Equine Sports Massage Therapy

11/21/2025

A Key Link in Fascial Continuity

The MTJ (muscle–tendon junction) isn’t a simple attachment point — it is part of a continuous fascia-to-tendon-to-bone chain.

From a Western anatomy standpoint, MTJs are sensor-dense, load-sensitive, and critically involved in regulating muscle tone and movement.

From a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) standpoint, they sit along the jingjin—the tendino-muscular meridians that describe long, continuous lines of tension through the body.

This area is small, but it is one of the most influential zones in the entire musculoskeletal system.

Releasing or reorganizing tension at an MTJ often:

- improves glide

- restores force transmission

- reduces compensatory bracing

- changes movement patterns far from the area treated

This is why small, precise work here creates whole-body effects.

Check out the rest if this fascinating article here - https://koperequine.com/the-muscle-tendon-junction-mtj/

11/21/2025

In light of the recent Equine Herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1) outbreak, we are sharing key information to support awareness and responsible herd health management. EHV-1 is a serious viral disease known to affect the neurological system in horses.

Checkout these essential facts to help you stay aware and prepared.

More info ➡️ https://www.depts.ttu.edu/vetschool/equine-herpes-myeloencephalopathy/index.php

You can also visit the Texas Animal Health Commission website ➡️ https://www.tahc.texas.gov/

11/20/2025

11/20/2025

11/19/2025

Touch Over Tools: Fascia Knows the Difference

In bodywork, tools can assist — but they cannot replace the intelligence, sensitivity, or neurological impact of human touch.
Hands-on work communicates with the body in ways no device or instrument can.

1. Hands Provide Real-Time Feedback Tools Cannot Match

Your hands sense:
• tissue temperature
• hydration and viscosity
• fascial glide
• subtle resistance
• breath changes
• micro-guarding
• nervous-system shifts

This information shapes your pressure, angle, and pace.
Tools apply pressure — hands interpret and respond.

2. The Nervous System Responds Uniquely to Human Touch

Skin and fascia contain mechanoreceptors that respond strongly to:
• sustained contact
• warmth
• contour
• slow, intentional pressure

Human touch activates pathways that:
• quiet the sympathetic system
• reduce pain signaling
• soften protective muscle tone
• improve movement organization

Tools stimulate tissue.
Hands regulate the nervous system.

3. The Effect of Physical Contact Itself

Physical contact changes physiology — even before technique begins.

Touch triggers:
• lowered cortisol
• increased oxytocin
• improved emotional regulation
• better proprioception
• reduced defensive tension

Horses and dogs — whose social systems rely on grooming, leaning, and affiliative touch — respond especially deeply.
Tools can compress tissue, but they cannot create that neurochemical shift.

4. Hands Follow Structure; Tools Push Through It

Fascia does not run in straight lines — it spirals, blends, suspends, and wraps.

Hands can:
• contour around curves
• follow the subtle direction of ease
• melt into tissue instead of forcing through it

Tools often pull or scrape in a linear path, bypassing the subtleties that create real, lasting change.

5. Tools Can Override the Body’s Natural Limits

Hands feel when:
• tissue meets its natural barrier
• the nervous system hesitates
• a micro-release initiates
• the body shifts direction or depth

Tools can overpower these boundaries, creating irritation, rebound tension, or compensation patterns.
Hands work with the body’s pacing — not against it.

6. Hands Support Whole-Body Integration

Bodywork isn’t about “fixing a spot.”
It’s about improving communication across the entire system.

Hands-on work:
• connects multiple lines at once
• enhances global proprioception
• improves coordination and balance
• supports the body’s natural movement strategies

Tools tend to treat locally.
Hands treat the whole conversation.

7. Physical Touch Builds Trust, Comfort, and Confidence

Comfort creates confidence.
Confidence nurtures optimism and willingness.

Hands-on work:
• reduces defensiveness
• supports emotional safety
• encourages softness
• creates a more receptive body
• builds trust and relationship

Tools cannot build rapport or communicate safety.
Hands do — instantly.

Additional Elements (Optional Enhancements)

A. Co-regulation: Nervous System to Nervous System

Humans, horses, and dogs all co-regulate through touch and proximity.
Your calm hands shift their physiology — and theirs shifts yours.
This shared state enables deeper, safer release.

B. Touch Enhances Sensory Clarity

Touch refines the brain’s map of the body (somatosensory resolution), improving:
• coordination
• balance
• movement efficiency
• reduced bracing

Tools cannot refine the sensory map with the same precision.

