ReinDancellc

09/10/2025

🐎 An Equine Osteopath’s Perspective: Hoof Mechanics, Structure & Function

The latest Swedish research (SLU with Agria) is confirming what many of us have observed for years: the hoof is not just a structure at the end of the limb—it is a dynamic, responsive system, and shoes fundamentally change how it functions.

🔄 Structure & Function: A Two-Way Street
Osteopathy is built on the principle that structure and function are inseparable.

Restrict the hoof’s natural expansion and contraction with a rigid shoe, and you affect blood flow, shock absorption, and proprioception (Roepstorff et al., 2022–23).

But the body isn’t just a passenger—the rest of the horse influences hoof mechanics too. A body out of balance loads the hoof unevenly, while an imbalanced hoof sends dysfunctional forces back into the limb and up through the spine.

📊 What the Research Shows
The SLU study found that barefoot hooves:
🐎 Expand more on landing
🐎 Contract naturally during rollover
🐎 Show independent vertical movement of the quarters

By contrast, shod hooves were measurably restricted in all of these movements. That lack of mobility may reduce circulation, proprioception, and resilience in the distal limb.

🦴 Clinical Observations
In practice, I see clear patterns:
Shod horses often present with more sesamoid and carpal restrictions, linked to altered loading through the fetlock and knee.
The accessory carpal bone often indicates the direction the hoof is being pulled by a contracted caudal hoof.
These restrictions don’t occur in isolation—they reflect a continuous dialogue between hoof and body.

🧠 The Role of Anatomy
Equine anatomy encompasses the study of the horse’s skeletal, muscular, circulatory, nervous, and other bodily systems. A thorough knowledge of anatomy allows us to understand the interconnections between different structures and appreciate how dysfunction in one area can impact the body as a whole.

❓️ Why This Matters
Barefoot isn’t a cure-all, but it allows the hoof to fulfill its natural role in the horse’s biomechanics.

Natural hoof mechanics = clearer communication about discomfort
Balanced hooves support a balanced body, and a balanced body supports healthy hooves
We must treat both directions of influence: body ↔ hoof

👉 What’s your experience?
For those of you working with both shod and barefoot horses—have you noticed differences higher up in the body? Sesamoids, carpals, or even the back?

🔗 Read the full study here:
�https://www.agria.se/hast/artiklar/forskning/lars-roepstorff-det-vi-ser-ar-att-barfotahoven-tillater-mer-rorelse/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

09/06/2025

𝐇𝐨𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐈𝐧𝐣𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐧 ‘𝐁𝐚𝐝 𝐋𝐮𝐜𝐤’

In the horse world, “bad luck” is one of the most overused excuses. A horse goes lame, pulls a tendon, or breaks down in training and straight away it’s, “Ah sure, unlucky.” most injuries aren’t random. They’re the result of how we train, manage, and ride our horses. If we keep pretending it’s just chance, we’ll never improve welfare or performance.

Horses are athletes, and like any athlete, their bodies need careful preparation. The problem is, horses can’t tell us when something hurts or when they’re not ready for the next step. They rely on us to spot the signs. Too often, we push before they’re physically prepared. Drill the same movement, increase intensity too quickly, or work on hard ground without enough recovery, and tissues simply can’t cope. The result isn’t “bad luck” it’s biology catching up.

Biomechanics plays a huge role here. A horse with poor posture, weak core stability, or crooked movement patterns is already compensating somewhere. That compensation overloads another structure, a tendon, a ligament, or a joint that wasn’t designed to take the strain. Over weeks and months, those micro-strains add up until they hit breaking point. What looks like a sudden injury is usually the end of a long chain of stress the horse has been quietly carrying.

Conformation is often blamed, and yes, it matters. A horse with upright pasterns or a long back will face certain challenges. But conformation isn’t destiny. Good training, thoughtful management, and strength-building can protect weaker points. Poor training and careless management exaggerate them.

