Improving gait symmetry through a hindlimb massage program.

Welcome to Conversations in Equine Science. My name is Kate Acton and I'm joined by Nancy McLean. This is the podcast where we take equine research and try and make it accessible to horse owners and enthusiasts alike. Remember that with each topic we discuss, it's important to get professional advice before implementing any of the strategies.

This week, Nancy and I are discussing a paper that's titled A Short Term Hind Limb Massage Program Can Improve Gate Symmetry in Riding School Horses. And this is by C. Mabus. K. Yarnell and Or Farrow de Godoy. So in this research, they wanted to investigate if a short term massage programme on the hind limb of a horse would help improve their gait symmetry. Musculoskeletal injuries have been reported to be the main contributor to the interruption or dismissal of a horse's athletic career.

And the muscles are responsible for the production of forces that are involved in movement. yet they seem to be overlooked with regards to pre or rehabilitation. And this paper was published in July of twenty twenty two, so this is quite recent research to have come out in this area. The use of massage therapy as part of a training program is becoming increasingly popular and the beneficial effects of massage have been widely researched, though much of the research is on immediate effect.

and consistency between these studies is lacking. So this study was a preliminary investigation into the effects of short-term massage programs on the gait perimeters of riding school horses.

Fifteen clinically sound riding school horses of different breeds, ages, heights, and weights were used in a controlled blind study. And the horses were divided into three groups of five. So this was to ensure that there was a nice mixture of height, breed, and age in each group. One group was group massage. So this group received a 10-minute massage at each size on the proximal hind limb once a week for three weeks. The second group is group Sham.

And they received a 10-minute groom at each side on the proximal hind limb once a week for three weeks. And then the control group received no treatment at all. They looked at the gate analysis on the very first day and then on day twenty eight, so at the end of those three weeks. And in walk, a significant improvement in stribe length and protraction was found for the massage group, with hock flexion significantly better as well for that massage group at day 28.

They also found this for trot encounter. Hop flexion was improved for that massage group. And they determined that a short term massage program improved gate symmetry, particularly with hock flexion and riding school horses. So an appropriate level or dosage level for particular results

still needs to be determined in order to effectively utilize massage within a training program. But in this study, they carried out this massage once a week for those three weeks and found very effective results out of it.

Yeah, I really enjoyed this paper, Kate. Thanks for picking it out. Um, I think so many times, especially if you ride dressage or you event and you have a dressage portion that you're working on, a lot of uh you don't think about massage to help lengthen that hind limb stride and i've my little pony just the way she's built She does not have um, I guess, protraction of the hind limbs like my larger thoroughbreds do.

So I really enjoyed seeing this and I'm definitely gonna try this on her hind end to kind of loosen it up. She's more of a stocky built horse, so um the ability to at least through massage to try and help her re under her more, I think is really hopeful. And I think all of us could use this um for different areas. And I was really kind of intrigued about the um benefits on that symmetry index.

and how um they had just two writers in this study and on day one they wrote these horses and then on day twenty eight. And they were pretty good riders. They just didn't get, you know, people who had uh very little experience to ride these horses. So you didn't have a huge

amount of different riders getting on them. They just had two in this study. So they were able to videotape and do gate analysis. And um it's really hopeful that um the way their this ended up and uh you know I'm gonna try it on my horses and see if I get the same result. I really love actually the sentence they'd written because they do talk about dressage, as you mentioned, Nancy, um dressage, show jumping, eventing and racing.

are the four biggest echoing sports. But endurance is also growing in popularity. And they go through each one of these just a very small little passage explaining kind of the demands of each one. So Drasage requires the horse to balance itself and is an evaluation of controlled power. And this causes a lot of gradual damage due to excessive movement. And so also what couples with this is if there's poor management conditions and inappropriate utilization of the immature skeletal system.

