teach us how to coordinate them in action. We must jump into a new dimension where subtle nuances of our whole physique replace our hands, legs, and body weight..
Jean Luc

09/01/2024

A Natural Evolution.
The natural evolution from biomechanics is biotensegrity, which is the faculty to harmonize the complex functioning of the body parts. In the late nineteenth eighty. I wrote introductions to Biomechanics in the late Magazine Dressage and CT. Reductionists attacked me viciously, pretending to protect the classical approach. Forty years later, as I encourage thinking riders to explore Biotensegrity, the same type of reductionists attack me viciously, pretending to protect Biomechanics. Conclusion: reductionists reproduce but don’t evolve.
For long, I felt that the practical application of biomechanics demanded a new dimension. Many have tried integrating body awareness and therapies but have downgraded biomechanics’ evolution. When the therapy is the science of sophisticated motion, band-aids and thicker paddings defy the purpose, hampering the refinement of the motion. I knew that experience was helpful, but by experience, I mean experience riding and training high-level competition athletes. Not too many riders have this experience. Thinking deeper, I realized that experience erases many theories strongly supported at a lower level but ineffective at a higher level. Experience also replaces these elementary theories with a refinement of the whole physique and greater respect for the horse’s mental processing. Basically, extensive experience practiced Biotensegrity before Stephen Levin came up with the term Biotensegrity.
Evolution, for those intellectually capable of evolving, often commences with intuitive thoughts but supports and furthers the thoughts with extensive and constantly evolving knowledge. There is a constant battle between cult leaders who want to keep members of the cult within the theories they promote and intelligent minds who seek further knowledge. The aim of cult leaders is their ego. The aim of sensible riders is the horse, and the complexity of the horse’s body function demands an evolved form of riding and thinking. “In a mechanical system, the parts shape the whole, while in an organic system the whole shapes the parts.” Organic systems, are more flexible, adaptable, and evolving. The components of organic systems, such as the rider and the horse, interact with each other in complex and dynamic ways. Unlike mechanical systems, organic systems do not have a fixed set of rules dictating how they operate. Organic systems evolve and adapt based on the interactions of their components, and the system as a whole changes over time.
Mechanical thinking promotes relaxation as the cure for protective reflex contraction. There are no resting muscles in living anatomy and physiology. The non- linearity of collagen does not allow for zero tension in human contractile tissue. In other words, contractile tissues never rest. Biotensegrity understands that the efficiency of a tensegrity structure is the complex interaction of all the structure’s elements. Tightening or releasing one element alters the function of the whole structure. Mechanical thinking remains at the level of obedience to the rider’s aids. Biotensegrity thinking understands that the horse is the one who can efficiently orchestrate complex systems with the rider’s assistance.
All along, horses have done a lot more than academic equitation ever understood. Horses have achieved different levels of balance control despite theories believing that the hind legs propel the horse’s body upward from their advanced position under the belly. The theory is false, and science has explained that for decades. At impact and during almost the first half of the stance, the alighting hind and foreleg produce first a braking phase resisting impact forces and converting impact forces into elastic energy stored in the tendons, fascia muscles, ligaments aponeurosis, and used for the propulsive phase and the swing. Theologians believe that the hind legs propel the body upward, and scientific measurements have demonstrated that the hind legs’ thrust is primarily a force in the direction of motion.
Since Richard Tucker’s 1964 study of the biomechanics of the vertebra column, the evolution of knowledge constantly upgrades how the hind legs’ thrust is converted into balance control by the back muscles. We have evolved from the linear theory of balance control, which supported riders’ actions such as half halt, to the actual understanding of the Center of Mass, which explains that balance is the horse’s ability to center the forces above and around the Center of Mass. Now, we need to think at a different level. Balance control is our ability to channel the forces in the direction of the motion and around the Center of Mass. Reductionists will claim that the concept of narrowing is included in the classical theory of straightness. Now. I defy the reductionists to provide a sound and factual explanation of the rider’s aids capable of centering the forces above and around the Center of Mass.
We explain the process in our four different online courses. It is a complex process, and the rider’s ability to evolve from mechanical thinking is the greatest evolution. Many succeed and enjoy a new relationship with their horse. The evolution from Biomechanics to Biotensegrity is a natural evolution. It is not one or the other, as the biomechanical knowledge evolves constantly. So does the understanding of Biotensegrity, but without the evolution to Biotensegrity, riders try to apply new knowledge, tightening the bolt to secure the joint and the horse develops pathology.
Jean Luc

