Horse Out of the Box

27/09/2023

Thought provoking.

ENGAGE THE SLING BEFORE YOU DRIVE FROM BEHIND

baby race horse getting thoracic sling engagement 😊😊😊🧡🧡🙌🐴

You can see how in the before picture this horse appears collapsed into the ground. His feet are splayed and chest is wide and soft and looks like it is falling into the ground. This is called ‘columnar loading ‘ it means that the horse is loading into the ground like a building, it is the opposite of ‘tensegrity’ which implies a balance of the compression elements giving you suspension and recoil. If your not using your tension elements and just start collapsing into your front end the only way you can really hold yourself up is by tensing through the elbow and thus splaying your front feet.

This baby is 1 year old, never been ridden and already is collapsing into the front end and is losing the ability and desire to engage and lift the thoracic sling.

There is no pectoral activation in the before. He is wide and collapsing in front. For a race horse this is a posture that will make him prone to injury because as he fixates this way it will be more and more difficult for him change and get his front end out of the way.

In the meantime those folks that don’t believe in spinal flexion of the thoracic spine will insist on driving into this braced, blocked, fixated front end that is now being stabilized by the elbows that will externally rotate and brace and a activated brachiocephalicus muscle which will further contract trying to stabilize the neck trying to prevent further compression as the hind end is driven into a front end that is locked down and collapsing into the ground.

I learned in vet school that when there is much opposing discussion about things it usually means none of the answers are correct.

If you cannot lift and engage your thoracic sling so that you have the ability for suspension and recoil as in tensegrity please do not think that driving into it is the solution. If you want your horse to feel like a motor boat you have to have the lift first and then you can drive into it.

Yes you need drive but the road must be open

If you don’t have lift the drive will cause more compression and collapse, creating more dysfunction.

Does that make sense ?

So the answer is your need lift for the drive to have a place to go otherwise you just drive into a brace.

The horse on the right has an engaged thoracic sling. This only took about an hour and this particular little fellow still had a lot of restrictions that will need follow up. But it’s a start - he can now get his front end out of the way allowing for hind end to come under instead of around.

He will be able to push off the ground instead of collapsing into it allowing triceps activation and development.

He will be able to open up his rib cage and breathe deep fully expanding into his diaphragm and creating internal lift to his back. His waist will lengthen, lumbar spine align and psoas relax creating movement to the pelvis and softening the angle so the hips now in alignment can push back at the ground with their full power.

All this in an hour.
All this from re training your nervous system out of dysfunction into function
Lift your sling to lift your back.

Please don’t drive into your horse if he cannot engage his sling and definitely do not back these horses up !!

27/09/2023

Very well explained.

So many horses are living in a state of stress, with the signs being missed. All horses deserve to live their lives in a state of peace, harmony and relaxation.

To achieve their very best potential, horses must be living in a high vibrational state. Only coming into their sympathetic nervous system when they need to, when in a genuine fight or flight situation. Once the stimulus causing this response is no longer a threat, they should be able to come back down into their parasympathetic nervous system. Sadly, this isn’t the case for many horses who are permanently living in a state of stress, which is causing an array of health issues.

Physiological stress in the body is the cause of all illness, along with the sympathetic nervous system shutting down the digestive system. Horses have a really hard time when their autonomic nervous system is out of balance. This is often the reasoning behind nervous, frightened, inconsistent and spooky horses.

This is why looking after our horse’s mind, body & spirit is incredibly important.

🕊️🤍✨🐴✨🤍🕊️

06/09/2023

Safety allows Relaxation. Safety from the horse’s point of view.