So, what’s the answer? Prevention, not excuses. Training must be progressive, not rushed. Building strength slowly, developing postural muscles, and introducing variety reduces repetitive strain. Rest and recovery days aren’t “time wasted” they’re when the body adapts and gets stronger. Conditioning the whole horse, not just the flashy movements or the competition skills, creates resilience.

Yes, accidents will always happen. Horses are specialists at finding trouble, from kicking a wall to slipping in the field. But let’s not confuse genuine accidents with predictable breakdowns. A pulled shoe is bad luck. A horse breaking down after months of overwork, poor footing, or ignored warning signs? That’s not luck, that’s management.

If we truly put welfare first, we need to stop hiding behind comforting excuses. Instead of saying “it’s just one of those things,” we should be asking:

•Did I prepare this horse correctly?
•Did I balance workload with recovery?
•Did I notice the subtle signs before it became a bigger problem?

Changing the way we think about injuries isn’t about guilt tripping riders or owners. It’s about being honest. When we take responsibility, we give our horses a better chance to stay sound, happy, and able to perform at their best for longer. That’s not just good horsemanship, it’s good welfare. 🐎❤️

08/03/2025

08/01/2025

This…

There is no correct use for draw reins.

Yes, you heard me.

Draw reins will always and forever be a shortcut for the benefit of the rider, not for the benefit of the horse.

There is no way to “correctly” create a leverage system that serves the purpose of pulling the horse’s head down and in.

The entire purpose is to make it easier for the rider to force the horse into a certain head and neck position.

Draw reins create a pulley system that amplifies the amount of pressure from the rider’s hands on the draw rein.

No matter how you configure them (where you clip them to) the leverage is always pulling the horse’s head IN.

The direction of leverage effectively serves to teach the horse to go behind the vertical.

Additionally, physical fitness is not built overnight.

The rider cannot feel the horse’s muscles fatiguing or when the horse is overstretched.

Humans are also notoriously bad at noticing discomfort signals from the horse so it becomes easy to ignore any attempts from the horse to communicate discomfort.

Draw reins skip steps that would otherwise allow the rider to gauge the horse’s physical capacity and where they’re at in terms of learning to carry themselves.

Skipping those steps does not develop the muscular ability any faster.

So, sure, the head and neck may go down and in and it may become easier to stop the horse from popping their head up, but it does not build the physical capacity to maintain that position for an extended period of time.

We should want the horse to seek contact and move into it softly, not hide from it.

The damage draw reins do to horses is apparent in their muscling but also their way of going.

Horses frequently ridden in draw reins are highly likely to dip behind the vertical with very little contact from the riding, “hiding” from contact.

This can be difficult to fix and it is much easier to avoid the problem in the first place by not using draw reins.

Draw reins, like many training gadgets, are for the rider.

They serve the purpose of offering instant gratification for the human.

But, this comes at the expense of the horse.

Building physical fitness and teaching correct carriage takes time.

Take the time it takes.

Draw reins are not for the horse.

They’re for the human.

There is no correct use for them.

This is a hill I will die on.

Stop rushing at the horses’ expense just to get to a destination faster.

It ALWAYS will come at a cost.

And usually it is the horse who pays.

07/20/2025

This!

07/10/2025

Great article about straightness…..

Crookedness has many disadvantages. It leads to an uneven rein contact and uncomfortable gaits. Crooked horses often don’t go on the bit, and they can’t perform certain movements, such as half passes and flying changes, or they can perform them only in one direction. They may also be able to bend only in one direction, but not the other. But the most serious problem is that crookedness can cause lameness in the long run because the horse uses his legs unevenly.

When a horse is crooked, the hind legs don’t follow in the footprints of the front legs, but they are moving slightly off to one side. Some horses get crooked by drifting with their shoulders to one side while the hind legs stay more or less on track. Others seem to keep their hindquarters off to the opposite side while the shoulders stay on the line of travel, similar to the way most dogs run. When you watch them directly from behind, you can see both hind legs and one front leg (looking from the front, you see both front legs and one hind leg).