C. Hands Integrate Technique and Intuition

The brain blends tactile information with pattern recognition and subtle intuition.
Tools separate you from that information.
Hands plug you into it.

In Short

Hands-on wins because touch is biologically intelligent, neurologically profound, and relationship-building.
Tools press — but hands listen, interpret, regulate, and connect.

When the body feels safe and understood, it reorganizes more deeply, moves more freely, and heals more efficiently.

The Energy Connection Between Horse and Human: Science and Sensation - https://koperequine.com/the-energy-connection-between-horse-and-human-science-and-sensation/

11/19/2025

⚠️ IMPORTANT EHV NOTICE FOR OUR CLIENTS AND ALL HORSE OWNERS⚠️

There is an active Equine Herpesvirus (EHV) outbreak in Texas, traced to a recent event in Waco. This strain is believed to be highly aggressive and has been fatal, and we are taking it extremely seriously to protect your horses and our community.

⛑️ HERE IS HOW WE CAN HELP

To help keep everyone safe, we are implementing the following:

🐴 1. Temperature Monitoring at Home
• Please take your horse’s temperature twice daily (morning and evening), especially if:
• Your horse was at Waco, or
• Has been to any show or large event in the last 14 days.
• A re**al temperature ≥101.5°F is a concern. Call us if you see fever, nasal discharge, coughing, or any stumbling/neurologic signs.

🚚 2. “Stay on the Trailer” Policy for Suspect Cases
If you are worried about EHV exposure or your horse has a fever:
• Do NOT unload your horse when you arrive at the clinic.
• Park in our isolation lot and call the front desk from your vehicle upon arrival.
• We will send a team out to your trailer to:
• Check your horse’s temperature
• Perform an exam
• Collect nasal swabs or run stall-side EHV tests as needed

This is to minimize any risk of spreading the virus on our property.

📍 3. Waco Exposure Screening
When you call to schedule, our staff will ask:
• “Was your horse at Waco?”
• “Has your horse been to any large show in the last 14 days?”
• “What is your horse’s current temperature?”

Please be patient with these questions, they are in place to protect your horses and everyone else’s.

💊 4. Testing & Antiviral Support
We are working to ensure we have:
• Adequate stall-side testing for EHV
• Adequate antiviral medications for high-risk or confirmed cases

If warranted, we will discuss testing and treatment options with you on a case-by-case basis.

🧼 5. Biosecurity & Quarantine Measures
We are preparing an alternate isolation facility with designated staff, should it become necessary to quarantine EHV-positive horses in a separate barn under strict lockdown. This will help us continue to care for all patients safely.

If you suspect EHV exposure, please call us before hauling in, and remember:
✅ Take temperatures twice daily
✅ Do NOT unload if you’re concerned, we will come to your trailer

Thank you for working with us to protect your horses and the wider equine community.

👉🏻 How Horses Get EHV-1 👇🏼

Horses pick up EHV-1 when they’re exposed to the virus from another infected horse or from a contaminated environment. The virus spreads in a few main ways:

1. Nose-to-nose contact

This is the most common route.
An infected horse sheds the virus in nasal secretions, and another horse can inhale or come into contact with those droplets.

2. Aerosolized particles

When an infected horse coughs or sneezes, tiny droplets carrying the virus can travel through the air and be inhaled by nearby horses.

3. Shared equipment

Anything that touches an infected horse’s nose or mouth can carry the virus:
• Water buckets
• Feed tubs
• Halters/lead ropes
• Grooming tools
• Tack
• Thermometers
This is called fomite transmission.

4. People spreading it

Humans can carry the virus on:
• Hands
• Clothing
• Jackets
• Boots
• Equipment
and transfer it to another horse without realizing it.

5. From infected mares to foals

Pregnant mares infected with certain forms of EHV-1 can pass the virus to their unborn foal, leading to abortion or weak newborns.

👀 The tricky part

Horses can carry latent EHV-1, meaning the virus goes “silent” in their body. Stress (hauling, showing, illness, weather changes) can reactivate it, and the horse may start shedding virus again—even if they don’t look sick.

📸 Provided by: The Horse

11/11/2025

A horse does not begin at the poll.

For a long time the head was often missed out as part of the horses therapy session and only then maybe the TMJ was considered and the odd tongue mobilisation in fact probably to this day those two areas are only addressed as the mainstream when addressing the head yet there is so much more and we can't forget the head houses the brain which will interpret what we do before we even begin touching the horse. So even before we touch the horse they may already be on alert and preparing to block us out. How we introduce ourselves matters, in fact it will probably dictate how the whole session will go.

