Martin Pro Therapy Services

07/20/2025

It's MYTHBUSTER time!

The core vaccinations for every horse, regardless of their travel status, include Rabies, Eastern Equine Encephalitis (EEE), Western Equine Encephalitis (WEE), West Nile Virus (WNV), and Tetanus.

Unfortunately, mosquitoes, bacteria, and rabid animals do not discriminate when it comes to infecting horses. Whether a horse is in a freshly bedded stall, wide open pasture, or on show grounds, mosquitoes can potentially infect your horse with life threatening diseases such as EEE, WEE, and/or WNV.

Tetanus is a common clostridial bacteria present in the dirt and can infect a horse who has never left its home just the same as a horse who shows every weekend if it doesn't have proper vaccine status.

Rabies is a 100% fatal disease once clinical signs are present and is easily transmissible to humans and other animals both at home and on the trails.

It's also important to note that different regions in the U.S. may have additional "core" recommendations so be sure to ask your veterinarian what is best for your horse!

Thank you to the Horse Owner Education Committee for providing this information!

07/18/2025

EXTENSION V. FLEXION

Train your eye to understand the difference for the best way to recognize these postures in your horse(s).

Flexion and Extension are normal equine positions because they are required for full range of motion BUT we must understand how too much time in these postures affects their bodies.

Instead we should develop and encourage a healthy balance of each.

From a bodywork perspective-posture is a direct soreness contributor and most often, prolonged time spent in EXTENSION while moving (especially under saddle) is a main factor.

Common discomfort symptoms of a horse spending too much time in EXTENSION are:
+poll soreness
+tight, immobile necks
+uncomfortable shoulder girdle
(thoracic sling)
+sensitive topline
+lumbar, SI, pelvic, stifle, hock soreness’s

👆🏼sounds like the whole body, right?!
In layman’s terms-EXTENSION jams the whole spine up and shouldn’t be a common position of movement-creating a HOLLOW frame.

FLEXION allows for more space between the spinal processes and allows for the muscles to be lengthened.
Horses that have developed a balanced movement in flexion LIFT their bodies as opposed to hollowing and tend to have a much happier body overall.

The image below shows the way the spine compensates for each posture and hopefully helps visually distinguish the difference.

If your horse is spending extra time HOLLOWED and is struggling with body soreness please take the time to research how to properly develop a healthier posture range.

Often times there are environmental factors that are hindering the horses ability to have a healthy range of these motions and EXTENSION happened as a compensating posture:
+hoof balance
+tack fit
+heavy handed or unbalanced riders
….just to name a few

If you’d like to learn more about how posture influences the horses body-I have a class for that!

https://sbw-owners-massage.thinkific.com/courses/equine-posture

Sign up for SBW monthly newsletter by visiting www.schaefferbodyworks.com

07/18/2025

Longus Colli

This is a deep muscle; it is a proprioceptive (cybernetic which means densely filled with nerves so postural information links back to the brain) muscle, we often know a lot about superficial muscles as we can see and feel them easily but deep muscles often are leaders to where the more superficial muscles will go as they have to follow the pattern that is forming deep below, the health of them are so important in the stabilisation and posture of the horse.

When we talk about the Longus Colli, we must also include others and all work in conjunction to stabilise the neck and head position is important when we talk about stabilising as we must see through the skin and find out how they work and if we are doing too much and often the muscles we feel and see on the surface are the final chapter in the story of what lies beneath)

The longus Colli (long neck) is placed on the ventral side of the neck (ventral means front as horses are on all four then it is underneath) it is an hypaxial muscle (under the cervical column)

It is a paired muscle which means it goes left and right. It has 3 sections and attaches along the cervical spine from the 1st cervical and then through to the 5th or 6th cervical vertebrae, moving through to the thoracic part as the longus thoracis

Its function along with the scalenius is to flex the neck and the longus coli will also fixate, rotate and stabilise the bones in the neck (vertebrae) and when these work in unison they will help lift the base of the neck (very important when we take into account missing structures) so a very important muscle for stabilising the cervicothoracic junction and also the postural proprioception information through the nerves

Along with deeper muscles including dorsal capitis, oblique capitits, multifidus and spinalis make up some of the stabilising and rotation of the neck and also to unilaterally tilt the head at the craniocervical junction

I am only looking at a small part of a bigger story we need to marry them all together to get the full story it's like dissecting a hoof we would only see it in context to what is before us and we have to guess at what we interpret what we see to what was going on in the rest of the body, and every person who looks at the individual part will have their own theory as to how or why things happened and ask 50 professionals and you will ultimately get 50 different answers as we put our own spin on it, we all put our own version of what we see

We can't just look at the longus Colli without taking into consideration how it works with others and then that’s assuming everything is correct as we know the lamellae part of the nuchal ligament is mostly absent from c5 so how does the horse stabilise an area without the support structure, say the horse has malformation further down or is the 1st ribs malformed again how will the internal structures shift and morph to do another job.

