Balanced Equine Energy with Shannon

TL:DR -- Stretching does not increase stride length at trot and stretching too often reduces range of motion rather than increasing it. If you stretch a horse, do not do it more than three times a week.

Even better, don't do it at all. Do Equine Hanna Somatics instead. You will gain rang of motion because you're fixing motor sensory amnesia rather than stretching the muscles, and. because stretching can activate the stretch reflex, which ultimately leads to more contraction.

I advise clients never to stretch their horses -- not even carrot stretches.

Passive Stretching: What Does the Research Tell Us?

Passive stretching has long been used with horses with the aim of improving or maintaining the flexibility of muscles and other soft tissues. A limb is moved into a position that places the targeted tissues under tension and the position is held for a period of time.

But how much do we actually know about the effects of regularly stretching horses?

What Is Passive Stretching?

In a traditional passive stretch, someone moves part of the horse’s body into a stretching position and holds it there for a period of time. The handler creates and maintains the position, with the horse allowing the limb to be moved.

The horse still has to maintain his balance and make muscular and postural adjustments while the limb is being moved. However, these responses have not been the focus of the equine stretching research discussed here. We therefore do not know how much core muscle activity occurs during passive limb stretching or which muscles are recruited.

What Stretches Did They Perform?

The stretching routine included a limb relaxation technique followed by four passive stretches for the forelimbs and four for the hindlimbs.

Forelimb stretches:

* Modified girth stretch — the lifted forelimb was brought forward while remaining relatively flexed.
* Full girth stretch — the forelimb was taken farther forward into a more extended position.
* Leg flexor lift — the forelimb was lifted and folded, bringing the lower limb upward while the joints remained flexed.
* Triceps release — the forelimb was flexed while the elbow was brought forward.

Hindlimb stretches:

* Hamstring stretch — the hindlimb was brought forward underneath the horse.
* Farrier stretch — the hindlimb was held behind the horse in a flexed position similar to the position used by a farrier when holding the hind hoof.
* Stifle and hip flexor stretch — the hindlimb was taken backward behind the horse into a more extended position.
* Lateral quadriceps stretch — the flexed hindlimb was lifted and moved outward to the side.

These are the names given to the stretches in the study. Each position would place tension through more than one muscle and other soft tissues, so the names should not be taken to mean that only the named muscle or muscle group was affected.

Each stretch was performed twice. The first repetition was held for 10 seconds and the second for 20 seconds.

What Did the Researchers Measure?

This is an important part of understanding the study.

The researchers did not directly measure muscle length, muscle flexibility or soft-tissue extensibility. They also did not take the limbs in hand and measure how far the joints could be moved passively.

Instead, they measured the horses while they were trotting in hand.

Measurements were taken: at the beginning and then every 2 weeks for 8 weeks.

At each assessment, video analysis was used to measure stride length and the amount of movement occurring at the:

* shoulder
* elbow
* carpus
* fore fetlock
* hip
* stifle
* hock
* hind fetlock

The horses were trotted by the same experienced handler at a consistent speed for each horse. Measurements were averaged from four repetitions.

The “range of motion” reported in this study therefore means the angular movement occurring at each joint while the horse was trotting. It is not a measurement of how flexible the horse’s muscles had become or how far a handler could passively move the limb.

What Did They Find?

Stretching did not significantly change stride length over the eight-week study.

Of all the joints measured, significant differences were found only at the shoulder, stifle and hock.

Three Days per Week

The horses stretched three days per week had greater shoulder range of motion during trot than both the six-day group and the control group.

Stride length did not significantly increase.

Six Days per Week

The horses stretched six days per week showed less range of motion at the stifle and hock than the other groups. Compared with the three-day group, they also showed less movement at the shoulder.

The researchers suggested that stretching six days per week may have been too intensive. They proposed increased muscle stiffness and delayed-onset muscle soreness as possible explanations for the reduced joint movement. Neither stiffness nor soreness was measured, so these explanations remain hypotheses.

What Can We Take From This Study?

In this study, stretching three days per week was linked with greater shoulder movement, while stretching six days per week was linked with less movement at some joints.

Changes in joint movement did not lead to a longer stride. Stride length depends on how the whole limb and body move together, so greater movement at one joint may not change the overall length of the stride.