08/16/2024

Prehabilitation.
“Muscles do much more than create the forces needed to extend and flex joints, which is what has been traditionally taught in anatomy courses. Muscles are also critical for the buffering of the mechanical forces on the joints. They do this by absorbing very large amounts of energy and are thus critical to preventing overloading and to the stabilization of joints. This function is so important that the energy produced by normal walking would tear all the ligaments in the knee if it were not absorbed by muscular activity! Think about the implication of this. It means that joint stress and injuries can be predicted based on assessment of muscle function. This allows prevention strategies to be developed before there is serious damage to the joint aka: prehabilitation, which is widely used in training human athletes. It also means that a muscle may be overdeveloped and/or hypercontracted because of a weakness or loss of function in another muscle, in which case, simply trying to release a contracted muscle without considering whether it is compensating for dysfunction in another muscle group could further imbalance and stress the affected joints. (For discussion see Brandt KD et al. Ann Rheum Dis. 2006 Oct;65(10):1261-4).” (Elizabeth Uhl DVM, PhD, Dip, ACVP)
Developing and coordinating the horse’s physique for the athletic demand of the performance is prehabilitation. Ironically, I rehabilitated horses using the movements that crippled the horses in the first place. The difference is that instead of submitting the horse to the movement, I develop and coordinate the horse’s physique for the athletic demands of the gymnastic exercise. There is no need to say that the shoulder in or half pass that I use for rehabilitation differs widely from the move rewarded in the show ring. The pictures show the same horse executing a half pass with an inverted rotation, left picture, and a half pass executed with a correct rotation, right picture. It is my horse Bѐbѐ Blond. When he started the half pass in inverted rotation during a dressage test, I decided to do nothing, as correcting the problem would attract the judge’s eye. I got the same score executing half pass in inverted and proper rotation.
There is a difference between a shoulder in preventing injury and the shoulder in causing injury. The repetition of a movement causing injury is the belief that repeating the movement educates the horse’s physique. This theory believes that natural reflexes are adapted to athletic performances. If the horse has a preferential rotation, the horse executes the shoulder in protecting the rotation. The bend will be on one side, coupled with inverted rotation. This is true for every movement. Whatever the muscle imbalance or other issue, the horse’s umwelt leads the horse to protect the muscle imbalance or other issues.
A muscle never works alone; a percentage of the force produced by one muscle is transmitted to adjacent muscles by fascial connection. Fascia lines and close kinematics chains connect the whole physique. Releasing one muscle or fitting the saddle to a local muscle imbalance causes a compensation of practically the whole physique that might be worse than the original issue. I don’t use the saddle when I receive a horse with a back muscle imbalance, and the owner tells me that the saddle has been fitted to the muscle imbalance. The problem is never one or a small group of muscles. The problem involves dysfunction of the whole thoracolumbar spine. To identify the dysfunction, I need to feel the real problem, not a version distorted by the saddle adjustment. Muscles don’t develop responding to the pressure of an added shim or flocking. Muscles develop through adequate motion, including intensity and frequency. It is never simple, as muscles and fascia don’t develop at the same speed and respond to the same effort. Muscles do well with repetitive patterns, while fascia demands a larger diversity of forces and movements. This is one of the reasons why daily adjustments are necessary.
Metric thinking talks about complexity and difficulty because metric thinking wants to fit the horse to familiar patterns. Tensegrity thinking instead understands that a change of tension anywhere within the system is instantly signaled to everywhere else in the body, mechanically and chemically. There is a total body response. Dr Donald E. Ingbe revealed that molecules, cells, tissues, organs, and entire bodies use ‘tensegrity’ architecture to stabilize their shape mechanically and seamlessly integrate structure and function at all size scales.
The new understanding of body function is scary if we think muscles move bones. Instead, it is easy to apply if we use the integrity of our whole physique and understand that the horse willingly participates in his education. Instead of submitting the horse to body parts theories, we partner with the horse, guiding the horse’s mental processing toward efficient coordination of the horse’s physique.
Jean Luc

