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. Bold statement time. Horses in their musculoskeletal system need intra dependance before they can have interdependence. What do I mean by that and why is it important? Well, the horse's musculoskeletal system is essentially a symphony of interconnected parts.
You've got bones, you've got joints, you've got muscles, you've got tendons and ligaments, and each one has to function independently, interdependent before it can contribute to the whole system or interdependence. Now, the kinetic chain model explains how movement in one joint or one muscle affects the entire system.
So dysfunction in a single component, like a stiff joint, maybe, let's say a stiff stifle creates compensatory patterns that can lead to inefficiency or injury elsewhere in the horse. So, you know, if a horse has a restricted stifle or a restricted hock, it could overload the opposite limb or alter its posture, which would impact the spine, the shoulder. And this demonstrates how these localized distal functions have a ripple effects that go through the entire horse's system.
So why does this even matter for body workers? Understanding this, interdependence of these singular joints and places ensures that we have targeted interventions that address root causes and not just symptoms which, you know, can truly enhance performance and welfare in our horses. And that's obviously what we're all about and why we're doing this. Now, each component of a horse must function in the way that it is intended to function.
So every joint, every muscle, every ligament has a specific role that is really meaningful to the body. And that's defined by its anatomy and physiology. And if a component cannot perform its role. So if a joint lacks its full range of motion and can't act like that particular joint should, it disrupts the system's harmony. One of the examples I really like to use is the idea of doing a handstand.
So if your wrists can't bend back on a 90 degree angle, if you can't put your arms straight above your head and have that full rotation in your shoulder, why on earth would you ever try to do a handstand? Because you're going to fling your entire body weight onto your hands, load up those wrists, load up those elbows, load up those shoulders.
And if those joints don't have the capability, the capacity and the range of motion to go into those positions, you're going to have other parts of your body taking over to get that done right. So you think about the ripple effect that that could have. And then you think about horses jumping, and landing on all of those tissues when the joints weren't working well in the first place.
Or you think about a horse doing PR and passage and all of these really hind load, hind end loading exercises and skills, and if one of those joints isn't acting as that joint, you're going to have compensate or ripple up elsewhere in that kinetic chain and take over to get the movement done. Creating compensation patterns, setting your horse up for injury and creating the wrong neural pathways. So joints that have a primary role in shock absorption during weight bearing.
You know this is really important if osteoarthritis let's say limits flexion or a chiropractic issue limits flexion, the joint can't actually dissipate force effectively which leads to strain on the paston or a superficial digital flexor tendon, for example, and can create catastrophic injuries. So it's really important for us to assess the mobility of the horse's joint. So that they can function independently and correctly and do their job in that kinetic chain.
So we want to look for range of motion. We want to make sure there's no pain response before we assume that it can even contribute to the whole body's movement and system. So, you know, that's a great way we should be using palpation and gait analysis to identify that we don't have, or if we do have interdependent limitations. And when we do, we need to address them before we load that area. Now inter depend ence is important. These are how all of the components work together.
Once interdependent function is restored or, you know, ensured that it's their joints and muscles can actually operate inter dependently creating efficient and coordinated movement. The horses body uses the kinetic chains where force transfers sequentially through different joints and different muscles. So, you know, hind end propulsion relies on the stifle, the hock, the fetlock, all working in concert together to push the horse forward. Think about your jumping horses, the AC joint.
It's part of that pelvis, the stifle. It needs to be able to bend both of them together the same amount to generate power off the ground. The hock. It needs to be there, acting like a hawk to provide thrust as that horse comes off the ground.
So if that AC joint is misaligned, that entire chain is going to lose efficiency, reducing, you know, its ability to jump, its scope increasing the risk of injury, getting it, jumping, you know, off to the left, off to the right, all of these things begin to happen. It's very important that we look for these compensatory patterns in the horses as part of our body work assessment. Look for tiny little things like uneven hoof wear or asymmetrical muscle development.
These signal interdependent dysfunction. And we need to address that interdependent issue first before we can restore that health to that kinetic chain. One of the things I think is really important for body workers when we are discussing their horses cases, you know, we want to empower them.
We want to teach them hands on ways to recognize signs in their horses of musculoskeletal issues, things like that uneven hoof wear, or if they're having difficulty bending or reluctance to engage in certain gaits. These are important things for our, our owners to learn. And in fact, there have been studies that show that owner led monitoring. So checking for heat, for swelling, for all of those things in the horses actually improves early intervention and outcomes. Right.
This is an actual thing we watch out to trainer owners to be able to perform basic palpation of all the major muscle groups so that they can detect asymmetry, tension, or signaling any potential, kinetic chain issue so that they can call in the body workers. This is part of preventative care, right? We want to encourage them to be a really active part of their horse's journey. And this is why I created a free PDF that will help you as horse owners.
Or you can give this link to your clients so that they are able to actually assess their horse's back on their own using, you know, touch based approach, using a palpation approach so that they're able to communicate better with their body workers. So if you're interested in grabbing this free PDF about, assessing your horses back, a touch based approach, you can get it at on my website at Starline bodywork.com.
Or if you want to get it directly, you get it at Starline Dot, my fellow Dexcom forward slash back. So the big picture here is that the horses musculoskeletal system thrives on balance. Each part must function independently before contributing to the whole. It's important to us to address that interdependent dysfunction. First, body workers can prevent interference and optimize interdependent movement, enhancing equine performance. And then, of course, yeah, longevity.