Overall, the study suggests that repeated passive stretching can change how some joints move during trot, and that the frequency of stretching matters.

https://koperequine.com/fascia-is-not-an-elastic-band-why-stretching-misses-the-point/

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One of the most wonderful things I see with Equine Hanna Somatics® is horses finding physical comfort, and that comfort creating a significant shift in mental and emotional state. A recent client horse showed aggressive behavior. He seemed to have little regard for humans, and was challenging to handle. When I first met him, he would have been as happy to run me over as if I were a p**p pile on the ground. He couldn't tolerate touch and pinned his ears habitually. The first two sessions were almost entirely energy, and when he felt whatever he was feeling as the energy moved through him and released, his go-to was to attack whatever was in front of him. I had to get a little stern, at which point he turned his aggression towards the horse who was in the paddock next to him, rushing him with pinned ears any time he had a nerve fire or whatever else was happening in his body. At that point I offered him an old rope to chew on instead -- which helped a lot.

In session three I was able to put hands on and help him using actual touch. Sending gentle energy into his wither area lead to twitching and firing of his shoulder muscles. At this point he could handle it, either by chewing the rope, or by soothing himself with a bite of hay. Just that touch led to fascinating fascial changes, which smoothed out by the end of the session.

In session four, I began to ask for pickups. I was able to add vertebral highlighting. His right side had always been his more challenging side, and that continued to be the case, but for the first time he stayed in his body and didn't need either the rope or food to feel and let go of his own tension. I told his guardian that he needed some more time to be able to let go in his SI, glutes and hamstrings. His longissimus was better, but not fully relaxed. However I don't think he pinned his ears once during that session. He greeted me with a happy face and maintained his composure the whole time. When he needed to feel his soma, he would walk away (he was halterless), often going to greet the horse next door with a gentle nose touch, then come back.

When I showed up for session five, I was delighted to see how much more relaxed his back and quarter muscles were. He had continued to make changes in the intervening days.

Sadly I didn't video him the first day. I wish I had done so. If I had, you could see the remarkable change in him -- from aggressive, with muscles so filled with tension I couldn't even touch him and had to use protected contact at time to stay safe -- to the big sweet teddy bear of session five.

I love that fella. I'm looking forward to more fun with him. 🥰💗

Recently I've had the honor and privilege of working with a beautiful foundation quarter horse foal. Josie was born with splayed legs, a concern because if they aren't straightened when young, they can lead to body problems for the rest of the horse's life. Her pasterns were of special concern because the window for straightening them is eight weeks. (Fun fact: I was in leg braces as a toddler because I was born pigeon toed. It worked!)

Four sessions later, her legs look much better. We will continue the work but I wanted to show you all the magic of Equine Hanna Somatics®.

Interestingly, a splay-legged foal was born in Scotland a couple of weeks or so before Josie. One of my cohort-mates was presenting about the foal at one of our monthly Mastermind Zoom sessions. Her client's foal was worse, so bad that both the vet and the specialty farrier predicted a poor prognosis if the baby even survived. Hanna Somatics worked its magic, and the foal is thriving. It was wonderful getting to communicate with my classmate on how best to work with the baby, and her suggestion of micro-sessions was genius.

I am so grateful to my clients who trust me with their babies, young and old, and for the skills I've learned though all my educational experiences that help me help horses. There's no better feeling. 🥹💗

Train your eye. The trot is a two-beat diagonal pace, and when it's biomechanically correct, the two hooves of the landing diagonal hit the ground at the same time. Ideally the legs should create a sense of perfectly balanced scissors in terms of angles -- three triangle, if you will: A triangle between the front legs, an upside down triangle between the retracted front leg and protracted hind leg, and another triangle between the hind legs.

In the first picture I've drawn rough triangles. Eason's trot is getting better, but still lacks push and strength. The green boxes show how her diagonal hooves are planted evenly. The swinging legs are also fairly even.

In picture two, you can see that she is about to lift her left fore and right hind off the ground. They are reasonably even in movement. She struggles with toe striking, especially on the right fore, where her hoof was the most compromised, something you can see as she goes to put that foot down.

In picture three, she is in the process of lifting up the right fore and left hind. Again, it's fairly even.

In picture four, you can see the left fore is planted while the left hind is starting to come up off the ground. She is in negative DAP (Diagonal Advanced Placement). You can also see her swishing her tail. She isn't happy in that moment.

Yes, I do video, and then slow the video down and take still pictures to see how she's doing! I'm a bit obsessed. But the information is useful. I'm not a trainer, but every time I work with her I'm "training" her, and I want to do the best I can.

