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. Have you ever watched a body worker do joint circles on your horse, where they pick up the leg and actually draw circles? Basically towards the ground or up in the air? What is this and why does it work?
Well, essentially what the bodywork practitioner is doing when they do this with your horse, these joint circles is they're introducing non habitual motion of the joints. And it can instantly increase the usable range of motion in horses or any animals, including humans, due to the interplay between the nervous system, the joint mechanics this and the soft tissue the way it responds.
And this phenomenon isn't about sort of permanently altering the joint structure, but it's sort of and I use this term loosely. It unlocks an existing capacity that's typically restricted by neural or muscular habits. So here's a breakdown of why this happens. First of all, we need to look at nervous system inhibition and facilitation essentially habitual patterns. This is what the nervous system sees and optimizes itself for efficiency.
So it will create habitual movement patterns based on what your horse's daily activities are. So if, your horse is a horse that goes out in the paddock and stands at a round bale, it will become incredibly proficient at round bale snacking or grazing or walking or any specific training routine that you ask of it. It's not unlike humans who have a desk job and sit typing all day.
Their body becomes very, very good at sitting in that posture for long periods of time, doing all of the typing office chores that it's asked. Now, these patterns, they're basically reinforcing a limited subset of a joint's full range of motion.
And so the brain starts to down regulate awareness or activation of unused ranges of motion, because the body's so busy and it needs to conserve energy and reduce risk and make time for everything else it needs to do, from digesting and to emotional response to hormone production. So because it's busy and it's efficient, it says, you know what, let's down regulate this because I don't I don't need this, I don't use it.
So by using non habitual motion essentially you are moving a joint in an unfamiliar way but not in a range of motion. It's not supposed to be in right. We're not cranking on things and hurting them, but we're giving a novel rotation or angle to the joint that's slightly unfamiliar from its daily activity. And this bypasses these sort of ingrained neural patterns that are in the horse. And it stimulates a proprioceptive feedback loop.
So the signals from the joint receptors, actually in the joints. So things like the Golgi tendon organs, and muscle spindle cells, that of course, are attached in the, muscular part of this system. They're altering, what's going on in the brain and asking the brain to basically reassess what the body's been up to. And if this is in the joints safe range of motion.
So what happens then is the brain temporarily relaxes this protective inhibition and allows the body to have access to a broader range of motion. And this effect is instantaneous. This, shift becomes so immediate because it's a neural response and not a structural change. So the horse is nervous system is recalibrating its perception of what is possible within seconds. This is a really important phenomenon in physiological phenomenon. The body workers can tap into.
So often we get stuck in the thoughts of mechanical inputs and mechanical outputs when we are doing body work sessions, and we don't think about that neurological response from the joint. And by doing this, we can often tackle a lot of that muscle guarding, that protective tension that we chronically feel in horses. So muscles that surround joints often develop, guarding or chronic tension to stabilize the joint in repetitive tasks.
So horse begins to, let's say, compensate, for a rider's weight if it's walking on uneven terrain. So think about my trail riding horses. This specifically is a great example for you and the tension. It's going to limit the range of motion by resisting stretch or motion outside of that horses norm. So it's going to be locking the body down basically. And this non habitual stimulus, this unfamiliar motion disrupts the guarding reflex.
So when a joint moves in a new direction the muscles don't have that sort of preprogramed resistance pattern. For that specific action. So they don't know what to do and they relax momentarily. So you're reducing passive resistance instantaneously and freeing up more motion. So, I'm trying to think of an example here.
So a horse that, let's say really doesn't have a ton of motion going, in an adduction way, when you lift up the leg and pull it across, it's actually quite common that horses that travel in straight lines quite a bit become very muscle bound, mechanically in through the pectorals.
If they don't have a lot of freedom in their scapula in through that thoracic sling, if you lift up their front leg and do these leg motions almost instantaneously, you will get better range of motion, for that adduction, for abduction and for, that forward and backward movement. So it's a really important thing to remember that we can get rid of that reflexive, tension, that guarding reflex, and really, be able to increase instantaneously.
And, you know, you see it time and time again when you use these joint circles, these leg circles with the horses. That's what we're doing as body workers. Now, there is a theory that the joint capsule does have a little bit to do with an actual fascial release. So, soft tissue, that surrounds the joint capsules. So the fascia and the ligaments can become really sticky or stiff from certain disc use, ranges of motion or, maybe they're it's shearing to surrounding tissues in a protective manner.
And habitual motion only reinforces these patterns and these adhesions, into basically what is a narrow range of motion, narrow band of movement that's now available to the horse. So novel motion, non habitual motion gently stretches and slides. These new tissues, including the fascia and let it go into new directions. And this can actually be a big part in altering or redistributing tension and adhesions in that connective tissue.
