Welcome to Elkayam Equine Therapy

Natural crookedness in the horse 

I have read this sentence numerous times in various books of famous trainers and equine practitioners. There are endless methods out there all aimed at straitening the horse. 

Let’s first understand what is a crooked horse and how does it happen. I think most people don’t really understand what is going on anatomically and physiologically. Can a crooked horse really be balanced again?

I must thank the wonderful Monique Craig at EponaMind for letting me borrow her lovely skeleton. I had first noticed his imbalance when we talked of other things and was delighted to find out she had the entire skeleton. This meant that I could see how the imbalance in the skull would affect the rest of the body.

Please remember this is an oversimplification of a very complex process. 

Most of the horses I see are crooked to some extent and I would like for people to understand the implications of that. 

Before we embark on this journey it’s important to understand that balance in a living body is a moving target !

These images were taken by myself on flat even surface; I blacked out the background to make it easier to see.

I know nothing of this horse’s history I think he is in his mid teens.

As you click on each image it will explain the asymmetry and what to look at. I’m not a particularly good photographer so I will try to describe what I see.

So let’s start with what cause theses imbalances. It important to understand that this happens over time like stones placed in a river will slowly change its course. It is a culmination of life events.

It can be one big cataclysmic event that leaves scars but for most horses it is a collection of events.

Gestation and birth is the first event. Often there is not enough room in the womb for the large horses we now bred. This limits their space to move and grow so they rest predominantly on one side; this creates the first imbalance.

Birth has its challenges; the birth canal can distort and shift cranial bones and stress the tissue of the body .

Remember, at this point all the sutures and growth plates a wide open. Foals are soft and pliable; all tissue types have room to move around.

Foals, like all young things are Incredibly wild, uncoordinated and playful.  This results in many wipeouts, crash and burns and general bouncing off the body of hard surfaces. Each one of those incidents will create small shifts in bone and soft tissue.

This in turn will contribute to the asymmetry of the body. 

As the foal matures, these small shifts are set as part of the growth pattern of the foal. 

Then begins the training of versions disciplines. Often growth plates aren’t fully closed when this work begins. When horses enter training, adding a rider and saddle weight and asking them to move differently. All these things add to tension patterns and small shifts. 

Teeth are treated, feet are shod and the imbalance is sealed. When we start to trim teeth and feet, the aim is to achieve balance, but if the horse is already asymmetrical as in out of balance, then we are sealing this imbalance. In that moment, this is sealing the crookedness of the horses. 

Again, it is important to remember that this takes place over a long time. When horses are young, a lot can be changed and turned around; as they age, there are more limitations. 

So what can we do to help our horses?

Treat them as young as a day old to help the bone and tissue find balance. Please remember that any treatment of foals should be under veterinary supervision. Do your research; find a person that knows what they are doing.

As they grow, keep getting them therapy; I think it’s most important before we start addressing teeth and feet. The reasons being if we balance the body before manual change is applied, there is a greater chance to start of with a balanced horse.

For older horses, if you are committed to change balance, it can be achieved over a long period of time. This requires a team of farrier, bodyworker and dentist to work together.

I think the most important thing to take away is that often when they seem stubborn or resistant to the things we ask, it is simply because they cannot physically comply. 

Remember, balance is the goal but it’s a moving target and hunting after it is a life long process.

© All Rights Reserved 2019 Tamara Elkayam

“Fascial fun working on creating education.🤓

💡Fascial manipulation is a manual therapy the requires a good working knowledge of anatomy and physiology.

💡Fascia and muscle act as the rigging that allowed the body to remain vertical.

💡Fascia spirals in and out, this spiral arrangement of collagen fibers allow for movement with out loss of stability.

💡Superficial fascia blends with deep fascia in the distal limb it acts as a mechanical and thermal cushion . This gliding movement hides the tension that takes palace in the deep fascia.

💡Deep fascia is formed by connective membranes that form sheets over the muscles, it forms sheets for nerves and blood vessels and surrounds organs. It binds all the structures together.

💡In some areas the deep fascia duplicate itself to form the deep laminate especially around the spine and vertebral muscles 

💡Epimysium is deep fascia that encloses a single muscle , these structures then subdivide into muscle bundles 

💡The body’s fascia is arranged in plains.

💡Fascial depth is created embryological through development when it stats to fold in on it self so even though we have fascial plains it all started from a single plain.

💡Fascia is anchored  at boney stations or attachments ,where fascia fibers, muscle epimysium or tendon are integrated or continuous with the periosteum of the bone or the collagen matrix of the bone.

💡Most of these bone attachments have communication with the next fascial attachment bone on the superfical plain rather then the deeper plain.

💡Fascial plains regularly interweave joining or splitting from each other.

💡These place of splitting or interweaving require the body to make choices in force transmission  depending on posture and activity.

💡Some of theses attachment bones are areas where force vectors meet and cross over creating multi tugs forces around the bone.

💡We can use bone position and orientation to showers us the dominating tug.

💡As a therapist it is vital to know and understand which bones in the horse are particularly subject to these force vector and where the fascial lines meet their next “roundhouse”.

💡When we talk about articulation we are generally referring to bones. Meaning an area where two bones  or bone and cartilage attach for the purposes of motion.

Soft tissue need to articulate in the same way allowing for a sliding motion between structures and tissue, fascia articulates.

© All Rights Reserved 2020 Tamara Elkayam