KW Equine Bodywork

19/06/2025

17/06/2025

Muscle Monday - Trapezius

Welcome back to , the series where we will talk about the many muscles of the equine body!

We are starting today with the trapezius muscle. The trapezius muscle is one of the most superficial muscles in the body. This muscle is thin and triangular (think triangle = trapezius). The exact size and shape of the trapezius can vary widely between individual horses.

--- Function ---
The trapezius muscle can be divided into two sections.

- The cervical trapezius (neck) contracts to swing the scapula forward. ⬅️
- The thoracic trapezius (back) contracts to pull the scapula backwards. ➡️
- If both sections contract simultaneously, the shoulder will elevate. ⬆️

Although this muscle connects to both the neck and back, its primarily influence is to the shoulder. The trapezius is not one of the thick, weight bearing muscles of the back and it can be easily damaged by poor saddle fit. This can lead to reduced shoulder movement, pain and muscle atrophy.

Stay tuned for part two this Wednesday!

06/04/2025

Good explanation about Fascia!!!

Fascia is fascia-nating!!!

Often completely forgotten in anatomy books or simplified as "extra" tissue, fascia is widely misunderstood. Here are some true facts about fascia.

1️⃣. Fascia is found in all creatures that have muscles, so think mammals, birds, fish and even reptiles!

2️⃣. Fascia has two primary functions, to "connect and protect". Fascia connects and intertwines with bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments throughout the body. Secondly, fascia protects the body by becoming dense and constricted in order to keep the body upright and functional during injury. This protective role is amazing from a survival perspective but often creates secondary pain in the body.

3️⃣. The human fascial network spreads throughout the body and has approximately 250 million of nerve endings. This means that fascia plays a big role in communicating posture, movement and body awareness (proprioception).

4️⃣. Think of fascia as a gel-solid. It is very strong and durable, yet impact to one region will spread throughout and impact all other regions (for better or worse). Fascia is described as "the system that affects all other systems".

5️⃣. The best way to improve the fascial health is stretching and manual therapies such as Rolfing, myofascial release, massage and acupuncture.

10/12/2024

Working on cupping some very back muscles. The horse throughly enjoyed the cupping. She immediately started releasing when prior she wouldn’t let me work on the area.

25/04/2024

𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚 - 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑮𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏
Instead of talking about an individual muscle this week, I wanted to highlight the entire area known as the gaskin.

"What even is the gaskin?"

The gaskin describes the area between the horse's stifle (knee) and the hock (ankle). In humans we call this area the calf. The bones in this area are the tibia and fibula. The gaskin is extremely muscular, with very little body fat.

Here are the muscles found in the gaskin. ⬇️

𝑪𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑻𝒊𝒃𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆
This muscle is located on the front of the gaskin and flexes the hock.

𝑳𝒐𝒏𝒈 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑬𝒙𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒓
The "long" extensor is also located at the front of the gaskin. It's tendon runs all the way down to the coffin bone and allows this muscle to extend the digit and flex the hock.

𝑳𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑬𝒙𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒐𝒓
The "lateral" extensor is located right beside its "long" neighbor. This muscle aids in extending the digit and flexing the hock.

𝑺𝒖𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒐𝒓
Most people are familiar with the tendon attached to this muscle. The superficial digital flexor is located at the back of the gaskin, beneath the gastrocnemius muscle. This muscle extends the hock. It also flexes the stifle and fetlock.

𝑫𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒐𝒓
Most people are familiar with the tendon attached to this muscle. The deep digital flexor is located at the back of the gaskin, beneath the superficial digital flexor. Like its superficial neighbor, the deep digital extends the hock, flexes the stifle and flexes the fetlock.

𝑮𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒏𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒖𝒔
The gastrocnemius is the largest muscle of the gaskin, located at the very back. It extends the hock and flexes the stifle.

𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒆𝒖𝒔 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆
The soleus is located laterally and deep to the gastrocnemius. This muscle is smaller and weaker than the gastrocnemius, but assists it in extending the hock and flexing the stifle.

Stay tuned for the next post, where we'll take a look at some live horses.

11/03/2024

𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚 - 𝑭𝒍𝒚 𝑻𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒄𝒉 𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆𝒔
This week we will be taking a look at some muscles that are easily visible, but rarely talked about. During the summer, every equestrian has seen a horse twitch their skin in order to shoo away insects. This important task is done by the "fly twitch" muscles.

𝑭𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
The most superficial muscles in the body, the fly twitch muscles are highly sensitive and twitch rapidly to remove insects. The 𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒎𝒐𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒉𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔 is the muscle that runs along the horse's shoulder, while the 𝒄𝒖𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒆𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒊 covers the majority of the barrel. Both of these muscles are intertwined with lots of fascia and can become tight and dysfunctional. We'll talk about this more in the next post this Wednesday.

19/02/2024

𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚 - 𝑸𝒖𝒂𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒔 𝑭𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒔
This week's muscle is the quadriceps femoris, a powerful muscle in the hindquarters. Translating from latin, "quadriceps" means muscle with four heads.