I was talking to my students that every horse and rider are unique, but the one thing that is consistent throughout every lesson is that learning cannot occur without relaxation. Without relaxation, there is no point in attempting to train. Horses are prey animals and are programmed to be concerned about their own safety. A tense horse is worried they are not safe. We have to understand this. The horse may be afraid of his surroundings, or separation from their herd, or maybe they are in pain and it isn’t obvious to their rider yet. Anything that makes the horse uncomfortable will make them concerned about their safety, and no learning can pe*****te that fear. A relaxed mind can learn. A tense one cannot.
In my book "Dressage in Harmony", on page 12, I write that muscles are found in extensor-flexor pairs. A tense horse tends to contract both extensor and flexor muscles at the same time, thereby tightening and stiffening the joints through the action of the opposing forces. A truly relaxed horse will have every muscle relaxed from the poll to the tail, moving in regular rhythm and responding easily to all the aids, and the hoofprints are light. The rider can take up the reins or give the reins, and the horse will maintain his rhythm without running away. This must be true of all three gaits. A relaxed horse is not stiff, nor tight or frightened. Only when relaxed will the horse show brilliance in the movement.
If a horse is tense, you may have to dedicate the entire ride to achieve a relaxation. Some horses are more prone to tension than others. If your horse has an extremely high sense of self preservation, it takes enormous patience by the rider. Horses are programmed to be concerned about their own safety, and are hoping you will show them the way to a more secure state of mind. With repetition, the horse begins to believe in their rider. They begin to learn there is a better feeling out there that the rider will help them get to. The time it takes to get to a relaxed state becomes shorter over time.
When the horse is spooking, do not get too close to the scary thing and "give" to help unwind the tension. This can take great courage on the rider's part, but holding a tense horse tight creates even more tension. The "give" helps the horse's neck to soften and lengthen, and relaxation eventually start to migrate through the horse’s body. The horse recognizes the rider will not "trap" him and will not force scary things upon him. That builds trust, and trust creates relaxation.

26/08/2023

I quite liked this. 😂

24/08/2023

https://www.lovehorsebackriding.com/support-files/horse-anatomy-diagrams-01-fullsize.pdf

Thought this was quite useful. Equine anatomical directional terms can sometimes throw me because I learned all the ones used in humans. Some of the equine ones are slightly different.

22/08/2023

So many reasons to love this 💖

17/08/2023

I had to share this juicy and digestible tidbit for my non reading friends out there 📖 🐴 👀

Categorical Perception:
The natural tendency to organize sights, sound, taste, touch, and smell. The human brain categorizes different physical views into one group automatically (a door will look like a door to us in all angles). We group separate items instantly without thinking.

Equine brains don’t have much categorical perception. This is why they notice and spook at items that we would group in one category (hose they walk by every day, to us it’s just a hose but to them the way the hose hanging IS different each day).

When we say the horse has seen this a million times, he hasn’t. He’s seen a slightly different view of the object many different times. We are the one whose brains assumes those different views all represent the same object.

Their lack of categorical perception is one of the reasons horses don’t need to have precise visual acuity or great hearing, their brains notice tiny differences instead which allows them to survive.
- Janet L Jones, PhD Horse Brain, Human Brain

16/08/2023

Giving a horse the opportunity to feel our energy means allowing our energy to fill the space around us, not hide it within.

07/08/2023

Another very interesting post.

07/08/2023

“It's gently inviting your horse into a safe space where they can develop their physical and emotional wellbeing - within their threshold and within their musculoskeletal capacity.”

💖🙏🏼💖

As humans, I think we have a propensity to overcomplicate things - a lot. And I believe this is further complicated by traditional horse training practices; the results need to happen now, super fast and anything that doesn't look like the finished product is an absolute failure.

Behavioural indicators aren't a consideration unless you're observing 'dominance', 'defiance', 'laziness' and 'evasion'- and those behaviours should be dealt with.

Most interestingly for me, if the dialogue spoken appears to be welfare/training orientated. The picture doesn't have to match.

If you say your training is kind, your actions thereafter don't actually have to be accountable to that.

The visuals with this narrative are usually exciting- horses bucking, rearing, spooking, bolting suddenly change into horses that are obedient to pressure and exceedingly observant of their handler.

Some might say they were 'fixed'. But at what emotional cost?

You might have a horse that can be ridden and you might have a horse that is obedient. But how do they feel about it?

The thing that I have learned is that ethical, sustainable, welfare driven training isn't "sexy". It's not big crescendos and explosions.

