Balanced Stride

It has been my observation over the years that back problems have been a major concern of the horse owning public and it has gotten worse and worse over the last eight to ten years. Prior to that time there were very few problems with sore backs. I do believe it is due to two main topics and the greater being the lack of understanding of "balanced horseshoeing", with the second and lesser topic being the proper understanding of "proper saddle fitting" (be it either western or English type).

I like to relate to people through topics and means that they can easily understand and in the area of back pain I prefer to have people relate to their own experiences. I have been told that only twenty percent of the American public has the benefit of a good back, so that means that eighty percent of the same group have bad backs of one kind or another. So relating the pain that the horse goes through to the pain that the person has either gone through or is presently experiencing is somewhat easy to accomplish.

First and foremost, bone is bone, soft tissue is soft tissue and pain is pain. It does not matter if you are a person, a horse, a dog or a cat it is all the same. Even the amount of pain is generated is relative to the size of the bone and the principle will always be the same. But, before we do get started, I need to explain that certain areas of the horse's body is affected in the same way that the human body is. Just as we have a ankle, they have a similar structure; as we have a lower back (referred to as the lumbar area) so does the horse and just as through the understanding of "biomechanics" (the study of motion) we have knowledge that misalignment of the lower back area will affect the ability of the neck to accomplish what it needs to do. One of my most used examples to show what is meant here is; when you are body sore from a cold or the flu and it settles in the area of your lower back it affects the use of your neck. You are usually able to turn your head quite normal one way (either to the right or the left), but when you attempt to turn your head in the opposite direction there is not only restriction but pain as well. This comes from the lumbar area of your back being tight and unable to properly operate. There is restriction in your body to move so therefore the "biomechanics" of your body is restricted and your body is unable to properly and completely do the job that it is normally able to do.

The same can happen to the body of the horse and the results will be the same. The same tightness occurs in the lumbar area of the horse's back; causing soft tissues to tighten and restrict the movement of the bones themselves. Just as in the human body when the tightening and restriction occurs in the lumbar area the neck and the axis are affected. Basically it means that the horse is unable to turn its neck fully and correctly in both directions equally. It also will be able to turn it head and neck normally to one side but will be affected by lack of mobility or loss of motion to the other side. This can be of major consequence to the turning ability of the horse. Stop to realize that the horse starts all of its turns with the part of their upper body called the poll.

The flexing of the horse starts at this point and follows through in a fluid and supple motion to allow for tight and comfortable turns. If there is even a slight amount of restriction in the completion of the turn once that it is started the horse will stop the flowing motion of the turn and appear to walk through the bit. This is when some people say that a horse is either left or right handed. Nothing could be further from the truth, the horse is sore either on the left or the right and it hurts to turn in the direction of the pain. Eliminate the pain and you eliminate the reluctance to turn in either direction. This to me is a side effect or a symptom and is not the true cause of the problem, locate the true problem and make it go away and all of the side effects or symptoms will also disappear. The side effects or symptoms are warning signs for you to take notice and look for what is causing the real problem.

The inability of the poll to operate correctly is only one of the side effects that tell you about back pain in horses. The second area that I look to is the feet of the horse itself. I talk about the feet because it has been proven in people that lower back pain and neck pain usually starts in the area of the feet and going back to "biomechanics" is "biomechanics" will show that works in one species will work in other species. If a person is having arch support problems they are given an arch support to correct the problem, if another person has a tendency to wear their shoes to the outside they are given a lift to insert in their shoes that will realign the ankle to be in balance with their leg bones and properly support their weight making them walk more correct, more comfortably and to be less tired in the process. Well if it works for people why wouldn't work on horses? Simple, it does. To properly understand how the bones within the body of the horse need to be properly aligned and allow for the most comfort, the best operation and the least amount of effort requires a slight understanding of the basics of "horse conformation". It is "horse conformation" that tells you what is a perfect horse and how it is expected to operate. The first point about understanding horse conformation is knowing that there is no such thing as a perfect horse. So it is our job to know what is perfect and to what degree any particular horse comes close to meeting that perfect score. Understanding a horse's weak points allows us to enhance the strong points of the same horse to make the horse perform as a close to perfect as possible.

So just as back and neck problem originate at the ground level so do the horse's back and neck problems originate there. Here comes some of the confusion that may present with some people, I start to evaluate the condition and look for side effect at the rear feet. I start here since this is the support  section that is closest to and directly affects to lumbar section of the horse.

When I look at the look at the rear feet I look for one of the major causes of back problems which is the total misunderstanding of a balanced horseshoeing job. There are many indicators in this photograph that will show you what to look for to help eliminate sore backs in horses you might know. The angle that is labeled "A" shows the true angle that should be present when the foot is supported correctly and what is evident there is that there is excessive wall width at the toe that appears as a slight bulge from about half way down from the hairline of the foot. The excess needs to be rasped off and make the outside of the foot parallel with the line of angle "A". The second angle line labeled "B" shows that the angle of the heel is not equal or parallel to the angle "A". These also need to be parallel with each other to properly and correctly support the foot to allow for maximum support throughout this entire limb. With the angle of the heel being more forward it also proves that the heel area of the foot is suffering from a lack of proper circulation and a lack of circulation will aid in the condition of thin walled horses, in this case the hoof wall will be too think at the front and too thin at the area of the heels. This type of shoeing will produce another side effect within the foot and that is the wall in the area of the "quarters" (the side of the foot in front of the heel and behind the toe) to be crumbling, falling apart and unable to properly hold nails. Quite often this horse will lose shoes constantly, by the way it can happen on front feet as well. The third angle reference line labeled "C" shows that the foot is most likely in too small of a shoe and it is affecting the entire foot as well. This particular reference line starts at the hairline and continues in a straight line to the bottom of the foot, but in this case it shows that the foot goes inward or makes itself smaller just below the hairline and does not give enough total area of support for the limb to be supported correctly. This needs to be corrected and a larger shoe needs to be used as soon as it is possible. The white line that is used is just a reference line to show the parallel line to the ground.

