12/01/2024
Expectations, Versus Reality
A horse can mimic our gestures or obey our aids. The result is the same: a move executed with a physique incorrectly coordinated for the effort. The outcome is nagging discomfort or pain and the development of pathology. Forces generated in the fibers of any muscle are shared throughout the entire biotensegrity locally and globally via the softest and hardest fasciae. This changes our “one muscle, one movement” ideology. We apply aids and expect a response. For instance, we put pressure on our inside leg, expecting the horse’s inside hind leg adduction. The horse could not respond to our leg’s pressure for a thousand reasons. One is the intensity of the pressure. A horse can react to pressures that are too light for the human to feel. The intensity of our leg pressure might trigger protective reflex contractions. The frequency might also trigger a protective reflex from the horse. If the frequency of our leg action is faster than the horse’s natural frequency, the horse will instinctively protect himself from our leg action.
When a farrier makes a hoof adjustment, considering the hoof deformity, the theory might be right. The problem starts with the expectation. Some horses might react as expected, but most protect other issues and react unexpectedly. Considerable forces act from the body down onto the leg and hoof. The study of the function of the navicular apparatus: “The Equine Navicular Apparatus as a Premier Enthesis Organ: Functional Implications,” by Michelle L. Osborn MA, PhD; Jean Luc Cornille, SOM, Uriel Blas-Machado DVM, PhD, DACVP; Elizabeth W. Uhl DVM, PhD, DACVP, discusses the how the anatomy of the navicular apparatus, including the presence of previously undocumented fascial connections, is explained by the need to manage the mechanical forces impacting horses’ feet during movement. The pathology reveals how these adaptations are overwhelmed in navicular syndrome by pathomechanical forces generated by problems in how the whole body is functioning. The article is open-access and can be read by anyone. Here is the link. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/vsu.13620:
While advances in imaging have led to earlier detection of the soft tissue damage characteristic of navicular syndrome, they have also led to more confusion about exactly how to define the disease. Most of this confusion would be resolved, as it has been for other diseases, if the definition of navicular syndrome was based on its primary cause, mechanical overloading of the foot, rather than on the fine details of the resulting tissue lesions (Osborn et al).
The main cause of overloading of the foot is the forces acting from the horse’s body down onto the legs and hooves. The cure is the rider’s ability to reduce the intensity and the frequency of the forces loading the lower legs and hooves through advanced education of balance control. Gravity acts from the body down onto the legs. Inertia accelerates gravity, creating forces loading the lower legs and hooves in a direction, frequency, and intensity that damage the navicular apparatus and hoof structure. We can believe that the horse mimics our gestures in perfect body coordination, but horses suffer from humans’ naivety. Instead, they benefit from human knowledge and integrity.
“The true test of any theory about how a horse should be trained is in its application, not in the logic used to justify it. The ultimate test of athletic training is whether an athlete can perform at a high level for extended periods of time without breaking down. Unfortunately, while this is increasingly the standard for training human athletes, it is not generally applied to horses. In fact, looking at images of horses working, many people in the equestrian world miss obvious indications that chronic overloading of the joints is occurring. This is a major problem, as chronic degenerative joint disease is induced by the repeated impact of forces that cannot be managed within the normal functional range of the tissues and the joints. If these forces are not corrected the tissues/joints are damaged and will fail. What is even more unforgivable is that when a horse does break down, especially at a young age, it simply is accepted as ‘bad luck’ or the inevitable consequence of a horse being asked to perform, rather than assessing the specific causes of the failure in how the horse was performing. If such assessments were routine, ways to train horses that allow them, like human athletes, to perform for extended periods of time without chronic catastrophic tissue damage would be the norm.” (Elizabeth Uhl, DVM. PhD, Dip, ACVP)
Jean Luc.
