Early Lameness Detection
What role does bodywork play in early lameness detection? I’m so glad you asked…
First, I think it's important to note that lameness is M O R E than head bobbing, 3-legged lame. Lameness can be subtle, or even imperceptible especially at the onset. However, lameness is often something that is felt by a horse within the body well ahead of when we can tell it's there from the outside!
Horses are prey animals, which means that they don't want to be limited in motion or appear "off" if at all possible. As a result, they're *amazing* at compensation. Horses will adapt as long as they can in order to function under less-than-ideal circumstances.
For example: if there is a restriction making it difficult to bend through the neck to the left, they will tense around the issue and brace as a protective measure, while still bending as much as possible. This isn't always a bracing so dramatic that a rider will feel it immediately, but once it gets worse and takes more effort for them to compensate, it becomes a noticeable difference bending left vs right.
Or: if a horse has discomfort in the left front, but wants to rest the right hind, they'll sometimes step out with the left front when resting the right hind, so that the left front isn't perpendicular to the ground, but stacked out of the "square" position. This is often something that goes unnoticed until it's felt or seen under saddle.
Because they're masters of compensation, we often think "the horse is fine" until a *sudden* lameness appears and there is obviously something "off" in work. In reality, the issue was there for weeks or months before getting to that point.
Compensations can look like:
Improper posture
Inability to stand square
Bucking or bunny hopping for lead changes
A hard mouth
Differences in bending left vs right
Swapping at the canter
Bracing
& more
So, what can we do about it? If you're reading this and you're like "oh, shit, my horse does that!" That's great! You've realized there's something going on. Now, what do you do with that information? Bring in the professionals!
Compensations are the body's way of protecting itself. Because compensations require additional physical effort somewhere, they generally leave one side, area, muscle group, whatever, stronger than the other. They cause reactivity, tension, bracing, fatigue, or spasms within the soft tissue. And who's really good with soft tissue? Bodyworkers!
In early detection of lameness, bodyworkers play a KEY role, by monitoring and maintaining soft tissues, often with the goal of pinpointing and addressing compensatory patterns. While you may not be able to initially feel a compensation under saddle or see it in the cross ties, bodyworkers are trained to feel and observe these things each time they're with your horse.
Having a bodyworker on your horse's wellness team allows you to maintain a baseline of your horse's "normal" with a professional. Because they're able to stay current on how they're feeling and holding tension within the body, it also means that when they start imperceptible compensation, someone will be able to work with it and give feedback so that you, as the owner, can make decisions for your horse going forward.
While bodyworkers can't diagnose issues, we can tell, show, and allow you to feel what we're feeling so that you can present that information to the proper professional to move forward in preventing lameness. This is a big reason that bodyworkers are a great addition to equine wellness teams - we can help keep everyone informed of changes, help with rehabilitation, help with maintenance, and help with lameness prevention. Who doesn't want that?!