01/21/2025
It all starts and ends on the ground with the feet - The base of the horse. The feet affect so much more than we think normally. Lots can be done to help your equine friend with the right farrier. Bare foot or shoes, make sure you're working with someone who knows the horses foot.
You cannot escape ground reaction forces - and what I mean by this is you cannot escape the way the horse's hooves interact with the floor.
Your horse's hoof shape directly influences how they interact with the floor and equally the shape of their hooves directly influence their muscular recruitment and therefore their postural development.
As an example of this, here is a diagram of the horse's superficial retraction myofacial chain. This chain supports the retraction - i.e. the drawing back - of the horse's forelimb via connections from the solar surface of the pedal bone, through the back of the forelimb and shoulder, over the ribcage and over the top of the neck.
If there is loss of development, and therefore loss of depth, in the caudal hoof - i.e. the back third of the hoof - you're effectively creating 'fascial drag' which contributes to shortening the topline of the horse's neck and compression of their ribcage.
You can visualise how, if the heel drops, the whole fascial chain is suckered down.
Creating the appearance of a hollow horse with a short neck and perhaps overdevelopment of the underneck muscles.
Now of course you can bias your training for length and elevation through the neck, flexion through the back and expansion of the ribs; but if your horse's heels are low then you will be creating conflict.
Because you're asking that horse to inflate into restricted fascia which is being further implicated by ground reaction forces.
In doing this, you will contribute towards making movement uncomfortable - which lets be honest, poor training practices already do a good job of this(!)
You will perhaps bias towards the risk of injury or reinjury - which is slightly oxymoronic if you've chosen that movement plan as a means to rehabilitate or develop healthy posture.
Your horse will be spending more time practicing poor posture, which is more time teaching their nervous system that this is homeostasis.
And since movement and emotional health are intertwined, you may also be contributing to a negative emotional state.
Fascial chains do of course work both ways, so you can bias your training for healthy movement and it may help with caudal hoof orientation, but you cannot escape the influence of the ground and so, if you're not including your horse's hoof care within that picture, you are only giving your horse half the chance for success.
-
For this month's webinar, I am delighted to be joined by the wonderful Beccy Smith of Holistic Equine, where she will be discussing what healthy hoof morphology really is, the factors that influence it and what you can do to help your horse.
Beccy is an Integrative Equine Podiatrist who truly considers the whole horse with respect to hoof health. Her keen eye and attention to detail is second to none in the hoofcare sphere and I cannot wait for this webinar!
27.01.2025 19:00 GMT
Recording available if you can't make the live ❤️✨️