It's gently inviting your horse into a safe space where they can develop their physical and emotional wellbeing - within their threshold and within their musculoskeletal capacity.

It's honest and it takes time.

The stimulus for change doesn't have to be huge for it to be profound. Just being consistent is half of it.

And perhaps being compassionate is the other half?

-

The stimulus for change doesn't have to be huge for it to be profound.

This guy is 18 years old and has a history of hock and sacroiliac issues - as well as negative associations with the arena and 'work' because of previous training.

His workload is approximately 20 minutes of in hand walking each week with a bias towards pillar 1 - that's it.

And not only has his posture improved hugely, but now he's more open to the idea of being treated (something he hasn't wanted to do previously) and more open to the idea of having a try when presented with a question - because he hasn't been challenged, pressured or punished.

It's slow work, yes. But it's sustainable.

And I personally find it amazingly rewarding ❤️

LS Horsemanship

04/08/2023

Very interesting connection of how breathing will impact the whole system.

02/08/2023

Well worth investigating.

This is an ongoing series in which UK-based consultant, Eiddwen Skellon takes us on a journey through some of the key muscles and their functions as they relate to the correct development of our equine partners.

01/08/2023

Good to know!

28/07/2023

This looks like it would be a very interesting day.

Corrective exercises are a huge foundation of any horse's training or rehabilitation plan.

Traditionally, a smattering of poles here and there with the idea being the more poles, the harder the horse was working. If they were raised, even better!

I've always believed that poles have the power to do great work - but there is a fine line between enhancing the gait or compounding the movement pattern.

I'm absolutely thrilled to be able to offer this one-day in person event where we will look at how to decipher when an exercise is having a positive or negative effect on your horse's physical wellbeing - right down to the subtle behavioural and musculoskeletal indicators.; the change in facial expression, the brace lines popping on the horse's neck, and many more..

We will be looking at posture and integrating Balance Through Movement Method with many forms of traditional corrective exercises to help you to train your eye and ultimately help your horse more effectively.

I can't wait!

Book here:
https://www.tilefieldequestrian.com/product/talk-demo-transform-your-horses-movement-how-to-use-corrective-exercises-effectively-with-yasmin-stuart-on-9-sept/

24/07/2023

A super article on the rhomboid muscles with great pictures to help with surface anatomy.

From the hindquarters, I will move on to describing common muscle linings and their possible meaning in the necks. A new post will be published every two days. Today, I’d like to start with the Rhomboid muscle. The Rhomboid is a deep muscle is located in the top line of the horse’s neck. The cer...

22/07/2023

'We must learn to walk, before we can run'

Hands up, who has ever done a schooling session just in walk?

Many people seems so quick to have their horses trotting these days. I observe people on yards and at competitions and no sooner have they entered the arena, one lap and they’re in trot. I see horses lunge and they go in to trot without even considering the walk.

When I tell clients all I want them to do is walk, I’m often looked at like I have 2 heads.

Walk is a really important gait that most horses cannot do correctly. Establish a good walk and the rest of your paces will flourish. But why is this?

Walk is a 4 beat gait that requires the horse to plant the limb and move its full body weight over the top of that limb before lifting off again, unlike the trot and canter where momentum is used. This means all the muscle groups have to come in to play as the limb is taken through a full range of motion and there is less room for cheating.

In walk we can help teach the horse how to achieve relaxation. If tension occurs at any gait it will jeopodise the correct biomechanics and will subject the horse to a higher risk of injury due to the body working incorrectly. If a horse cannot walk without tension, it most definitely cannot trot or canter without tension.

Walk will help strengthen your horse. By allowing your horse to actively walk in a relaxed frame you are assisting it in using its body correctly. Relaxation through the neck will get the thoracic sling firing and switch off that pesky tight Iliopsoas which will hinder any hind limb engagement if not working correctly.

I have people tell me their horse cannot trot without looking like a giraffe with its head in the air, my first question, how’s the walk? Your horse is telling you that he is not strong enough in the muscles he has to be able to trot correctly. If their head is up, they are bracing for support. Don’t reach for the gadgets, take a step back and teach him to walk.