How many videos do we see with the person poking behind the ears, the horse reacting yet maybe has to endure another 5 or 6 pokes to get that sensational video??? Is this horse first thinking?? Only to see in the next video a quiet no responsive horse, well my cynical view if the horse cant get away it will check out and you can only be poked so much before the area becomes unresponsive but still just as uncomfortable for the poked.

We often forget the the muscles that work together we see a hypertrophied temporalis yet forget they belong in the group of mastication muscles so do we work on one?? Do we address the group or is it the teeth or chewing that is the issue? Or something else, as it could always be something else

We place fingers in the mouth to mobilise the tongue to mobilise the hyoid without ever thinking how does the brain feel about the foreign object in the mouth, is the sensory system now on high alert to protect the horse from the danger of swallowing a foreign object, are your hands clean?? Are the taste receptors also putting a warning sign out??
If the hyoid is connected to the root of the tongue it would make sense to start at the connection from the outside.

How are the eyes, if the horse has one eye buying alcohol and the other buying cigs then how can the rest of body get that balance that we work hard for.

What about the teeth?? The masseter muscle can tell us how the horse teeth were floated. The incisors if they have a hook on the corner then how can the horse be flexible on both reins if one side is restricted, how can the jaw have freedom of movement if restricted in one of many directions, I can do all the bodywork in the world but I cant do a thorough job if the horse doesn't have good dental care, I will be just addressing the same issue over and over again.
Is the jaw clenched through stress, worry about what you are going to do or is their personality having a part to play everytime a jaw is clenched restriction sets in we need to work out have we which one it is and adjust our work to suit the horse.
Cheek sucked in?? Or is the buccinator nice and plump?? Does anyone even notice?? It is all information that tells us a story

We can begin at the head without beginning at the head, huh???
Many muscles and structures continue and connect past the poll, past the hyoid so why would we begin at a place of stress for the horse we can work our way up, heads are continually controlled by human hands so if the horse is wary then we can work our way towards the head from another place but we must check our work to make sure we have been affective

Look forward past the poll for you may get another chapter in the story of the horses body and some answers to the questions you ask.

Again i try my best with the pics but do get some things wrong sometimes as my head ends up spinning with all the names
I may need to unclench my jaw after doing this one 😃

10/28/2025

Hope this helps when thinking of the spinal cord
Nice and simple xx

I am full of a stupid cough yeah love my s**t immune system

But back to the doom phase of putting things together 😃😃 on the positive side of things if I never got ill i wouldn't of begun drawing to pass the time 😅

If you like it then hitting the like button means I can keep putting free stuff out as I am monetised so if you share please share the original xx

Oops had to edit as got the ventral and dorsal branch the wrong way round 😃 thank you to who pointed it out i appreciate it xx brains get frazzled

10/16/2025

DOMS in Horses: Understanding Muscle Soreness & Recovery

After hard or unusual work—like hill work, collection, jumping or competition—horses may experience muscle soreness that develops hours later and lasts for a few days. This is known as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS).

🔬 What happens in the muscles:

• Intense or eccentric work creates tiny micro-tears in muscle fibers.

• The repair process triggers inflammation, swelling, and stiffness.

• Glycogen (the muscle’s energy store) is depleted and refills more slowly after this type of work, delaying full recovery.

• This can leave horses with reduced power, stiffness, or altered movement for 24–72 hours post-exercise.

🐴 How we can support recovery:

• Ensure good nutrition: adequate forage, plus carbohydrates and protein to replenish muscle fuel and aid repair.

• Massage therapy helps reduce inflammation, improve circulation, ease stiffness, and support muscle recovery.

• Provide active recovery: light movement, turnout, and gentle exercise encourage circulation and reduce stiffness.

• Adequate hydration and rest are essential for tissue repair.

👉 Takeaway: DOMS isn’t just about sore muscles—it’s about energy (to perform, to heal, etc), inflammation, and tissue healing.

Incorporating massage and smart recovery practices helps horses more comfortable, balanced, and ready to perform at their best.

https://koperequine.com/how-inflammation-in-muscles-and-fascia-affects-energy-restoration/

10/12/2025

🙌 Serious question - how might you support this horse? 🙌

Can you recognise the distortion and do you understand the long term consequence’s?