Then they talked about show jumpers. And show jumpers experience huge forces on their tendons and ligaments, which in turn pull on the joints and muscles, and that causes instability and damage. Aventors undertake the dressage and show jumping phases with the added cross country element. And all three phases require different skills, meaning they are often not

always suitably prepared for all three phases and those physical demands of the cross country element also add in fatigue of the muscles to the equation. So if horses aren't in peak condition Muscular damage may onset and repetitive injuries can occur. But I really love this sentence that they wrote where they kind of look at horses as a whole. And they say, you know, some horses fail to reach their expected potential while others reach levels that were never deemed impossible.

And the one common thing they have between them is that they have this musculoskeletal system, which is equal to 60% approximately of their total body weight.

And when this system is responsible for movement, it's imperative to maintain full function, to ensure maximum potential is reached. And we always are trying to limit that risk of injury. And that's what sets this paper Apart a little bit more from previous papers done on massage, because I mentioned in the introduction that previous papers looked at immediate results. So massage and then what effect is seen right away after it. Whereas this paper wanted to look at the use of massage.

So it can be applied to improving performance over time. And that's why it was really important that they did this over the course of three weeks. and looked at it at the end. And you mentioned Nancy having the two writers, that consistency was also really key to getting that result.

Yeah, and um a part that really kind of caught my attention was they reiterate that the signs of muscle damage and pain are not always evident to us.

So you can pull a blood test and look at the um creatine kinase or the CK in the Yeah, that was so interesting. Yeah, and I have done that where if I have a horse tie up on um even mildly like uh maybe a little short sh uh strided behind, uh not a full blown tie-up, but even a mild I had the blood pulled and analyzed and the C K levels were were elevated, telling me there was a little muscle damage done and you don't necessarily want to stick them out on the track.

um, you know, maybe give'em four days off, but then when you take'em back, make sure you do an adequate warm up. Well, this paper, it's so interesting that they recommend that the massage Is a type of a warm-up. So if you could loosen those horses up and then also do a massage pre Taking them to the trap and

Um, you know, you might even be warding off because there's a point where the muscle will heal and everything will return to normal, but not if you rush it. You can actually do more damage if you continue. to uh train that horse under those tying up conditions or short strided conditions. And uh I thought um it's also good for alleviating uh stress and reducing heart rate and all that. So I thought, you know, what do we have to lose by just implementing

the research this paper is bringing out. But my pony um one fall, she got a little short strided. I pulled blood on her and took it to the vet and her CK was a little elevated. So um then I knew I had to kind of back off all the writing I was doing and um do more flexibility work, a slower warm up and all that. And eventually, you know, everything

became okay again as far as her blood work went. But um, you know, it can happen and we don't even realize it because there's no outward signs except that mild short stridedness is what I noticed. And I think with good intention, we can do a lot of damage if we're not realizing what, you know, a correct protocol is.

And last week we talked about that when we talked about stretching. And this paper touches on that, not in the sense that this study looked into stretching, but they do touch on the fact that previous papers have shown three day stretching programmes are the most ideal, which was from the paper as well we discussed last week. Um, but that six day stretching programs will actually significantly reduce the range of movement.

So in those horses as well that are tying up, you know, you might think you're helping them or assisting them by giving them some good stretches, but actually you can cause it to worsen. So knowing a good routine and program for your everyday healthy horse to try and prevent this happening is really key. And incorporating massage because Again.

I just love when something's simple to incorporate'cause it's more likely to be done. But you've got a three day stretching routine from last week's episode. And then from this one, this is a one day a week massage routine. And it's ten minutes each size. It's not exhaustive. And the actual motions that they use for it. So they call I need to actually find the breakdown for how many minutes. I think it was Two minutes of efforage, which is like a very like soft

light firm strokes repeatedly. So that kind of brings blood flow to the muscle. Um and then can you remember what it was for the cross fiber, Nancy? Yeah, it was two minutes of cross fiber. And I've done quite a bit of that cross fiber massage because When you're going crosswise to those muscle fibers, you can feel it. And you also can feel any adhesions or they feel like knots. And you can work in there with the tips of your index finger and second finger and really massage those out.

And that was for two minutes and then um you did two minutes. Was it to potem? Uh type massage. And yeah, and that was kind of like cupping and it's a rhythm. So you cup one hand and before you remove your other hand, you have your other hand down cupping. in a rhythm. So you get into this I could like a two beat rhythm, um, massaging them and then after that you go back to um Let's see. I think you do another two minutes.