Either way, the horse will lean onto the front leg that is visible from behind. The extra weight that is placed on that shoulder comes from the diagonal hind leg, which is now “idling” next to the body, instead of participating equally in the work. This also leads to a slight permanent bend in the direction of the idling hind leg, so that the crooked horse is shaped like a banana. The inside of this permanent bend is traditionally referred to as the hollow side. I sometimes call it the concave side. The other side is traditionally referred to as the stiff side. I sometimes call it the convex side.

Consequences
Crookedness creates an uneven weight distribution in the horse’s body: one side of the body has to support a larger percentage of the combined body mass of horse and rider than the other. This has a number of serious consequences:

* The front leg on the stiff/convex side (on the outside of the permanent bend) has to support the largest share of the body mass. This leads to excessive wear and tear. In the short run, it can cause soft tissue damage (especially to the suspensory ligament) when the horse has to perform demanding athletic work. In the long run, it can lead to navicular syndrome or arthritic conditions like ringbone.

* The hind leg on the stiff/convex side tends to take shorter steps because the hind leg on the hollow/concave side doesn’t support the weight long enough for the hind leg on the stiff/convex side to travel far enough forward through the air. It touches down too soon, which cuts the weight bearing/flexing phase of the stride short. This diminishes its range of motion: its upper joints can’t flex enough, because there is not enough time before it has to start extending/pushing again. The rider feels this as stiffness and a sense of hardness under her seat bone on that side.

* The hind legs are the horse’s shock absorption system. When all hind leg joints flex and extend sufficiently, the gait becomes smooth and comfortable to sit, and the horse’s back lifts and transmits the forces of the hind legs from back to front without any blockages. If the upper joints of a hind leg don’t flex enough, on the other hand, the shock of the impact of this leg on the ground is not absorbed properly any more. Then the lower joints suffer because they have to absorb the entire impact of the leg on the ground. Unlike the hip and stifle, the hock and fetlock are not embedded in large, powerful muscles that protect them from damage. That’s why the hock on the stiff/convex side may develop spavin, and the fetlock joint can develop wind puffs.

* If the upper joints of a hind leg don’t flex enough, the horse falls onto the forehand, and the back is not supported. It drops and braces underneath the rider. This can create back problems, such as kissing spines.

* The uneven weight distribution that results from crookedness is a lateral imbalance as well as a longitudinal imbalance. Imbalance always leads to bracing in horses as well as humans, because otherwise the horse (or the rider) would fall down. Chronic crookedness/imbalance leads to chronic bracing.

* Muscles grow or atrophy in accordance with their use. The muscles on the side of the body that has to support a larger share of the body mass will have to work harder than the muscles on the other side. That’s the reason why you can often see larger, bulkier muscles on the shoulder and croup of the stiff/convex side.

* This uneven use of the musculature can lead not only to an uneven development of the left and right side of the body, but it can also cause habitual bracing and muscle blockages, especially in the hips and poll.

* If the back doesn’t lift because it is not supported by both hind legs, it will drop and its muscles will atrophy so that the spine sticks out in more extreme cases. �

Conclusion
�Crookedness leads to an uneven distribution of the weight and an uneven distribution of the work between the left and right side of the horse’s body. Some muscles, joints, and tendons are not participating enough in supporting the weight and moving the body through space, so that other muscles, joints, and tendons have to do more than their fair share of the work. It’s logical that the overused joints, tendons are likely to suffer damage from the excessive wear and tear in the long run. - Of course, there are always horses who stay sound until their 20s, although their riders never did any straightening work with them. Different breeds and different individuals are susceptible to injury to varying degrees. But regardless of breed and individual conformation, the chances of a horse staying sound and being comfortable in his or her work are much greater if we work on diminishing the misalignment of the skeleton and the resulting asymmetrical use of the musculature with gymnastic work as much as possible.