Following on from this weeks exploration of welfare focused hoof care, versus a fixed belief and faith in any particular method or style of hoof care, I am sharing this to highlight the consequence’s of loss of 3-D balance on hoof and bone health, and what the appropriate intervention might look like.

Here is a front hoof with a medial lateral imbalance, leading to loss of equilibrium around the coffin joint. I love Daisy Bickings water balloon analogy taught at the School of Integrative Hoof Care (link in the comments) to help understand how the forces received by a hoof impact the flow of nutrition (think lymph and blood, with oxygen, white blood cells to fight infection, nutrients to repair and grow tissues and carry away by products of this process).

A hoof with healthy morphology with neutral limb and global posture, development, healthy gait and equilibrium around the coffin joint, will receive evenly distributed forces from above and below, resulting in even distribution of blood and nourishment around the hoof.

THIS results in EVEN GROWTH AND WEAR

BUT - Where there is uneven load, in any dimension, the result is UNEVEN GROWTH, WEAR AND EXCESS WEAR AND TEAR on the digit, limb and body.

First, soft tissues are impacted, the blood, lymph and nerves themselves, but over time, the changes in nourishment negatively other ‘soft’ tissues (such as ligaments and tendons) then dynamic tissues (think h***y structures such as the frog, walls, sole and bars and also the ungular cartilage and joint surfaces in the digit), then lastly, static tissues which of course are the the bone themselves which alter their conformation in order to adapt.

Once the coffin bone has lost bone mass and form, it doesn’t ever grow back.

In addition, healthy ideal blood flow assists with correct dissipation of kinematic energy created through movement. If blood flow is disrupted, the haemodynamic function becomes impaired and excess energy increases the risk of trauma, injury and tissue breakdown.

As the disease process due to impaired blood flow continues, the coffin bone thins like Swiss cheese and pieces of it may even break off and the hoof develop painful abscesses to try and expel it…

Read the last 3 paragraphs again.

The uneven growth and wear creates uneven pressure on the coffin joint surfaces and in the joint higher up the limb. To relieve pressure, the horse will alter its posture and gait, potentially standing wider in front. The horse’s entire development will adapt causing loss of ideal global balance and stability. Typically, the uneven load causes ossification of the ungular cartilages, called side bone, in attempts to stabilise the capsule and remove unhealthy load from the coffin joint surfaces and associated ligaments, in and around the joint and navicular apparatus which may become inflamed and injured.

So, with welfare of the horse a priority, how might you help this horse?

I also challenge you to communicate in the comments with compassion for the situation, kindness, fairness, clarity, and if you are a professional, communicate professionally!

I/we will NOT tolerate rude, unhelpful, unkind or allow factually incorrect information shared as facts on this page. We are here to support compassionate equestrianism, equine welfare and empowerment of humans seeking the same for horses.

I will post more info tomorrow.

Www.holisticequine.co.uk - supporting and promoting compassionate equestrianism for the benefit of all 💚🙏🐴

10/10/2025

The Interplay Between the Thoracic Sling and the Fascial Sleeve of the Forelimb

The horse’s forehand is a marvel of suspension and flow — a dynamic system that relies on the thoracic sling and the fascial sleeve of the forelimb working together as one continuous, responsive unit. The efficiency, elasticity, and comfort of the horse’s entire front end depend on how these two systems share load, tension, and sensory feedback.

🩻 The Thoracic Sling: The Horse’s “Living Suspension System”

Unlike humans, horses do not have a bony joint connecting their forelimbs to the trunk. Instead, the thoracic sling — a network of muscles and fascia — suspends the ribcage between the shoulder blades. Key players include:
• Serratus ventralis cervicis and thoracis
• Pectoralis profundus and subclavius
• Trapezius and rhomboideus
• Latissimus dorsi
• Related myofascia

These structures stabilize and lift the trunk during movement, absorb impact, and allow for fine adjustments in balance and posture. A supple, strong sling lets the horse “float” the ribcage between the shoulders rather than brace against the ground.

🩹 The Fascial Sleeve of the Forelimb: A Continuum of Force and Flow

Each forelimb is encased in a fascial sleeve — a continuous, multilayered sheath of connective tissue that envelops every muscle, tendon, ligament, and neurovascular pathway from the scapula to the hoof.

Rather than separating structures, fascia integrates them, distributing tension and transmitting force both vertically (hoof to trunk) and laterally (across the chest and back). The fascial sleeve is both a stabilizer and a sensory network, richly innervated with mechanoreceptors that inform the central nervous system about position, pressure, and movement.

