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. Most of you probably heard the term neuro mechanical training such a buzzword right now. So let's unpack what it really is. Neuro mechanical training actually refers to a holistic approach that integrates the nervous system, or the neuro, and the mechanical aspects of movement.
The mechanic call to optimize physical performance, coordination, and even recovery from workouts is grounded in the idea that the brain, the nerves, and the muscles all work together as a unified system, and training them could actually enhance their communication and their efficiency. So from a science perspective, its focus is on how sensory inputs like touch or pressure or proprioception. So the body's sense of knowing its position in time and space, they influence motor outputs.
So muscle activation and movement. For example, it might involve exercises or techniques that stimulate specific neural pathways to improve muscle recruitment patterns. Reaction times or even joint stability. So think of it as tuning the nervous system to get better control of the body's biome mechanics, and I'm sure we can all see how that is extremely relevant in training our equestrian athletes.
So in practice, neuro mechanical training can include things like targeted stretching, resistance exercises, or even manual therapies like equine bodywork. And they're going to help reset muscle tone and enhance neuromuscular coordination. So it's often used in sports science for rehabilitation for performance training. And this is a field that's become really popular in human work and now beginning to become more popular in horse training.
And it's used to address inefficiencies to reduce injury risk and boost overall function. So let's look at how this approach applies specifically to horses. First of all we want to look at the horse's neuro mechanical system. It's a powerhouse of essentially coordination. The brain to muscle connection is really important. A horse's movement, whether they're trotting or galloping, relies on really precise neural signals from the brain and the spinal cord. Two motor units in the muscles.
Neuro mechanical training fine tunes this dialog between the brain, the spinal cord and the muscles. It essentially is proprioception in action. So horses depend on proprioceptive scepters that are highly present in their joints and in their tendons and in their muscles, to navigate uneven terrain and to adjust their posture accordingly. Train running. These sensors can sharpen their balance, their responsiveness, and all of the things critical for high performance and soundness in horses.
Now, horses benefit from neuro mechanical training because it can address things like compensatory patterns, injuries from overuse. Let's face it. Riding is often trained from a repetitive, way of looking at training the horse and they can get overuse injuries, and it can disrupt some of that neuromuscular harmony and even lead to muscle tension and gait. Irregular gritties. Now, neuromuscular or neuro mechanical training can help to reprogram these patterns in the horse.
Our equine athletes, spend a lot of time stressed that is the reality, whether they show it or not. Several, several horses I know in my practice sort of like to live in their sympathetic part of their nervous system, as opposed to that parasympathetic. They have chronic stress from travel or competition, and it actually heightens muscle excitability in their bodies when they are showing.
And so this is a really great approach for horses when we discover that they are internal causing that stress. And it's coming out in the form of muscle tension because it can actually calm neural overactivity like, through certain touch or certain movement and restore that horse back to its baseline function. So how it works in horses is by generating neuroplasticity. So horses, like humans, have a very adaptable nervous system. That's just a fact.
And targeted exercises or bodywork can strengthen certain neural pathways and improve how muscles fire during, you know, whether it be their canter, their gallop, or even organizing their body in a way that makes their jump better.
It can also, serve as a muscle spindle reset so the sensory receptors in the muscle fibers themselves that detect, stretch or touch when those are the muscle spindles and neuromuscular techniques, like a rhythmic palpation or light touch bodywork or even some control and stretching can recalibrate, that spindle sensitivity and reduce the circulations or chronic stiffness in the horse. Now, it wouldn't be a bodywork episode if I didn't get a chance to talk about fascia.
And fascia has, a network full of mechanoreceptors. And we know that mechanoreceptors respond to both pressure and movement. So manipulating fascia through bodywork actually enhances that neuro mechanical feedback, promoting a more fluid and efficient movement in the horse.
A few practical applications, that we should look at is our our palpation exam, teaching our clients how to do a basic palpation exam when we're not there becomes really important because palpation itself can actually be used as a neuro mechanical tool. It's gentle and intentional. Touch stimulates sensory nerves, which dampen overactive motor responses and encourage muscles to relax or realign dynamic stretching. We all know I'm a huge fan of DM is dynamic mobilization exercises.
These guys did stretches. Specifically, I'm thinking about the neck are great to activate proprioceptive and retrain. We'll call it muscle memory in quotation marks, especially when you are post-exercise or, and the horse is fatigued and fallen into a compensation pattern from fatigue or, if the horse has had an injury and we're having to do a little recalibration and retraining in the body.
Now, cross-training, it's it's so simple and we all know it, but we need to start to make more time for it. Simple groundwork exercises like lateral steps like backing up these engage the horse's nervous system and their muscles and get them to recruit and have that conversation together. And this in turn builds coordination and strength without putting them through the rigors of an under attack workout. Now, for my horse owners, I really want you to consider this. This is your performance.
