Monday 19 March 2012

How feet affect the body

I took some new footage of Bailey Griffiths on a circle last week and its interesting to compare it to his footage from 4 weeks ago.

These are a couple of stills from the footage and its pretty clear that the changes in his feet have made bigger differences in his body.
Its common for horses with foot pain to have related pain in the shoulders and neck.  For Bailey, as you can see, this made him brace through his neck and hollow through his back.  Of course, correct ridden work while he is holding himself like this is also pretty impossible.
Although he is still at an early stage, better feet have allowed him better movement: he is now just beginning to relax and can stretch his neck and lift his back for short periods.

The nice thing about rehab is that horses "default" to correct movement once they are comfortable. In behavioural terms, it is self-reinforcing because horses find it easier and less stressful to move this way.  As a result, horses will usually naturally develop a better way of going once they have healthier hooves.

Its not comfortable for horses to continuously brace themselves and its usually a protection mechanism. If you have a horse (as I used to) who constantly goes hollow, head in the air and rushing, then (as well as looking at backs and saddles) its worth considering whether he is comfortable in his feet.

3 comments:

jenj said...

"If you have a horse (as I used to) who constantly goes hollow, head in the air and rushing, then (as well as looking at backs and saddles) its worth considering whether he is comfortable in his feet."

AMEN!!! I wish people would look at feet, almost BEFORE they look at the saddle!

Phil said...

I can see a similarity in my TB. When shod he was very pottery on his front end, with high head and hollowed back whenever asked for trot. 8 months into his barefoot transition he now willingly stretches his neck out long and low when ridden and the pottery movement in trot has all but gone. He is a much more relaxed and confident horse to ride now. I agree, feet are key!

dreams579 said...

What a change! Lovely to see Bailey looking so much more comfortable throughout his body now!

Nic is definitely starting to drop now and relax through his head and neck more when on the lunge too. Tracking up much better and generally looking far more forward, and giving me some lovely work over trot polls to encourage him to engage his back end a bit more now :)