Cross fiber and then uh you end with the efflage again. Yeah. And that efflorage, like you said, is long. And light, and you can be a little firm, but you're following the way I do it. It says follow the circulation. I just follow the way the hair grows. Yeah. And and I think that's pretty much the same thing. And you just um the horses seem to really enjoy it. So

Um, anyway, that's how they got 10 minutes in. And then um they did it on. Do you think we should list the muscles that they highlighted because I really pulled a great anatomical. picture of the muscles. I'll post it on the Facebook page and my personal Instagram page, which I think is um Oh, I have to get my call name. I think it's Nancy underscore McLean seven.

And I'll post it on there. Maybe Kate, you can pull it off and put it on the conversation. Instagram to list all these muscles and where they are. Cause let me tell you, when I read this. I didn't know. I was gonna say, do you have your Latin hat on? Yeah, I know. I looked them up and I thought. This is too much. I'm gonna just find an anatomical picture. So um there was a veterinary site.

And I did uh ask them if I could use that and they said it's um veteran key. They said that's why it's up there to go ahead and use. So we will be posting that. Yeah. And it is the proximal muscles of the hind limb. So in short, it's the ones that are at the top of the back leg, down towards the hook. the distal muscles would be further down the leg, if that makes sense. Distal is further away from you, proximal is closer to you, when they use those terms in anatomy.

Yeah, the first one was your gluteus or the horse's gluteus serper super. Fiscialis, muscle, gluteus, medias. Tensor fascia late, the semitendinosis, biceps femoris, gastronemias. And that one is not on my drawing. However, it is by the adductor and it's behind or caudal to the stipul joint. So kind of mixed in there where it would be considered a hamstring. So those are the six muscles and I'll be sure and get that picture posted.

And if you are thinking about incorporating this kind of massage, just to point out again, the cupping, as Nancy explained, is where you're using your two hands. slightly cupped to trap air because cupping massage in humans is different. I mean you can still use that hand technique in humans, but I think typically when you look at cupping therapy in humans

It's like a suction cup that's put on the skin. So this is slightly different. We're not using anything except our hands to actually do this massage. Yeah. And I think it's really neat that last week it was therapy horses. um not being ridden but walked. And I do have uh my twenty-six year old. um Greta that needs a little epaxial muscle building. So I am going to work on her on the epaxial exercises from last week.

And then uh this week this is actually riding school horses. Um, and these this massage was um done probably in a stall. It doesn't say, but um You know, I think where a horse is the most relaxed and comfortable is the best place to do it. And then um I've got uh the pony, of course. I'd like to increase her flexion. on the hind end. And then I've got two geldings. One's a stereo has a stereotypical behavior. He's a weaver.

I'm gonna try this massage because the paper does say it tends to lessen stress. So if I see him weaving, I'm definitely once a week gonna go in and do do the massage on him according to this paper. And then I've got uh Gelding He needs a little bit of hind-end buildup. He's kind of got a little bit of an angle. He's 17 from his sacrum to his pelvic point. You can't really see the point'cause he's kind of got a quarter horse rear end, but I'm hoping to kind of help him extend um

his flexibility. He's the one that when you go to work on his back feet, you have to massage his hamstring area so he doesn't keep pulling that foot up tight. towards his abdomen and he doesn't want to extend it out. And then after massage, he'll go ahead and you can work on it, have it extended, and he doesn't seem to be as bothered. So I'm gonna try him with this too. I will take day one photos or uh even maybe a video and then also then day 28.

Um on the massage we'll take pictures and then on uh the paxial muscles we'll go ahead and do three months and then we'll post those. And see if I can't get the old lady to get a little buff on me. That's gonna be amazing and I think such a great way to kind of introduce this as well for anyone who's not really sure if it's something you're gonna start doing, then hold tight because Nancy's gonna do it in the meantime for everyone.