08/14/2024

08/06/2024

Nora Bergenthal
So lovely to watch. And also very helpful. Thanks especially for the whole Sequence without editing. Its so unspectacular and quiet. I love that. And it really helps to focus on the connection to the horse as the most Important aspect of the training.
Devina D’or is a very appreciated addition of the Science of Motion’s Simple 24 program. Devina is not backed yet and everyday, a short video shows the process, first time with the bridle, first time with the saddle, first time in hand, and so on. We show the unedited videos. So far the process goes without any fear or reaction. Devina enjoys her new world. The process demonstrates the power of a respectful and gentle approach. Devina’s reactions are analyzed and determine the next day session. Join us in Simple 24. There is a difference between what is said in the book and what happens in the sand of the ring.
Jean Luc https://www.scienceofmotion.com/documents/simple24.html

07/28/2024

In the discussion about what happens in the equestrian world, I talk about a better world where horses and riders are respected and given a chance to perform at their real potential without suffering and insults. There is a level of knowledge that contradicts old beliefs. It is called a paradigm shift. The need to stick to the old paradigm is a human reaction. Human athletes evolve from old beliefs as old beliefs would not prepare their physique for the athletic demands of modern performances. Equines deserve the same evolution. The brain needs to supplant the whip. Intelligence is the ability to challenge everything we know.
Learning how the horse’s physique and our physique functions is fascinating and opens our minds to more respect for horses and riders. Instead of injecting the joints at the risk of accelerating the development of arthritis, we can upgrade our equitation and understand that riding techniques loading the forelegs damage the whole structures from the bones to the muscle, aponeurosis, tendons ligaments, and fascia. Starting with the bones and evolving to soft tissue, Elizabeth Uhl, DVM, PhD, DACVP, and Michelle Osborn, MA, PhD reflected on the need to address the structures’ stress loading instead of focusing on the lesion.
“Bones can sense and, given time, remodel to adapt to biomechanical stresses, as evidenced by the fact that patterns made by the bony trabeculae line up with the mechanical forces on the bone. In order to adapt to changes in mechanical stress, the bone must be able to sense it. Osteocyte processes pass through small canals in the bone to interconnect with each other and it is thought that they sense mechanical stress through changes in the fluid pressure in the canals. These canals can be injected with dye to see the connections. With continual mechanical damage to the bone, such as in DJD, this network is disrupted and repair processes are inhibited. At the cellular level mechanical signals are directly converted into biochemical responses through mechanotransduction and, when they are excessive or otherwise abnormal (i.e.: pathomechanical), they directly induce degeneration and the release of inflammatory mediators from all the tissues they impact. In addition, extensive molecular cross-talk between articular cartilage and subchondral bone allows them to function and respond to mechanical stress as a unit, which emphasizes that repair of cartilage without addressing the mechanical stress on the underlying bone is unlikely to be successful (For reviews see: Chen & Ingbar D. Osteoarthritis and Cartilage (1999) 7, 81–94; Vincent T.L. Current Opinion in Pharmacology 2013, 13:449–454; Zhang L.Z. et al Arthritis Care & Research Vol. 64, No. 7, July 2012, pp 960–967).”
Jean Luc

07/27/2024

It was a very good comment on our Science of Motion page. Here is my response. Jean Luc
Thank you for pointing out the root of the problem. Top riders and most veterinarians hope to recreate soundness and improve movements targeting the legs. In the light of actual knowledge, this is infantile. We show and explain through numerous videos and studies that limb kinematics result from the proper function of the thoracolumbar spine. It is the same ignorance that leads a vet to inject the joint or a trainer to whip the horse. Hyaluronic acid injections accelerate the development of arthritis. Whipping the legs accelerates the limb dysfunction and the development of pathology. It is astounding that extremely expensive horses are trained in such a primitive way. Human athletic training uses slow movement to educate the complex orchestration of the numerous systems that create outstanding performances and soundness. Equine athletic training rushes forward extraordinary athletes, aggravating to the point of damaging the horse, a minor dysfunction that could have been corrected easily if the education focussed on the source of the limb's kinematics, proper thoracolumbar spine function instead of injecting the joint or releasing a protective reflex contraction. Releasing the protection does not fix the cause of the protective reflex contraction and exposes the structure to damaging stress. Through the Science of motion approach, horses regain soundness and become outstanding movers because we slow the movement to educate proper function. most horses are better than the fast-forward insanity allows them to be. Most riders are better than the insane obedience to the aids allows them to be. You are absolutely right; It is astounding that the training of equine athletes remains at such a primitive level. High-level ridders get caught in brutality because the system they apply is primitive and does not work. Brutality starts when knowledge is short. Punishing the high-level rider does not "save" the dressage. What saves the dressage and the horses and the skilled riders is upgrading the education of every horse to actual knowledge. This is what the Science of Motion does. Jean Luc