Boost your competitive horses. Neuro mechanical training can mean smoother transitions for you. It can mean better endurance through the length of the horse show. It can mean fewer missteps. And when you have fewer missteps, of course you're less likely to have catastrophic injuries and tears from that misstep. I want you to think about the precision that's required in the sport of dressage alone.
Or, for my jumping horses, the actual precision to have the body organized to take off from the ground accurately. So this will boost those types of performance. Of course, on that injury prevention note, not only is it going to reduce those missteps, but it is going to, allow for a reduction in strain on tendons, on ligaments. And it's a big win for long term soundness. And for my rehabbing horses, it's speed up the restoration of your normal movement. Again, they've often been on box rest.
They have adapted to, a new pattern in their body, if you will. And so by both addressing the neural software, we'll call it, and the mechanical hard where we are speeding up that process and allowing those horses to return to play in a healthier state, not just pulling them out of the box and sending them back as if nothing happened. So if you've ever wondered why your horse stumbles after a long ride, it might actually be a neuro mechanical glitch. So let's unpack that thought there.
Remember, a horse's spinal cord can process some reflexes without even having brain input. So neuro mechanical training taps into that built in wiring. So if you are noticing those funny little steps here and there when they fatigue, we want to be able to, really access the nervous system without the brain and do some exercises that, both body work and homework exercises that can improve our horses, things that owners can do, a simple long, slow neck stretch before they ride and after they ride.
This is going to, change the way the horse feels when it goes into work and comes out after work. And it is literally watching the way the body responds is literally neuro mechanics and neuro mechanical training at play. Some neuro mechanical training exercises for horses that focus on improving that integration of the nervous system, the musculoskeletal system, enhancing coordination and body awareness.
Appropriate perception as well as strength and overall movement efficiency are really important to put into your routine. They're exercises that are incredibly valuable for, like I said, rehabilitation, injury prevention and optimizing. Perform ance, which we are all about here at Starline equine body work. But, let's look at some sort of really specific examples that we can do at home. First of all, let's talk about the role of, ground pole work, putting poles on the ground.
4 to 6 poles spaced, approximately for your horse's stride length. So 3 to 4ft apart for walking. And you can adjust them for trot or for cantering. And it's important to keep these we keep them set up in our ring at our home training barn all the time, because you can lead through them. Or if you have a horse on a lunge line, you can lunge over the poles at the walk in the trot. Now, again, this is an exercise everybody talks about.
But what we don't really think about is what those neuro mechanical benefits are. It actually encourages the horse to use very precise foot placement. And that activate that act alone is activating those proprioceptive pathways and strengthening stabilizing muscles in both their limb and their core. So the horse has to adjust its balance and its rhythm, which enhances that neuro control.
You can vary it by, you know, raising one end of the pole slightly on a small block or on one of those Ikea, toddler potty training things. And this what this does is it increases difficulty to engage the hind quarters of the horse more so our dynamic mobilization exercises are carrots, stretches that we use to guide the horses into specific, positions and range motion. This includes chin to chest, their nose to their flank, the nose, between their front fat locks.
When we do this, and we hold that end position, you have to start with four seconds. But if you can work up to five or even 10s, repeating it 3 to 5 times per side, it has incredible, incredible effects on the system and is, it's neuro mechanical benefit would be that it's actually stimulate the nervous system in, a way that improves that end range of motion, and it activates those deep postural muscles.
So think the multifarious along the spine, enhancing the mobility and the symmetry in our horses. We need them to be symmetrical. They're born left or right handed, just like us. But they need to be more ambidextrous for the sport we are asking of them. And this absolutely helps that re patterning on the weaker side, it up regulates things on that weaker side. And research has shown that these stretches can actually improve core strength as well as lateral bending.
We want to be doing them a minimum of five days a week. Four is adequate, five is perfect. And if you have the time, there is no harm in doing them seven days a week. And that's going to give you the most noticeable neuromuscular adaptation brain back. If I could give one piece of homework to everyone.
It has so many benefits for so many different things, but in the context of this neuro mechanical training, the asking a horse to step backwards 6 to 10 steps in hand, or even in this case, when we're talking about that neuro mechanical training, it can be done under attack, ensuring that they're not dragging their feet, that they're taking sort of big backwards marching steps, and that we're only using very light pressure on either the halter or the reins.
Being careful, you know, we if they're being compliant and doing what we're asking, we want to ask gently and with the head in a neutral position, what this does is it actually engages the hind quarter musculature, the core and those spinal stabilizer muscles. And this improves coordination and strength in the horse. And these deliberate steps enhance proprioception as the horse goes backwards and the horse shifts its weight, going to its rear end.