𝑭𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
All four of the quadricep femoris muscles have a similar function. They protract the hindlimb (bring it forward) by extending the stifle (knee) joint. Let's take a closer look at each quadricep muscle:

Three of the quadricep muscles are very similar. The 𝒗𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔 is the most medial (inside) of the vastus muscles. The 𝒗𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒔 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒆𝒅𝒊𝒖𝒔 is the middle quadricep and the 𝒗𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒖𝒔 𝒍𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒊𝒔 is the most lateral (outside). All three of these muscles extend and stabilize the stifle joint.

The 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒔 𝒇𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒓𝒊𝒔 is a little different. This muscle originates on the illum (pelvis), meaning that in addition to extending and stabilizing the stifle, it can also flex the hip joint.

All of the quadriceps femoris muscles have different origins, but merge together into a single insertion point just above the intermediate patellar ligament.

07/02/2024

𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒃 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒐𝒓𝒔 - 𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝟐
Here is part 2 of the forelimb flexor muscles. Remember this includes the ulnar carpal flexor, radial carpal flexor, superficial digital flexor and the deep digital flexor.

You can see in these images that all of the flexor muscles (found at the back of the forelimb) look pretty similar in each horse. One of these horses is a Grand Prix jumper, while another is young and barely started. One of these horses is a Warmblood, while another is a Quarter Horse. As a bodyworker, I do not find much visual differences in the flexor muscles, regardless of age, breed or discipline.

06/02/2024

𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚 - 𝑭𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒎𝒃 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒐𝒓𝒔
Today we will be taking a look at the flexor muscles of the forelimb. I decided to lump all of these muscles together in this post as they are very similar. There are four muscles that are considered flexors of the forelimb. Although the muscle names may seem long and complex, they help to describe each muscle's positioning and function. Let's take a look at each one!

𝑼𝒍𝒏𝒂𝒓 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒑𝒂𝒍 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒐𝒓
The ulnar carpal flexor originates at the humerus and ulna. It inserts on the accessory carpal bone found at the back of the horse's knee (carpus). It is positioned at the back and medial aspect of the forelimb. In movement, this muscle flexes the knee (carpus).

𝑹𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑪𝒂𝒓𝒑𝒂𝒍 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒐𝒓
The radial carpal flexor originates at the humerus and inserts at the top of the cannon bone. Similar to the first muscle, this one flexes the knee (carpus). It is positioned on the medial aspect of the forelimb.

𝑺𝒖𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒂𝒍 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒐𝒓
The superficial digital flexor muscle originates at the humerus and radius. Near the knee (carpus), this muscle transitions into the superficial digital flexor tendon (SDFT). The tendon continues down the back of the forelimb, branches into two sections and inserts between the long and short pastern bones. In movement, it flexes the knee (carpus) and the lower digits.

𝑫𝒆𝒆𝒑 𝑫𝒊𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒍 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒙𝒐𝒓
The deep digital flexor muscle has three different heads originating at the humerus, radius and ulna. Like its superficial neighbor, this muscle transitions into the deep digital flexor tendon (DDFT). The tendon continues down the back of the forelimb and inserts between the short pastern and the coffin bone down in the hoof. This muscle/tendon flexes the knee (carpus) and the lower digits.

26/01/2024

𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝒅𝒐 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒐𝒅𝒚𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒔𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔
Your bodyworker just finished with your horse... and won't be back until next month. What should you do to keep your horse's body moving in the right direction? 🤔

Here are some tips:

- Take it easy. Understand that your horse may be sore after their session and may need 1-2 days to adjust. Make sure that your horse still gets plenty of turnout.

- Stretch, stretch, and stretch some more! Stretching after a bodywork session is so good for keeping the soft tissue flexible and pain free.

- Horses often become painful due to poor posture or incorrect movement patterns. After a bodywork session, I highly recommend adding in some strength training in order to create new movement habits.

- Things happen! Don't be afraid to get in touch with your bodyworker if you have any questions or concerns that arise between sessions. Trust me, your bodyworker would love to know what's going on sooner, rather than later.

22/01/2024

𝑴𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑴𝒐𝒏𝒅𝒂𝒚 - 𝑴𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒅𝒖𝒔
It's been a while since I have been able to sit down and write a muscle post, but today I am here to talk about the small but mighty multifidus!

𝑭𝒖𝒏𝒄𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏
The multifidus is not one, but many small muscles that run along both sides of the horse's spine. The first multifidus muscle is found at the axis (C2) in the neck and the last multifidus is found all the way back at the beginning of the sacrum. As the multifidus muscles lie so closely to the vertebrae, they play an important role in the posture of the spine. They help to stabilize and twist the vertebral column. The multifidus muscles in the neck also allow the cervical vertebrae to extend.

Stay tuned for the next post, where we will talk about the relationship between the multifidus muscles and back pain.