3rd January 2012

I usually spend the first weeks of January without seeing clients and attempting to catch up with things that have been put on hold for far too long such as updating the websites and writing articles that I have been meaning to do for some time.  This year however, with clients already cuing, I have started work earlier than usual and it is already looking as though my plans to catch up are being thwarted once more.  Of course I have a choice as to whether I see new canine and equine clients but if I know there are animals out there in need of help a new article, or a new layout for the website is always going to take second place.  I am often asked what the most common problems are in the horse and dog clients that I see and although there are indeed issues that I see on a regular basis they usually involve something going on with the neck.  I have written about this before I know but am going to write about this again as the neck is so crucial for movement and well being and when it comes to horses in particular this important part of the anatomy is often over looked when talking about structure and balance.

The horse uses his neck to balance and any tension in the neck will impede the natural movement of the horse.  This is pure mechanics and unless the neck can telescope forward bringing the withers up, the back muscles cannot lengthen and ultimately strengthen.  The power muscles of the hindquarters cannot engage and a host of unwanted behaviours and poor performance is almost guaranteed.

When I look at a horse’s neck I also stand in front of him and note the position of his ears.  If one ear looks further forward or lower there is probably tension around the upper part of the neck.  If he cannot lift through the whither, he will develop incorrect muscles through the bottom line and around the upper part of the neck. There may also be a dip in the top line in front of the shoulder and this is often accompanied by muscle loss around the back of the shoulders.  Bracing muscles develop in front of the shoulder and the horse will usually be on the forehand because mechanically he does not have any choice. Tension around the base of the ears will also link to how the horse is working under saddle and most horses stand with their neck off to the left due to the habitual movement of the horse and our own habitual handling of him.

Some horses panic when you ask them to take their neck to the centre and become more tense in hand or under saddle. They often start rushing or find it hard to move off from the leg and one horse that I was working with my colleague Tina Constance actually took off when we asked her to straighten her neck. We used to use two lines attached to the head collar for horse’s that are crooked so that we can support them on one side but I have adapted this and now use a sliding line so that I can remove it quickly if the horse panics.  I can also gently vibrate the line by slowly moving it back and forward through the ring on the side of the head collar which encourages the horse to lower his head and start lengthening the neck.

None of this is rocket science.  It is fact and I do get demoralised when even well meaning people say that a horse that is muscled so incorrectly is simply ‘trying it on’ when he tires under saddle or cannot round over the jumps and so on.  

This entry was posted on 13. January 2012 at 19:09 and is filed under Sarah Fisher. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.