Now, you can if you have a horse that's quite advanced and you're doing this very regularly and they're handling it well, another thing you can do is back up a very light incline, like two degree incline, and that will engage these muscles even more and make this an even more effective exercise for those horses. I love hill work, and when I say hill work, I don't mean anything too crazy. We don't want to be going more than a ten degree grade change.
I'm not asking you to walk up the side of a cliff, or down the side of a cliff. But in our warm ups and our cools downs and in our, our varied terrain day that I always like to promote with my clients, you know, get out of the ring, go ride on the grass, on the sand, do a little bit of hill work. If we can spend 10 to 15 minutes a week, depending on the horses, fitness level, and, you know, be sensitive to it and build into it.
Well, going on these ten degree up and down, grades can actually help also strengthen the hind quarters, the abdominal muscles and the back, but also challenges the nervous system to maintain its balance. And it's coordination as that uneven terrain, is, is something that it's really feeling in its body at that ten degree grade, and it builds neural pathways for stability and of course, alternate the direction uphill and downhill.
Because it works different muscles and different muscle groups quite symmetrically. But it is important to go uphill and downhill as well. Balance pads are another really great way to do this type of training. The for those of you who haven't used them, they can be just a piece of, foam gym foam, or you can buy them specifically for horses, and you can put them either under, one front foot or under both front feet or even one or both hind feet.
And what this does is, it gets the horses to shift their weight really gently when they're standing on these pads, to basically get balance. So all of those micro proprioceptive, those nerve endings in those joints get quite excited. And it enhances that proprioception in the horse by forcing them to adjust to the instability of that surface they're standing on, and activates all of those small stabilizing muscles and improves that neural feedback loop.
It's a really great for rehabbing certain neurologic cases, or refining balance. But if, from a safety perspective, if you have a neurologic case, we do want to make sure that we are, you know, consulting with our veterinarian before we do any of this work, in case they become, lose your balance or become, really unstable. We want to keep safety in mind. The other thing is introduce the pads slowly to the horse. Let them feel comfortable and safe with them under their feet.
They shouldn't be left unsupervised, with the balance pads. And so we watch them. And at any sign of discomfort, you know, sometimes they just step off them. And that really and truly does mean that they've had enough and they can build up the amount of time, their endurance, if you will, to this exercise as, things go on now, the other thing, some people will pull on a horse's tail as some of this neuro mechanical training. I personally do not like pulling on a horse's tail.
Unless you are a trained professional who knows what you're doing. Because that tail is, of course, an extension of the horse's spine. And there is a different way to, promote isometric contractions, and that is using a technique I call a pelvic draw. So you're going to, stand facing your horse at its height and, and reach across, with your arm to its opposite, its opposite side. So it's opposite. Opposite, just on the other side.
If it's too risky and you're going to slowly draw the horse's weight towards you, being careful, it does not step on your toes, of course, when you don't want to pull it. So hard that it's losing its balance. And what this does, and you hold that, you let the stifle engage and you hold that for start with four seconds build up to five, six, seven. If you could hold that for 10s, I would be really, really impressed with those muscles. Fully engaged and under that little bit of resistance. Right.
So they they are flexing those muscles almost because they're forced to by pulling their weight in that direction. So the neural mechanical benefit of this is it's actually actually activating both pelvic muscles and the stifle muscles. Isometric which enhances that neural connection, for stability and proprioception, which is useful for horses recovering from hind quarter weakness, which we all know is a common affliction in horses.
Remember, stand close to those hind quarter so you don't get kicked and stop. If the horse is resisting strongly. Remember, as with any exercise, we want to start out simply with all of these, and gradually increase intensity and duration as the horse's coordination and strength improves. Typically for neuro mechanical training to become effective, it does take about 60 sessions to sort of master your, a movement pattern, and then you can begin to build on strength from there.
And I think a lot of people are really shocked, when they hear that because it is a process. It is a long process. So I do encourage you to start now so that you see those benefits and not look at it and say, oh, that's a long process. And get overwhelmed and not start. And we want to be doing it consistently.
We're talking 3 to 5 times a week for 6 to 8 weeks in a row to establish new neural pathways, and adjust, sort of what's going on with our intensity and duration based on those horses responses. Watch for signs of fatigue, discomfort, uneven movement.
And remember, consult your vet if there are underlying neurologic conditions or anything like that, and integrate these into your warm up and cool down just five minutes of, walking, and doing these exercises at the walk building up to ten minutes at the beginning and end of your ridden sessions can really help to both prepare and relax the horses. Neuromuscular system. So I hope you guys have taken some practical insights from these and takeaways.
Grab your pen and paper, playback this exercise or this episode, and write down these exercises, knowing that they are targeting that interplay between the horse's nervous system and musculoskeletal structure, which is only going to foster better movement patterns and resilience. For your horses, they can be adapted for your specific goals, whether you're rehabbing from an injury or enhancing their sort of athletic, performance.
If they're a show horse and they can be tailored to any horse's specific needs.