To strengthen the area so it offers a better support system to all the body is all about balance and dynamic mobilisation chin to chest, chin to the knee and chin between fetlocks, (in humans we would tuck our chin in and lift through the neck), we can take our horses out where they have a different feel under their feet, often the horse that sees something on the floor and you feel that lift as it looks is helping that lower neck, and poles when they are at different heights so they look, feeding where the horse has to stand square and lift the base of their neck is also good, and freedom to roam and play for that is where horses build dexterity, and strength, but obviously consult with your own therapist/vet first its and its about taking into consideration things may not always be textbook when it comes to anatomy

We often dismiss things like carrot stretches etc but sometimes we often think of the only good muscle is a stretched muscle whereas with dynamic mobilisation we are creating strength to a weakened or compromised area as with everything we tend to throw the baby out with the bath water and say every stretch or mobilisation is bad when it is usually the majority are good it’s the application of them is wrong

P.s I try to give you as much as I can correct information but often when fact checking my work there can be many answers to where the origin and Insertion of the muscles are and you would be surprised at how many different answers I get its bloody hard because you start doubting yourself, and this is what takes up alot of time, luckily I asked ivana Equine Anatomy in Layers because asking for confirmation from your peers is ok its how we learn.

P.p.s yes I cant draw hands yet 😃😃🙃

06/29/2025

05/25/2025

“The earlier we load the spine without preparing the core, the more likely the vertebrae are to become compressed. This is a known contributor to the development of kissing spine—and it’s preventable.”

Hard truth, but important truth.

If your horse’s body matters to you—please take 2 minutes to read this new blog.
It might just change how you look at early training forever.

👉 Blog link below.
And while you’re there, grab the Core Exercises Course for just £9 – because prevention always costs less than rehab.

05/23/2025

| ANISOGNATIA

📌 ¿Sabías que esta es una característica clave en la dentadura equina?

La arcada dentaria superior (maxilar) es más ancha que la inferior (mandibular), lo que se conoce como anisognatia. Esta diferencia permite el movimiento masticatorio lateral, fundamental para triturar el alimento utilizando la dentadura como un mortero🐴.

Además, la superficie de oclusión no es plana:
🦷 Los premolares y molares maxilares presentan un ángulo de 10-15°
🦷 Los premolares y molares mandibulares, un ángulo de 20-25°

👉 Estos ángulos naturales deben respetarse durante la odontoplastia para preservar la biomecánica masticatoria y evitar desbalances funcionales.

05/10/2025

Sometimes, your week is so busy, you work on your day off. Love helping horses feel their best with PEMF Complete, LLC.-Corporate

04/23/2025

Get more from Becks Nairn on Patreon

04/20/2025

There is an overwhelming amount of horse owners who aren’t aware of the signs for sub-clinical Laminitis, and yet if left untreated without a change of diet or management, can easily turn into a full blown Laminitic attack.

Many owners associate Laminitis with the classic slipper toe, a huge EMS crest and the typical Laminitis stance. In reality, there is a huge amount of horses showing subtle signs of inflammation that continues to go un-noticed. Each owner is responsible for their horse’s overall wellbeing, which should include the ability to recognise the signs of Laminitis, particularly in the early stages when an acute attack can be prevented.

Some signs to look out for:

❌️ Footiness or soreness over various terrain.

This is one of the biggest reasons owners continue to shoe their horses. Once the shoes are removed, any footiness caused by inappropriate diet and management shows (sub-clinical Laminitis) which is typically interpreted as the horse cannot cope without shoes.

It’s super important that if your unshod horse is footy over stones, roads or anything but grass, that you re-assess their diet or management and make the necessary changes. Please do not shoe your horse to ‘fix’ this issue – your horse will still have Laminitis and it will worsen regardless of applying shoes.

❌️ Event lines on the outer hoof wall.

Event lines are lines that form on the outer hoof wall that represent an event in a horse's life that caused an inflammatory response. In an uncompromised horse and hoof, a singular event line doesn’t always necessarily mean any issues will arise from whatever caused the line but it is important to take notice and reflect on why this happened.

If your horse has numerous, reoccurring event lines, then there is something off with their diet or management that is consistently causing ongoing inflammation. An event line is one of the more readily observable symptoms of sub-clinical Laminitis but they do become more prominent in the later stages of Laminitis too. It’s crucial to your horses health that if they do have multiple event lines, that the trigger is identified and removed as soon as possible.

❌️ Blood in the white line.

Catching signs of blood in the white line (they look like bruises) can be particularly difficult to identify if you’re not very familiar with the hoof or have a horse with dark feet. It’s really important to be able to trust your horse’s Hoof Care Practitioner or Farrier so you know with confidence that should they find signs of blood or widening, that you’ll be informed straight away.

Every single horse owner needs to know the signs of sub-clinical Laminitis so should your horse become symptomatic, you can do something about it before their health is further compromised.

Below is our own diagram of the different stages of Laminitis inspired by Jaime Jackson’s ‘Laminitis’ book.

-

Please note that this is a generalisation of the most common symptoms at each stage and that different symptoms can appear for different horses at different stages.