Absolute symmetry is not possible for either the horse or the human, but we can try to diminish the asymmetries in order to avoid excessive wear and tear on the horse’s joints and tendons and to eliminate muscle blockages as much as possible - for the benefit of the horse and the joy of the rider.

06/28/2025

The collage of many pictures might be a bit much, but each one makes an important point. I grew up in the frozen northeastern US where people put sandbags or cement blocks in the back of their pickup trucks for better traction in the snow. That same principle applies to horses when they jump. Jumping horses can use all the help they can get when they jump, including having the rider's weight over and close to their center of balance as they take off.

The last thing a horse needs as they prepare to jump is to have their rider leap suddenly up onto their neck, way ahead of their center of balance. It's like throwing those sandbags through the truck's back window onto the front seat just as the truck starts to drive up a slippery frozen hill.

The red dots indicate the centers of balance of a typical horse and human. The skeletal drawing shows how when riding we want to merge our center of balance with the horse's. As we sit deeper our center drops, and as the horse engages, their center rises. This is how we join in establishing unity of shared balance and movement with our horse.

The US Cavalry rider is helping his horse by keeping his center of balance close to his horse's. The rider at middle left with their butt over the pommel is disrupting their horse's balance in the jump.

The evolution of the crest release in Hunter Seat Equitation to the point now that riders are placing their weight so far up on their horse's, with their butts over the pommel, is an example of how humans impose their desire for style on horses while they ignore what horses need. The up-on-the-neck jumping position is also dangerous.

Understanding how the biomechanics of how horses and riders merge their centers of balance in unity, or fail to accomplish this, is necessary to increase a riders skill level. This knowledge allows a rider to see past trendy styles so they can help their horse work more effectively. This understanding also keeps a rider safe.

05/07/2025

For those horses that only gets 2 hours of daily turnout… he really gets 22 hours in the stall minus work time…

04/21/2025

Officially back outside 24/7! 🙌

Piccolina is happy! I’m happy! Harold is happy! 🌭 🐶💃🏻😃

03/28/2025

They W-I-L-L N-O-T D-O I-T.

Will not do what? Use active walks for strength training as an. add-on to their regular training schedules. Eventers, show jumpers, dressage riders, whoever could gain benefit from having stronger equine athletes.

What are you talking about?

Well, this---In 1974 Jack LeGoff had a shallow bench of advanced 3-day horses to send to the World Championshipd to be held in September at Burghley. He had six riders and six horses, zero extras if one got hurt. He wanted to maximize their fitness, because cross country day, back then, would be over 17 miles long, and would require one hour and twenty minutes of trotting and galloping.

So he used vigorous long walks three days a week in addition to the normal schools. So say we did 45 minutes of flat work in the morning, which, with warmup and cool down might take an hour, give or take. Then, in the afternoon, say Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, he would have us saddle up again after lunch, and go hike around the open hills at Wylie. About one to one and a half hours, as I remember, each walk day.

Walks do not stress horses much. They are highly unlikely to cause injury. They build base strength and create muscular development. They are a win-win.

But virtually NOBODY does this, Most human sports teams now employ strength coaches because when technique starts to fail, raw strength can create that winning edge. Why would human horse trainers not want stronger horses?

But does ANYONE grasp this in 2024? Or, if they do, do they make the effort to actually do it?

There’s a hidden gorilla in the room, actually more of a train than a gorilla, It is called the Excuse Train. Nobody wants to admit being lazy, so they dig up reasons to deflect.

“I don’t have time.” That’s a big one.
“I don’t have a place to do it.”
I don’t have enough help.”

But the real reason is usually more basic, six words. “I don’t want to do it.”

Everyone wants an edge. Strength is an edge. There’s a reasonably safe and straightforward method to add strength, Take Jack’s advice or deny it----.

-

03/18/2025

Quality Control Officer checking out the new load of hay from Eastern Hay and Grain Eastern Hay and Grain… Piccolina approved.

03/08/2025