I have chosen this horse for my demonstration because he is in the acute phase of this injury.
History of the horse – French race horse 6yo owned by a prominent owner of National Hunt horses. You will see he is not ‘clinically lame’. You will have noted as he was lunged in Andrew McLean’s demonstration that he could not remain quiet in side reins being lunged on the circle. He moved with some rhythm but appeared to be over fresh and did not, at any stage have a steady head carriage.
I recognize this movement and behaviour to be caused by correctable injury and restrictions in the fascial trains. I will now show you the site of the injury and the predictable pattern of compensatory issues.
I am palpating for pain responses.
These palpations are about diagnosing pain not inflicting it, so I’ll remove the pressure instantly the horse reacts with emotional resentment or because the tissue ‘guards’ against the pressure. I intend to treat the horse, so do not want him to be resentful to touch.
I invite you to watch carefully the reactions of the horse to the palpations.
If pain is experienced, expect him to flinch, suddenly raise the head, or pull away.
I will desensitise him first with firm slow strokes of effleurage along the top line of the body with even, relaxed pressure so as not to induce any reflex responses when palpating.
This is where the most common fascial distortion injury occurs – over the area where infraspinatus and supraspinatus unite. Initially, only the subcutaneous fascia is affected but myositis is detectable in the area within days.
Locate the site, then place a free hand on the other side of the scapular (not pulling on the wither spinous processes) and apply equal pressure to both sides of the horse. This counteracts the horses training to move away from pressure. Demonstration Remember, this is the acute phase. The intensity of the reactions will vary from horse to horse depending on temperament breeding and training but all reactions mean a distortion is present.
The next area to palpate is deep in what I term the wither pockets at the junction of the caudal edge of the scapular cartilage and the shelf of ribs. This is where the front of most styles of saddles rest. I would expect this area to be inflamed with 2 days of the injury occurring to the shoulder. Demonstration
We can expect this horse to be girthy and many horses will balk and rear if the rider leans forward during the acute phase of the shoulder injury even with a well-fitting saddle. My data notes that correction of the shoulder issues relieves most girth shyness.
The next area to be effected is the ‘brachiocephalic’, the lower muscle of the neck. Attached to the humerus, this muscle is over used when the shoulder injury is present. By applying pressure into the muscle tissue onto the hard lateral surface of the cervical vertebrae 4, 5 & 6 transverse processes, the horse will display a pain response indicating how sore the muscle is. Demonstration
All those tight necks you observe? Look for this shoulder injury. It is likely to be the primary cause.
The next muscles to be affected are the long back muscles and loin, Demonstration firstly on the same side as the injury, then within days the other side also.
Compensating posture causes deep and chronic contraction of these muscles. Horses often run away, hump or buck when we apply our seat aids mostly during canter transitions and half halts. So if a horse has chronic back pain, look for and correct the distorted tissue in the shoulders first.
The gluteal muscles become tight and sore on the same side, Demonstration because the horse develops a medial step under to the midline. This is firstly observed as ‘swinging leg’ where the leg swings in medially in the flight phase and deteriorates to the more serious landing on the midline as time goes on compromising the hock and stifle joints.
The hamstrings Demonstration become painful from over use when the back has lost its ability to swing. How many of you have seen a ‘lazy’ hind leg? Correct the shoulder injury on the same side. It will be there. The hind leg will regain its full use if joint damage is not present.
If the horse has continued to be worked in circles on the bit during this acute phase, it will also have severe shortening of the head oblique muscles Demonstration caused by the rider trying to encourage flexion the horse can’t relax into.
The pectorals become over tired from uneven weight distribution. Demonstration When horses suffer this injury in BOTH shoulders, many will object to traveling facing forward in the narrow space of a horse float or trailer. The continual isometric balancing is too painful in these already damaged pectoral muscles.
If the horse is kept in daily work, the foreleg flexors tighten, again in compensation, small micro tears begin to occur in the musculotendonous junctions of both the superficial and deep digital flexor muscles. If the horse resents pressure here I recommend my clients do not compete the horse for a week as under stress the soft tissue structures of the leg are at risk. Demonstration This reaction then leads me to test if there is also involvement of the suspensory apparatus or tendons. Demonstration
This system of diagnostic palpation can be learnt by vets and therapists. With the addition of red light stimulation of certain acupoints prior to palpation the responses are much easier to feel for students and those with little strength to palpate musclular horses.
It’s much easier to feel responses in the acute phase than the chronic phase when the body has laid down layers of fibrotic tissue to prevent normal stretch of the area. That takes more training in palpation and observation techniques however even owners can learn to palpate their horses to test if issues are present. If they feel their horse is not moving well, or misbehaving; all avoidance behaviours, they can include these checks to decide if the issue is pain related. They can then have a JENT professional correct the injury before further compensatory effects become apparent.
After 3-6 weeks the injury enters the chronic phase wherein the body lays down fibrotic tissue that dulls the pain of inflammation and the horse’s responses to palpation become less obvious.
Chronic issues, as in people, become ‘normalised’ and the body ceases to recognize a problem which dulls the initial pain responses to palpation.
Most horses adapt over time and adjust their stride to prevent full range of motion of the forelimb, but each horse lays down its own limits of tolerance to work, and how it interacts with other horses and people. We tend to reward horses that do not object to our training techniques and intelligent horses with less tolerance are labeled as difficult. The force and gadgetry then come out to make the horse comply.
But the performance is now chronically deficient, and never matches the movement that biomechanically the skeletal conformation should produce. A skilled rider may achieve short efforts of good movement but the horse becomes quite sore as a result.