🔄 A Two-Way Relationship

The thoracic sling and the fascial sleeve of the forelimb form a mutually dependent system.

When one is tight, weak, or imbalanced, the other compensates — often at a cost.

1. Force Transmission

Each stride begins with ground contact. The impact and rebound forces from the limb travel up through the fascial sleeve, into the shoulder girdle, and directly into the thoracic sling.
If the fascial sleeve is supple and well-hydrated, the sling can absorb and redistribute force smoothly.
If restricted — for instance, by myofascial adhesions or muscular guarding — the load transmits as sharp, jarring impact into the sling, leading to fatigue and microstrain.

2. Postural Support

The sling lifts and stabilizes the thorax between the shoulders. But that lift depends on the integrity of the fascial tension in the forelimb.
If the limb fascia loses tone or the deep pectorals shorten, the ribcage can “drop” between the shoulders, leading to a downhill posture, shortened stride, and overload of the forehand.

3. Neuromuscular Coordination

Fascia houses thousands of sensory receptors that communicate constantly with the nervous system.
The thoracic sling relies on this feedback to coordinate timing and symmetry of movement.
When fascial tension becomes uneven — say, due to unilateral limb restriction — proprioceptive input becomes distorted, and the horse may appear crooked, heavy on one rein, or unable to maintain even rhythm.

4. Reciprocal Influence
• A tight thoracic sling can compress the fascial pathways through the shoulder and upper limb, restricting glide and muscle contraction below.
• Conversely, a restricted fascial sleeve can inhibit normal scapular rotation and ribcage lift, forcing the sling muscles to overwork.

💆‍♀️ Myofascial Release and Massage: Restoring the Dialogue

Manual therapies that target both regions — not just the limb or the trunk in isolation — are key to restoring the horse’s natural balance.

Effective bodywork can:
• Release adhesions within the fascial sleeve to restore elastic recoil.
• Improve scapular glide and thoracic lift.
• Normalize sensory input through mechanoreceptors, refining coordination.
• Encourage symmetrical movement and postural awareness through gentle, integrated mobilization.

When the thoracic sling and limb fascia move as one continuous system, the horse’s stride lengthens, the topline softens, and forehand heaviness diminishes.

🧘‍♀️ Training and Conditioning Support

Beyond manual therapy, proper conditioning maintains this balance:
• Hill work and gentle pole exercises enhance thoracic sling engagement.
• Lateral work improves scapular mobility and fascial elasticity.
• Regular checks of saddle fit and rider symmetry prevent recurring restriction.

🐎 The Takeaway

The thoracic sling doesn’t work in isolation — it’s an extension of the fascial sleeve of the forelimb, and together they form the foundation of forehand function.
Healthy fascia enables the sling to lift, absorb, and respond.
A supple, responsive sling protects the fascia from overload.

When they operate in harmony, the horse moves with effortless balance — powerful yet soft, grounded yet elevated — the way nature intended.

10/08/2025

🙌 long toes = reduced equine welfare state 🙌

Don’t believe everything you are told. Including everything you read here.

Instead - seek to understand the welfare state of the individual horse

Instead - use critial thinking, discernment, and empathy for the horse

Instead - learn how to objectively assess horses welfare parameters of posture, physiology and behaviour

Long toes are associated with poor welfare state, pathology, lameness, pain, stress

Long toes are prevalant, common, endemic, and normalised, and even sought in some communities.

Long toes are indentified as a longer base length in proportion to the heel base length, around the centre of balance (a point 25% down the coronet band from front to back) - example in the comments.

Long toes are often accompanied by low palmar and plantar P3 angles. Eliashar (2004) stating that for every degree away from the ideal there was an increase in strain on the DDFT of 4%.

If you are welfare focused, and care about the horses lived experience, I recommend paying attention to the credible science which is proven, tested, and sadly, poorly understood by the general equine population, (and many professionals too!).

Those who disagree cannot provide externally verifiable objective documentation and data to support what they say, because what they say isnt externally verifiable. Think about that very carefully before defending those opinions…

Some credible science is listed in the comments. Check it out before disagreeing. If you disagree, please provide science and data to support your opinion.

Just saying it is so, doesnt make it so, yet so many are quick to believe, because of propaganda, fake news, emotional manipulation and businesses seeking to profit from distraught owners of lame horses.

Propaganda has no place in equine welfare. Learn the facts. Become empowered. Make informed decisions.

Www.holisticequine.co.uk - supporting and promoting compassionate equestrianism for the benefit of all 💚🙏🐴