And we can see what the results are and how you get on. And it's gonna be really interesting, like as you said with the gelding, who's the weaver that's really um was it the weaver that's susceptible to massage or is that your second gelding, Nancy? Um, the one the second gelding is the one that loves massage. He'll the heels. So a good um turnaround from doing that with him.

Yeah, the um stereotypical behavior horse. Oh my God. He does not wanna be touched when he's weaving. So we're gonna see if we can't really uh get begin a trance to get into it and uh see if it makes a difference. You know, he's um definitely a grandson of Stormcat, so he's a little nervous, but uh We'll see how this works out for him. And um, you know, for he's very flexible in the hind end. So I would only be doing this for him as far as his stress levels go. Yeah.

With a predecessor that has the name Stormcat, I can imagine. The anxious levels of energy. Yeah, he does. But uh anyway, I thought, well, I really appreciated um all the comments.

and the condolence um wishes when we lost our Mary, the 22-year-old um mayor. She was 17-3 and she had cushions. And um we turned her out a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday morning and all was well. And then when we came home from church, um I guess maybe an hour went by, maybe a little more. Uh she clearly had some issues going on and was um just um having problems. walking in a straight line. Um, you know, the veterinarian thought

Definitely a neurological event. He thought maybe stroke. Um, it was interesting. I took Mary on. She had a um flexoral deformity at birth. And um her owners were hopeful she could still raise and it just didn't work out. So um they gave her to me as a pasture pet for Greta. And that horse taught me so much about legs and hoof care. and balance and uh she ended up being a good riding horse for my son and uh all of us have ridden Mary cause she was so easygoing and such a gentle giant.

But um when she had that um, neurological issue present itself. She became very dangerous to bring into the barn. So we were able to um get a hold of our vet who came right out and uh he euthanized her out in the pasture and the other horses were all around. So she was very peaceful and um went down very easily. And then um once she had passed away, we let the other horses have their time with her.

And I have to say, um, you know, it was very peaceful and I felt very good about doing that because clearly she um, you know, was having issues that we just don't have the diagnostics available to us for horses to be able to pinpoint, yes, this was a stroke. Um, you know, yes, this can be fixed. It was just something that a horse her size we could you know, this was the only thing we could do.

And um I felt good about it because, you know, I took her on and took good care of her. And I think there comes a time where we give'em back. And um I just feel good about what her the relationship her and I had with one another and that I was able to spend it with her for twenty one years. So uh we'll miss her and I really appreciate the over a hundred condolence wishes when I posted about her on Facebook, which ended up on my Instagram.

and uh the messages people sent. I just really appreciate it. So um I'll go ahead and do some work on these two research papers and let you know how this research works. on my horses and I'm uh also gonna add the caveat that If this doesn't build Greddis epaxial muscles, it's not because the research is wrong. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

But you know, they get older, they lose a little muscle. It's hard, yeah. Yeah. And so I thought, you know what, I'm I'm just gonna go ahead and put all mine in these studies and we'll take pictures and we'll share it with all the listeners. Well, Nancy, I just wanted to say on behalf of all the listeners, I'm sure, that um we're so sorry you lost Mary. That was really sad news the other week.

And I just think it's so beautifully put that you said there comes a time where we have to give them back. And that's really gonna stick with me going forward. But I think it's something we can all empathize with, anyone who's ever lost. um an animal or, you know, a part of the family, a loved one, a pet. Uh hopefully you had said you wanted to do this stretching as kind of a way to give back to everyone who has

sent the nice messages, which obviously there's no no pressure to have to give back to um people that wrote in. But I think that's lovely as well that, you know, you're gonna put together this kind of routine. and and we'll have something to come out of these last couple of weeks. where we can hopefully share with our listeners and try and create something that can improve life a little bit for their horses as well.

Yep, and I'll make sure I get on it, guys, so you're not waiting a long time. Just twenty-eight days for the first feedback. Right. And then three months, which you know I'm gonna make a schedule so I don't miss. anything and then uh we'll publish it and put it out there and and uh see the results. It'll be interesting. So Brilliant. Well, until next week. Thanks so much, Nancy. And take care, everyone. Okay. Thanks, Kate. Bye bye.