According to a recent report from the Tufts University School Veterinary Medicine, musculoskeletal problems are the most common cause of poor performance in horses.

We are all familiar with the idea that Sports Medicine for human athletes -- whether professional or amateur -- is a necessary part of keeping the body functioning at its best.  Sports Medicine and Muscle Therapies were developed to reduce the strain that these activities place upon the joints and muscular systems. The physics and physiology of motion are the same for horses as they are for humans. 

When Jack Meagher, "Father of American Sports Massage", began applying massage techniques to thoroughbreds, the results were so outstanding that Jack soon found himself as a valued member of the U.S. Equestrian Team. He writes, "A muscle is a muscle and a joint is a joint regardless of its package.  My clients range in size and shape from ten pound show dogs to fifteen hundred pound horses; from one hundred twenty pound marathon runners to two hundred eighty pound NFL football linemen.  The same problems occur in every sport for the same reasons."

Why did my horse start to resist going to the right?  Why did my horse start switching leads, or refuse the proper lead?  Why did my horse start tiring early, or stop jumping well?  Why is my horse "off" even though he's been x-rayed, scoped, checked and there is nothing wrong?

Nothing happens without a reason, and throughout my experience with horses, what has often been seen as "misbehavior" in a horse, is nearly always simply a reaction to discomfort and/or pain.  Just because we can't easily determine the source of the problem does not mean that it doesn't exist,  and that the horse is merely misbehaving.  A change in your horse's behavior is his only way to tell you that something is wrong.

When a muscle is not working properly (malfunctioning!), it is actively working against the horse.

All muscles contain microfibers, and every time the muscle contracts, these tiny microfibers "ratchet" themselves tighter and tighter.  The contraction (shortening) process is a generated process, but the release is not.  It is in the inability of the muscle to release completely and return to its normal length, that the problem develops.  

Imagine strapping on a 15 pound back pack and going jogging for 30 minutes for 5 consecutive days.  During these 5 days, you can go about your normal routine, but you are not allowed to actively stretch your muscles.  At the end of the 5 days, all of your muscles would be very tight and short.  Your horse experiences the same loss of muscle length from repetitive excessive contraction.

Pushing our horses and asking them for maximum effort is the only way that we can maximize performance - after all, muscle strain and exertion is the only path to muscular hypertrophy (enlargement) and increased ability.  But we can never know exactly where the line is between maximum effort and overload.  Push too hard and you've abused the body and the horse breaks down rather than builds up.  When we ask for maximum effort, there will be a residual tightening of muscle.  By the time you see a change in the horse's quality and freedom of movement, the muscle has gone beyond simple spasms and small knots, and has developed a lesion. 

A lesion begins as small percentage of muscle fibers (perhaps 10,000 out of more than a million) forms a spasm.  At this point, the horse will continue to perform well, and we won't even notice a problem.  But with continued maximal effort, these 10,000 fibers shorten even further, and cannot return to their full length.  As the spasm is continuously aggravated, it will begin to add more fibers to itself, and as it becomes bigger, it puts pressure on the tissue which, in turn, reduces circulation.  The pressure causes pain.  And at this point your horse will be refusing, or going "off" in certain movements.

The lack of circulation means that the fibers are not getting the nutrition and oxygen needed, nor can the toxins and lactic acid be flushed out of the involved tissues.  It will now draw edema (the healing fluid that you find in a blister) into itself.  Edema glues or cements the fibers together creating an adhesion.  The only way to be rid of an adhesion is through forcibly breaking it apart.

It is usually assumed that muscle problems will take care of themselves, but nothing could be further from the truth.

What we can all do about muscle constriction is to take a minimum of 10 minutes to cool down our horses by lunging or free-lunging at any easy trot, and then hand walk.  And finally, stretch your horse.

Stretching is the most important thing that you can do AFTER a working session.  This will help to return the muscles to their original lengths, and minimize microfiber spasms and adhesions.  Never stretch a cold muscle; you can actually cause microfibers to tear.

Sports Massage is the only therapy specifically oriented to prepare the muscles for exercise.  It produces a degree of freedom and ease of motion beyond that which the body can achieve for itself.  The most valuable asset that any moving body can have -- for both performance and protection -- is freedom of motion.