I'm Judith, and this is the Starline Equine Bodywork podcast. This is a podcast about all of the things that I've learned and continue to learn in my career with horses. For the better part of a decade, I've been a full time equine bodywork practitioner, educator, and author. My obsession how horses really work and how to get the most from our relationship with them in training and in sport. My passion helping horse owners and body workers and aspiring body workers get going.
Unpack the latest science, research and experiences behind what we do with horses to support their potential and optimize their performance. Understanding how a horse's static posture or how they stand relates to their locomotive posture, or how they move is a great way to dive into equine biomechanics and physiology. In this episode, I'm going to break this down into how static posture reflects physical traits, how those traits influence movement, and how biomechanical and physiological cues.
You can observe them to see what we're going to get from the horse. So let's get started. Static posture refers to how a horse stance, when it's at rest, is sort of a snapshot into their skeletal structure. Their muscle balance, their overall conformation, or the shape and proportions of their body.
And by observing static posture, you can pick up on cues about how a horse might move based on biomechanics or how forces are going to interact with that body and physiology or how muscles, joints and systems actually function. So there are a few key static posture cues that we should really look at when we are assessing horses. The first of which is leg alignment. And we're going to look at how the legs are positioned from the front from the side and from the back.
So straight legs, when you view them from the front, for example, would suggest that there is even weight distribution, which often translates into more balanced movement. Whereas if you have a base narrow horse, so the legs being closer together at the ground or base wide, their legs being wider apart at the ground. This can indicate how the horse is going to track or move its legs during locomotion.
For example, a base narrow horse might move with legs crossing slightly, increasing the risk of interference or brushing and striking their other leg. Misaligned legs are going to alter force distribution, which has the potential for causing uneven strides. Joint stress these things during locomotion and uneven weight bearing can strain tendons or ligaments over time, impacting stamina and agility. And of course, long term soundness.
Now, when we look at the back or the top line of the horse, we want to be on a level, slightly, above the horse so that we can really see what's going on. And we also want to have a look from the side. So a level back or ever so slightly arched between the withers and, that sacrum where that sacrum starts at the hips. This is a strong, long core suggestion for this horse. It's going to support fluid movement and weight carrying ability.
Now, if your horse has a sway back so it is more dipped or approach back so that upward curve, it may indicate a weak core, weak core musculature, past injury or limiting flexibility. Limiting mobility. The spine's shape affects how the horse transfers weight from that hind quarters to the forehand during forward locomotion. So a weak core, those weak core muscles, are actually going to reduce the horse's ability to engage its hind quarters and impact power.
Awful movements like cantering, like jumping, like galloping, anything where we have to engage that lumbar sacral junction. Now it's also important to look at hoof angle and balance. So balanced hooves, a loose definition would be where they have matching angles with no cracks.
That's going to suggest even weight distribution on those hooves, which of course promotes smoother gaits, uneven hooves or low heels on a horse may indicate stress points, leading to choppy or uneven strides in the horse hoof angles affect the breakover phase of the horse, and so when that hooves hoof leaves the ground, that's the breakover, and it influences the horse's stride length and its efficiency in movement.
Poor hoof balance has the ability to strain the dispensary apparatus, the tendons, the ligaments, and increase the risk of lameness in horses. I also like to look at neck and shoulder position in a horse, because a well muscled arched neck and a correct sloping shoulder suggests flexibility. It suggests mobility and good front end movement.
Now, if your horse has a eunuch or that concave top and a convex bottom with overdeveloped muscles on the bottom of its neck, or an upright shoulder, it may actually begin to resist forelimb extension because of the way all of the muscles connect and function. The shoulder angle actually does determine stride length, and a steeper, short shoulder actually shortens that horse's stride, and the neck muscles connect to the shoulder, aiding in head, carriage and balance during locomotion.
When we look at hind quarter posture, we want to be looking for strong, rounded hind quarters, that indicate a powerful propulsive ability which is ideal for gaits like galloping. Any weak or flatness in the hind quarters suggests that, there is less driving force, which can affect its acceleration or jumping the angle of the hock and the pelvis actually does influ fluence. How effectively a horse can push off the ground. Strong gluteal muscles and hamstring muscles generate that force.
In hind limb extension, and it is critical for dynamic movement. Now static posture actually does translate to locomotor motion. Static posture reflects the horse's structural foundation, which dictates how forces are actually transmitted during movement. And here's how those cues play out. So a horse with symmetrical posture so level hips, strong legs. This typically is a type of horse that moves with even strides reducing energy waste.