It isn't a deep structural change, but it is a temporary loosening, which will increase sort of the pliability of the fascia, allowing the joint to move. And we know once we begin to move better, that tends to be, upregulated by the nervous system and can be reinforced and we can break up some of those, you know, which I would consider that facial tension to be a mechanical issue in the horse. So, the other thing is we want to be activating underused motor units.
So motor unit recruitment, becomes really important when we use these circles. Habitual motions recruit the same motor, the same motor units. So the muscle fibers and their nerves repeatedly while others remain completely dormant, basically forgotten about by the horse's nervous system.
So horse trotting in a straight line, for instance, uses a predictable set of hind quarter muscles but neglects others involved in latter movements or in more rotational movement of, their trunk and their hind limbs. So moving a joint A typically actually activates these dormant motor units and brings additional muscle fibers online to the party, lets the horse have access to them.
The increased activation supports the joint through that wider arc of range of motion, making a more full range of motion feel, feel more accessible and feel more controlled with an instant impact. The nervous system can recruit these units on demand, so the effect is noticeable as soon as this new motion is performed. Now, horses, not unlike humans, do have, a sense of a perception of their own limits. Right?
They have sort of a mental map of what their body's capabilities are based on the habits of what they do. Anyone who's raised young horses knows that this is a learned thing, that young horses like to go out in the paddock, explore movement and explore areas that maybe they don't want to be moving into. And this is how, you know, essentially they go out, they move, they develop a mental map of the do's and the don'ts based, on what they perceive their bodies capability to do based on habit.
And this map often underestimates what the true range of motion is due to caution or even lack of exposure to certain movements, which is why it's important for us as horse owners, as body workers, to show the body, to expose the body to these non habitual motions so that the horse does not underestimate itself and learns to gain control in other ranges of motions.
So we want to challenge that body mapping if you will, proving to the horse, proving to its nervous system, even not its conscious brain, that the more, the more efficient way to use the body is in that, bigger range of motion. And it's actually not only safe, but is also possible.
It's a sensory reset, if you will, and it reduces these sort of self-imposed limitations that the horse has put on its body, allowing for immediate access to a broader range of motion without, fear or resistance to it. From a psychological point of view, from your horse. So this is actually instantaneous, usable range of motion. And why this is, is because of neural adaptation. So the brain is going to adjust its control settings.
It's going to essentially reduce inhibition faster than tissues can physically adapt. So first of all, the advantage of that is that quick response without waiting for tissue adaptation. But it also does place some responsibility on the practitioners and on the owners not to overload the tissues, because, of course, that range of motion has altered, but the tissues haven't physically adapted yet.
So we need to work on eventually backfilling the neurology in that new range of motion and, creating sustained amounts of time of control and then sustained amounts of strength in that entire, range of motion, not just the one that I had access to before. Now. Because there are reflexive responses, muscle adaptation and proprioceptive feedback occur in real time as the joint moves. And there's no essentially structural delay when you're making these circles.
So unlike, basic strength or flexibility gains that require tissue remodeling. So weeks and weeks and weeks of work, this is about accessing what's already there, not building something that's new. And we do have to, like I said, responsibly, build some new tissue strength and neurological control in those and range motions as we give them to the horse. This is extremely relevant for horses in repetitive training disciplines. Think about how we're actually teaching horses to do things.
We do them over and over and over again. We rehearse them. So not only the riders are learning, but also the horses. Think about some of the patterns that we do over and over again. Whether you're a jumping horse or a dressage horse, think of all the circles that we do and as a result, we often develop asymmetries or stiffness in our horses.
And these non habitual exercises which you can do these leg circles that you can do, or when you add in things like carrot stretches or lateral pole work, it can actually unlock restrictions right there on the spot. It works as a neurological reset when the horse becomes tired or tense. You can do these things and then it offers a different range of motion. So you can sort of ethic train.
Now, the temporary effect, this, this instantaneous increase in range of motion will fade unless it's reinforced. So as the nervous system reverts back to its habitual pattern, it will do that without out consistent practice. So for long term range of motion gains that, you know, you want these things to last longer, we need to have repeated exposure to these ranges. So I'm talking about 6 to 8 weeks of consistent training to make it happen. Now true structural limitations do exist.
So think of really bad scar tissue. Really like serious facial adhesions, arthritis. Some major conformational flaws can come into play here. So there are true structural limitations to this system that won't, you know, change as instantaneously. You won't get such wow results. But, you can help some of the restrictions, that are backing up that system, the, the neurological drive behind it. But we want to be sure that we're doing this, and not putting strain on unprepared tissues.
So it's best that we do these things very gradually. And if you're unsure, let's do them under supervision of a trained body work practitioner. So in essence, these non habitual joint motions act like a wake up call for the horse's neuromuscular system. It reveals and activates a broader range of motion that was always anatomically possible. Like the horse was born with an abundant amount of movement potential. But because it was anatomically possible previously but has been now under utilized.
So we're going to begin to utilize it for those horses, teach them they can do it. It's a powerful tool for trainers, for manual therapists, and it helps to assess and enhance equine mobility in real time.