Here is a check list to work through each time you school your horse. If they can’t do that specific exercise, you need to take a step back and not move on to the next step until the current step is easily achieved.

❓Can your horse relax with you stood in their company?
❓Can your horse move from standing to walk without developing tension (body bracing, head & neck coming up)?
❓Can your horse maintain walk without developing tension?
❓Can your horse move in to the trot without developing tension?
❓Can your horse maintain trot without developing tension?
❓Can your horse move in to the canter without developing tension?
❓Can your horse maintain canter without developing tension?

This needs to be achievable in hand before considering it under saddle. The chances are this is not how your horse was started so it may require you to go right back to the beginning.

You may get days where you can achieve all of the above, or days where you’re stuck at number 1. That’s ok, but don’t push beyond the no tension level as the work produced will be biomechanically dysfunctional.

Many people tell me their horse must be ‘working’ in their sessions. Have you ever done pilates? You spend most the time standing still, but cant walk the next day. Static or slow movements performed correctly are very hard for a body that isn’t used to it. There’s no point focusing on the faster gaits if the posture is all wrong, we will only train dysfunction.

We must learn to walk before we can run.

22/07/2023

Every interaction with the horse tells them something.
Every movement we ask strengthens something.

Every step matters! Don’t think of your warm up as simply walking around til it’s time to do the “real” work- the warm up is an essential phase to introduce good range of motion, correct joint flexion and connect mentally and physically to the horse. From the first step away from the block, have awareness of how and why and what you’re doing.

22/07/2023

Every step matters! Don’t think of your warm up as simply walking around til it’s time to do the “real” work- the warm up is an essential phase to introduce good range of motion, correct joint flexion and connect mentally and physically to the horse. From the first step away from the block, have awareness of how and why and what you’re doing.

15/07/2023

So important to be aware of how tack physically impacts the horse. If people can get beautiful results bridleless it makes me wonder why we need tack at all.

Well worth following the links at the bottom of the article to the Balance Through Movement Method to explain things in detail. Be warned, once you understand it, there’s no going back!

15/07/2023

This is what can be done when we properly understand anatomy & function.

Prevention is better than cure!

If we want to use a horse's body to ride, we can learn how to help them move so they can carry us without pain - now or in their future.

11/07/2023

Tightness is a crutch for our horse: they are tight for a reason, physically or emotionally. It’s up to us to notice, acknowledge & ask them why; what’s going on that you feel the need to compensate? It’s also up to us to provide a safe enough space for them to tell us.

09/07/2023

https://m.facebook.com/denaliequine

Another follow suggestion from BTTM.

veterinary sports medicine and rehabilitation with focus in difficult or undiagnosed cases

09/07/2023

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063752040325

A BTTM suggestion to follow.

Dr Rachel Heart Bellini - Choose healing over treating to optimize performance & improve connection

08/07/2023

A must see video on assessing hoof landings and how to video them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=665HBC5sCQc

Watch in HD for best viewing! Learn how to determine if your horse is landing heel first or toe first. For more information, see thehumblehoof.com, or check ...

07/07/2023

I just found this page (https://www.youtube.com//videos). Lots of great videos. I'm currently listening to the one with Dr Robert Bowker which I'm loving. But I've also noticed ones with Yogi Sharp, Celeste Lazaris and Wendy Murdoch. There are videos on high/low, building the caudal hoof and how to assess hoof landing. Definitely one I'm going to subscribe to.

Alicia Harlov, PHCP Certified Hoofcare Practitioner. Hoof obsessed. Podcast Creator. Fighting for horses' soundness.I have the privilege of talking to profes...

07/07/2023

Welcome! This site is for empowering, learning, sharing and growing in order to become better people for our horses. So many of us have valuable experience and insight through constant learning especially with the incredible onslaught of brilliant online courses. The intention is that this is where we can all be equal knowledge seekers where you are allowed to be vulnerable without being judged. If you are tempted to ever type, "what you need to do is...", then stop, think and rephrase. And then share your incredible insight. We are super excited about this.

07/07/2023