Any asymmetrical, or asymmetries in the horse, like maybe one hip is higher than the other, can cause uneven gaits or compensatory movements, which, of course, we know increase the risk of injury. So a horse standing, camped out, let's say, with its legs too far back, can make that horse struggle to engage its hind quarters, leading to weak propulsion in the trot and in the canter, as it likely can't access the correct movement in that lumbar sacral junction.
Now stride length and efficiency come into play here. So a good sloping shoulder, which is postural as well as good angles to the hock because of leg placement, allow for longer, smoother strides, which maximizes the horse's range of motion. Conversely, upright shoulders or straight hawks actually restrict stride length, making movement stiffer. Now the lever arm lengths or in, let's say the femur or the humerus and the joint angles between them. Determine a stride arc.
So a longer lever increases stride length, but it also requires more muscle power to push the horse, which is something I'm going to be thinking about when I assess horses before I buy them. From now on. Now, weight distribution is another important factor.
Horses with a balanced static posture distribute that weight quite evenly across all four limbs, promoting fluid transitions between their gates and a horse that stands with one limb forward, perhaps due to pain like I'm thinking of a horse pointing a foot. Maybe they have a subclinical lameness. Maybe they do have a clinical lameness. May and be favoring that limb in motion, can cause lameness or uneven wear on that side of the body.
Muscles like the quadriceps and the gluteus that actually stabilize joints during movement. I want to think about those imbalances in the static posture in these muscles. Generally tend to point towards the horse having a weak core, which reduces stability and affects the horse's gait quality.
Now, in order for a horse to have propulsion and power, which is of course what we want in our athletes, they need to have strong long hind quarters and strong hind quarters in a static, postured horse indicate robust gluteal muscles that forward driving motion and we kind quarters generally do result in shorter, less powerful strides. So a horse with a well angled pelvis can fully extended time limbs, which makes it excel in disciplines like dressage or jumping.
Now we have to also have some practical observations. So to connect a static posture to locomotion, I want you to try these steps. First and foremost, we have to take the time to observe static posture in our horses. We want to stand them on flat ground. We want to check their, alignment and their balance from all angles and note any asymmetries, uneven hips, pointing a heel forward. Watch the way they stand.
And it's important to take note of changes that happen over time in your personal horses. So I do want you to stand back, look, maybe once a week and look at what your horse's habits are and what's creeping in as a new behavior. Then it's time to watch their movement.
We want to observe our horses at the walk, at the trot, at the canter, to see if any of those static cues like, let's say, that base narrow stance that we talked about translates into movement, like the legs crossing or interfering with one another. And we want to look for fluidity, stride length and any signs of lameness. And of course, if we do see signs of lameness, we want to be contacting our veterinarian. And we have to correlate these findings.
So, for example, a horse with a steep shoulder ankle angle in a static posture may show that short, choppy strides at the try, confirming that it has restricted forelimb extension. If you're not, a lot of this stuff is changeable movement is, of course, governed by Newton's laws. For example, a force generated by hind quarter muscles in action produces, a forward motion or a reaction.
So static posture reveals how efficiently these forces are applied on skeletal alignment and have been applied in the horse's past based on the way it has adopted certain stances, muscles and tendons store that elastic energy during stance, which is released during locomotion like a spring, so poor static posture and a weak core is definitely going to reduce energy efficiency, leading to faster fatigue and injury.
We want to practice observation in our horses, spend time watching them at rest and in locomotion. You know, taking notes is a very good way to keep track of what's going on with your horse and their posture and compare it to their gaits, learning basic anatomy for horse owners and familiarizing, yourself with basic equine anatomy, where the major bones are, where the muscles are, and understanding how these structures affect function of your horse is important. And ask yourself questions.
If you notice you have a horse with an unusual stance, ask your vet. Ask your trainer about how it impacts movement. Now, I really believe posture impacts horse's performance so much that I have written a three posture and performance guide that I want you guys to download. I want you to have this go through, look at the lists in here of the postures and the stance and what it means for your horse. And, you know, bring your horse out on the crossed eyes, really observe them.
So you can grab that free PDF on my website, Starline bodywork.com. And I'm also going to link it into the show notes. It's one of our most popular downloads, and I get so many comments about how helpful it is. I want you guys to use that to be able to determine what's going on with your horse and how its static posture is going to translate into its performance.