I also like to look at pictures on social media and isolate the legs from the whole picture. It can sometimes help to visualize what's actually happening. It's so easy to see an image of a horse with dramatic movement who looks "on the bit." The horse is in a frame that's "attractive" as we've come to define it in modern dressage, with big fancy leg movement, and we don't always look deeper into what's happening with the rest of the body. Screenshot the legs and too often you'll see negative DAP on a horse who otherwise looks fancy. I snagged a few pictures off social media so you can start looking for a foundation of better movement rather than being bedazzled by the fancy leg movement, arched neck and behind-the-vertical head of so many modern dressage horses. Some of the images are legs of ordinary horses, while some are upper level. Can you identify the "extended trot" picture? If I posted the whole picture, you'd think "fancy extended trot." But look at those legs!

I'm reading the second volume of Dr. Deb Bennett's amazing book "Horse Conformation," and it confirms with absolute clarity that hard-tying horses and "sacking them out" or simply leaving them to figure out how to stand tied is horrifically destructive to their physical health. I've watched trainers do it, and it hurts me every time. We know better. We know how to help horses learn to give to pressure without causing trauma and anxiety. We have tools (like blocker ties) that allow us to soft tie horses so that if they pull, the rope slips out with some friction, ideally stopping before the horse pulls fully free -- since the slight release of pressure can end a panic attack. If horses have been properly taught to give to pressure, they'll relax before the rope pulls out.

We need to stop training with barbaric practices that lead to physical and emotional damage. Know better, do better. (Note, the gray horse image comes from Functional Horsemanship, a blog from a trainer who has designed a tool similar to the blocker tie and who advocates properly training horses and soft-tying them. I'm not sure if the image is of a horse who is hard tied (bad idea), as there does seem to be quite a bit of pressure on the halter, or if it's pulling through his device and therefore less likely to panic and potentially flip over.)

Yesterday I posted a video of me grooming Eason while she was snacking on a haynet. The response of one viewer was to tell me not to groom while feeding.

Apart from the rudeness of simply ordering someone you don't know to do or not to do something, that sentence is filled with multiple erroneous and damaging assumptions about horses.

I assume the poster has experienced resource guarding in horses, and because horses are big and powerful, perhaps he (or someone else) was hurt. From these kinds of situations, people often create blanket rules meant to keep people safe, rather than examining the context for WHY a horse might be food aggressive.

Traditional ways of keeping horses are no longer viable as we continue to learn more about what horses need for mental and physical health. We can no longer in good conscious isolate horses in 12x12 stalls at worst, or small run-ins at best, with twice-a day-meals of the standard two flakes of hay that are scarfed down rapidly, leaving the horse with nothing to eat and nothing to do for 12 or so hours between feedings and the hour or so of work if/when the rider shows up.

When we do, many horses develop vices like weaving, cribbing, and stall walking. In addition, they may become food aggressive. But horses communicate well. A food aggressive horse will provide plenty of signs of discomfort with your presence when he's eating before attacking. Rather than simply create blanket rules around that behavior, why not learn to read horse behavior, and question why it's happening.

I've been around food aggressive horses. Sadonis for one -- with his muscle disease and tendency to ulcers -- would attack if he felt people were getting in his space when he was eating. But he didn't attack me once he got to know me, and in fact he enjoyed touch while he was eating as long as it was the right touch.

Eason has access to 24-hour forage through time in an 8-acre pasture, plus a slow feeder hay net when she's in her run. She is not food aggressive. Before she came to enjoy grooming, she didn't like it no matter the situation. Food didn't make it better or worse. Now she enjoys it regardless. I bring her in before working her and hang a haynet so she can get some alfalfa mix in her tummy as I'm getting ready. It protects her stomach by making sure she has food in there to buffer the acid production, something we all need to think about. This business of not feeding horses before trips and trail rides and work sessions needs to end.

If we own horses, it's on us to learn what they need, and then provide it. We owe them that at least.

Dissections tell us clearly that behavior is communication. Horses are wired to cooperate. They are herd animals with the desire to get along. The dissection I attended changed me. That particular beautiful equine soul did not have the level of damage recorded here, and lived a long and beloved life into retirement, but still, he had issues that he dealt with without complaining, as so many horses do.

I am grateful to my wonderful clients who understand the value of listening to their horses. You know who you are. Thank you, each and every one of you. The world is better with you in it. 💗