21/08/2025
🚩Horse with Sacroiliac SI joint pain? What if the real problem is in the HEAD? 🐴🧠
So my last post about horses and headaches went viral.
That brought about some great conversations and questions.
This post will hopefully start to answer some of those ❓️:
“Could my horse’s headache actually becoming from the hind end? Does he have a headache?, he's only ever been diagnosed with back pain and sacroiliac dysfunction. I am told his behaviour is just him."
Could this involve the sacroiliac joints?⁉️
Could it all be interlinked 🤔
⤵️ The Craniosacral Reciprocal System:
From an osteopathic perspective, your horse’s skull and sacrum work together in a finely tuned rhythm — known as the Primary Respiratory Mechanism (PRM).
This is a rhythmic, involuntary motion that is present throughout the entire body, but most noticeable in the skull and sacrum.
It moves in alternating phases of flexion and extension, with the skull and sacrum shifting in a coordinated way.
When that rhythm is disrupted, it can create tension, restriction, and compensation patterns far from the original problem.
📖 The dura mater — a strong connective tissue sheath — surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It’s not just a protective layer; it’s part of this living, moving system anchored at both ends of the body. When one end is restricted, the other end feels it.
Key Structures and Attachments:
Sacrum: The dura has a solid anchor at the second sacral segment S2, linking pelvic stability to the spinal system.
The filum terminale anchors the spinal cord and meninges to the coccyx (tailbone), providing stability. the filum terminale is a continuation of the pia mater, with contributions from the dura mater.
Foramen Magnum: At the opposite end, the dura grips firmly inside the skull at the foramen magnum — the gateway where the spinal cord exits the cranium.
Remember those headaches?!
Cervical Attachments: Just below, there’s a lighter connection at the second cervical vertebra (C2), before the dura “free-floats” along most of the spine.
Vertebral Periosteum: At each vertebral exit point, the dura merges with the vertebral periosteum.
The dura mater of the skull, does attach to the inner lining of the temporal, frontal, occipital, and sphenoid bones. The dura mater is a tough, fibrous membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, and it has several layers, one of which is firmly attached to the bones of the skull.
Think those hind end joints are the whole problem?
Sometimes, those sore SI joints are just the symptom, not the cause. Here are a few tell-tale signs the real trouble could be coming from further away in the body and of course one end affects the other, in both directions:
🚩 Ongoing headshyness or poll sensitivity
🚩 Back pain that keeps coming back, even after local treatment
🚩 Uneven muscle development along the topline or hindquarters
🚩 Pelvic restrictions that simply won’t release or keep returning after bodywork
🚩 Unexplained changes in ridden behaviour — especially during transitions or when engaging the hind end
The message :
🐎🐎🐎 WHOLE horse assessment!🐎🐎🐎
Let's not segregate areas of the body.
📌 Would you like me to follow this up with a post showing you exactly how to spot craniosacral imbalance in your horse — from the ground, before you even touch them? Comment below.
And… if you’d like to be first in the queue for practical ways you can help your own horse, drop your email using the contact form in the comments or DM it to me — you’ll be the very first to know when my new short video courses are released. 🐴✨
