Back Matters

It's something most horse people would have heard at some stage, yet something that is also often met with a rally of questions - What kind of 'back man'? How do they work? How do I find a good one? What signs are there that my horse needs one??

The term Backman reflects the history of manual therapy for both people and horses. In times past there were no recognised methods of studying and qualifying to treat problems in the back or musculoskeletal system, hence the development of a generic descriptive term. Advances in training for human treatment came back in the late 1800's however that for horses has really progressed in the last couple of decades. Still the numbers of qualified practitioners are few and yet there is a large range of options already available. The development of these qualified professions has in some ways made things more complicated as their names often don't give away much as far as what a horse person might expect if they were to be visited by one!

Among the possibilies are Osteopathic, Chartered Physiotherapists, Chiropractors, McTimony Practitioners and more. There are highly effective practitioners within each of these professions and ensuring your practitioner has completed a recognised training course specific to the treatment of horses and holds professional indemnity insurance should be a good start to finding a safe and effective solution to your horses individual problem. While there are many times pain is caused by simple dysfunction in the muscles or joints, there are many more serious underlying possibilities that can mimic the simple causes. It is therefore important that your practitioner can not only find the musculoskeletal restrictions but is also trained to recognise when the apparently simple isn't quite so simple.

Just one of the options, Osteopathy finds a balance by working with all the tissues of the body. "By looking at the way the horse moves, feeling the way the joints, muscles and connective tissues are moving against and with each other, and assessing how effectively the blood vessels and the nervous system is working, it is possible to find the root cause of many problems horse owners have with getting the best performance out of their horse." Working from the perspective of finding the cause rather than simply addressing the symptoms, it is frequently a long chain of tightness and restriction that is discovered as the underlying cause of a seemingly sudden upset. This unique perspective is also the reason Osteopaths can often detect and resolve problems in the body when all the scans, tests and box rest have not made any significant progress.

So how do you tell when your horse needs work?

From an Osteopathic perspective the main clues for the rider or owner come from signs of altered movement or reluctance to perform certain regular activities. You might notice your horse's behaviour changing, either in subtle ways such as being in an uncooperative or bad mood or a more obvious manner such as biting, kicking, bucking or rearing. Horses are generally creatures of habit, so if you notice a change from the typical it is worth considering that he may be acting out due to pain or discomfort. Additionally you might notice your horse not being able to bend freely and evenly, resisting contact, being reluctant to learn new tasks or perform well-learned tasks.

Being alert to these early signs of pain or discomfort and addressing them quickly not only brings a renewed ease to your horse, but also helps minimise the potential for longstanding restrictions to develop into more significant injuries. Since the joints directly effect the muscles (and vice versa) and the muscles connect to and therefore directly effect the tendons it is easy to see how a small restriction or tightness in a muscle or joint can progress over time to cause tendon damage, which can put a horse out of action for a significant period of time.

One of the easiest ways of keeping a regular check on your horse's musculoskeletal health is to learn to see and feel what is "normal". By having a strong sense of your horses individual normal, you can learn to quickly recognise when there is a problem and get on top of it quickly before it has a chance to become a big problem. Give the following exercises and stretches a try, and if you can incorporate them into your regular routine you will find yourself in a great position to reduce your horses potential for injury as well as promote free and supple movement.

Assess your horse once a week

Have an assistant lead your horse out for you. Begin by watching your horse walk away from you. Start to notice the way the 'hip bones' move on each side. A healthy and supple horse will walk with a Marilyn Monroe sway to the hips, with each side dropping evenly as the leg swings through. Unevenness in this movement can indicate dysfunction in the joints or muscles of the hind limbs, hindquarters or into the lower back.

Next watch your horse walk past you in both directions. This time watch the length of his stride. If he's shod and you're on a concrete surface you can even close your eyes and listen to the rhythm of the footfall. Watch and listen for unevenness. Both hind and forelimbs should step evenly and freely, both forwards and as the leg swings back and through. Once you have the art of seeing asymmetry in the stride you can start to look at how the muscles are moving and begin recognising even very small tightness's.

Build these simple stretches into your routine 3 times a week

Neck Flexibility

Using a treat, encourage your horse to move his neck in the following directions.

• From between his knees towards his chest

• Standing next to his shoulder, ask him to stretch to reach the treat around you towards the middle of his side. Stretching around you prevents him from cheating by bending only the most flexible parts of his neck.

• Straight out in front and move the treat slightly up in the air from there. If you place your hand on his chest this will help him stay still and truly stretch into the poll region.

Shoulder Flexibility

• Pick up your horses foreleg and cradle the knee and the pastern

• Move the leg in circles, first clockwise and the anticlockwise.

• The key is to keep the circles nice and round and if you find one side of the circle feels very tight and doesn't improve with gentle stretching this might indicate a true restriction somewhere within the shoulder or ribcage.

Hip Flexibility

• Pick up your horse's back foot and either hold under the pastern as shown, or cradle around his fetlock with the toe pointing downward

• As with the shoulder make gentle circles with the leg, again aiming to keep the circle nice and round and noticing any persistent tightness in any part of the movement.

Prevention is always better than cure, and by working these exercises and stretches into your regular routine, and you will be well on the path to recognising small problems or variations in your horse quickly and addressing them promptly!

For more information on Centaurus Equestrian Osteopathy for both horse and rider, please visit our site, you can contact us by email or you can phone Sam Sherrington on 0871467679

Back Matters

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