55 Corrective Exercises for Horses. Jec Aristotle Ballou
are generally successful in releasing areas of immobility so the horse is able to move optimally. They free up areas of tension and compromised mobility that the body will not release by itself. However, they only set the stage; they do not by themselves create healthy movement. For that, the horse must be taken through exercises that habituate correct new patterns (fig. 1.1). Physical motions are governed by an underlying wiring that will still store faulty signals until these signals are reprogrammed.
1.1: The state of an athlete’s body is always forming patterns that influence its mechanics. Little issues or imbalances frequently become larger ones when a pattern takes root. Training programs must make use of exercises that instill good patterns, while also strengthening the signals that control them.
This is where corrective exercises like the ones in this book come in.
Pilates or Yoga for Horses
And yet for all their success in curing balance and gait dysfunction, the real value of corrective exercises far exceeds this role alone. Their necessity for supporting equine athletes at the top of their performance cannot be overstated. Without joint and postural stability, for instance, an athlete cannot develop strength and power correctly. During regular riding and training, numerous factors make it difficult to target areas of the body that store the mechanisms for stability and symmetry the way corrective exercises do. These maneuvers access muscle fibers responsible for fine-tuned, well-coordinated movements while educating and strengthening the neuromuscular system beyond the adaptations gained from gymnastic work. For this reason, therapists sometimes refer to them as Pilates or Yoga for horses. This is an accurate way to view them.
If you regularly train good patterns in the horse’s body map, he can keep performing with ease for a long sound life. This simple practice also allows you to consider alternatives to joint injections, buckets of supplements, endless chiropractic appointments, career-ending physical limitations, and a surprising number of behavioral problems.
Understanding Fascia
A body-wide cloth of fibrous collagen called fascia envelops muscles, nerves, veins, and organs individually, and also connects them all together to form a network. This gauze-like web of tissue determines, in large measure, how a body is able to move. When this tissue becomes disorganized, strained, or dehydrated, its ability to glide across surrounding tissues is impaired. Eventually, this leads to a diminished range of motion in muscles and joints. The fascia adapts to this restricted pattern and spreads it throughout the horse’s entire system. Thus begins a cycle of restriction begetting more restriction.
fit tip
In human medicine, sensory and proprioceptive education has been instrumental in reducing the need for surgical intervention to repair joints in 50 percent of cases. It is logical to extend these findings to horses as well.
Common reasons for fascia tissue losing its glide or pliability include: localized strain, a poorly fitting saddle, injury or inflammation, repetitive movements, and emotional stress. Good muscle function depends on pliability of the fascia, not just for force effort but also for sensory input. The sensory nerves that communicate information back and forth between muscles and the central nervous system reside in fascia. If and when the fascia is altered, these signals about joint position and muscle coordination falter (fig. 1.2).
1.2: When disruptions occur to the health and pliability of the fascia, muscle patterns are negatively altered. If left unaddressed, these can lead to lasting imbalances. A horse will be unable to transmit energy forward from the hindquarters without restriction or resistance (red arrows). Stretches and corrective exercises provide an organizing force (blue arrows) that can realign fibers and movement patterns.
A hydrated and well-trained fascia network plays an enormous role in fitness. Its significance reminds us to not think about training muscles individually, because in reality that is not possible. Through fascia, the horse’s system is interconnected. It is analogous to a T-shirt hanging from a branch. If one part of the T-shirt snags, it will pull on and disturb the alignment of threads farther away from the actual snag. The physical shape of the T-shirt will change and continue to lose form over time.
Exercises that focus too repetitively on the same range or plane of motion can cause the fascia to become excessively sticky and thick, limiting tissue glide. On the contrary, exercises that stimulate proprioceptive adaptations like ground poles, varied surfaces, and alternating forces of effort help improve fascia (see What Is Proprioception? on p. 71). This translates to balance and stability in the body. Therapists call this optimum state a system-wide engagement of the nervous and muscular systems.
Why Ground Poles?
Schooling horses over ground poles, whether in hand or from the saddle, which we’ll do in many exercises in this book, can cure numerous gait irregularities or movement compromised by tension, crookedness, and weak muscle patterns. Because they require the horse to take designated stride lengths in sequence, they install good clear rhythm in all gaits. As the horse traverses over poles, he learns to push equally from both hind legs, correcting imbalances in the effort of his hind limbs. Pole work contributes to straightness and symmetry through his core and mobilizes the spinal joints.
The postural adjustments needed for crossing poles recruit the horse’s interconnected abdominal muscle group, thoracic sling, and gluteal chain. Schooling different arrangements of poles helps re-pattern existing habits within each gait, and leads to the creation of new signals from the nervous system.
• As a general rule, walking over raised poles improves core stability, joint flexion, and intervertebral joint spacing. It assists horses recovering from sacroiliac pain, back injury, or disrupted muscle use from stiffness. Walking over poles contributes to the horse’s looseness and range of motion.
• Trotting over poles plays more of a strengthening role. It develops strength in the larger back muscles that effect limb movement plus utilization of quadriceps, pelvic stability, and stronger spinal stabilizing muscles. As these muscles are recruited, it can lead to a release of stored tension from the extensor muscle chain, which is a common culprit of horses that tend to be chronically hollow in their toplines.
• Cantering over poles tones the thoracic sling, loosens the shoulders as the body rocks between forehand and hindquarters, and lifts the back. It can greatly improve flexion and extension of the back, which allows it to lift and carry the rider better. It is believed to deliver the most mobilization of the lumbosacral joint, which enables the horse to engage his hind limbs.
Setting up ground poles can seem like an arduous task, which leads many riders to avoid it, but with some creativity, it does not need to be. First of all, to promote your own consistency using poles, I recommend buying six to eight poles that are easy to move around and set up. This way you are far more likely to use them. If you try instead to use heavy or excessively long poles, you are far less likely to use them regularly. Unless you jump on a regular basis, I suggest using something else besides jump poles. You do not need anything fancy, but just something that is easy enough to use that you will do so consistently.
fit tip
When soft tissue is healing, the new tissue needs to be educated on its job. The overall process of getting a soft-tissue injury successfully back to competition involves 25 percent treatment and 75 percent rehabilitation process.
One of my favorite options is to use 4-inch by 4-inch redwood or cedar posts that are flat on one side—easily found in the landscape section of your local hardware store. I like them because they are sturdy but lightweight. They