This is my evaluation of each and every horse that I approach and I have learned to look at each and every foot in this manner. I have perfected the ability to add the reference lines in my head and make the proper mental notes and changes necessary before I proceed to the next stage of my evaluation.

Once that I have properly evaluated the hind feet I move into position at the rear of the horse and evaluate the conformation of the hind legs and how they come out of the body and are presently supporting the hind quarters. It is also at this time it allows me to see certain muscle groups and if they are being used properly and allows me to make mental notes as to what needs to be accomplished so that these particular muscle groups can be used to their greatest benefit to the horse. Once that I have evaluated the hind legs I move into position that will allow me to see the entire side view of the horse and I then evaluate it as any conformation judge would do so. I start by dividing the horse mentally into three parts and these are shown in the photo to the left. The first section shows the head and neck, the send shows the main body of the horse and the third section shows the hind quarter of the horse. Ideally, all three sections need to be equal to be properly and perfectly balanced, but remember there is no such animal out in the real world so look to as close to perfect as you can get. What I find on a very regular basis is that the third or final section is shorter in comparison to the other two. This gives me two additional pieces of information as to skeletal alignment that allow me to make the proper adjustment for the particular horse that I am looking at.

The first new piece of information gives me the angle of the front foot and where it needs to be to be correct for the horse that I am working on. It comes from the area that is at the end of the first section and the start of the second section and it is called the "slope of the shoulder". The slope of the shoulder needs to be at a parallel angle with the foot (referred to as the angle of the pastern) once that it is trimmed. In many cases it takes three or more shoeing to get the angle of the pastern to match and be parallel with the angle or slope of the shoulder.

The second piece of information that I have received was the length of the area of the hind quarters. As I mentioned before, most of the time I am seeing horses that have a shorter distance in section three and the areas of either one or two. This tells me that when this length is shorter the rear feet need to be more upright (on the toe more) this will allow the leg to come into a more natural position to be correct and allow the conformation of the horse to work correctly, be more comfortable and take less effort to accomplish any task that is asked of the horse.

When the rear feet are positioned correctly under the hind quarters you should be able to drop a "plumb bob" from the further rear point of the hind quarter and have it go straight down touch the hock and follow the back of the tendon, then touch the ground in one straight line perpendicular to the ground.

This will start to relieve the stress that is being felt through the back since it allows the skeletal structure to start to reposition itself into its correct position.

I may sound that I am jumping around the horse but what I am trying to accomplish is to show my method of evaluation of a horse to determine the cause of the sore back, I have mentioned many side effects and I do so to bring them to your attention since people will tell you that this is the one and only reason that you horse has a sore back, but treating one will leave you with a horse with a sore back. In just about all horses that I have worked on with back problem that have had all or most of these symptoms and all that they had disappeared when the true cause of the pain was eliminated.

In the previous section I explained about the two new pieces of information that I did receive, but in that actual evaluation process I am still at the side of the horse and seeing them as a conformational judge, so that is where I will continue from.

Once that I have mentally divided the horse into three sections and receive the information that I am looking for I step closer to the horse and start a much closer evaluation of the horse's back.

The point that I start at is the highest point of the withers and place sufficient pressure along the center of the back to see any tenderness. Also in the photo you can see the distance that I cover with this process and end at the area of the croup. In many cases I find tenderness in the lumbar area (just in front of the peak of the croup) and in most cases find three to five specific areas of tenderness and sore to pressure. This is also indicated by the swelling that appears in the area of the upper flank in the size and shape of a football. This swelling is slight in nature and happens when the soft tissues that are attached to the various point of the spine are trying to pull and realign the parts that are out of alignment, since the entire rear of the horse is out of alignment it is a futile attempt for nature to correct itself. The problems was not caused by nature ~ therefore nature cannot correct it. It was man made and man must fix it. This is also why when your horse has a sore back and you might have called the equine chiropractor, had them do an adjustment on your horse and within two or three days your horse had a sore back again. What was treated was a symptom, not the cause.

Once that the back has been examined more closely I turn my attention back to the hind quarters and I want to see if they are balanced and equal.

Once again I find that in most cases of horses with sore backs the top line of the hips is never balanced and level. In this picture you will be able to see what I am talking about. Just as when a human being's hips are out of proper alignment a horse's hips cannot work correctly or support the weight that is necessary. This lead to the horse working off of their front end and pulling their entire body weight through the gaits as they perform them. This situation will not allow the horse to properly use their hind quarters so that they would be able to properly push themselves forward, be balanced and be able to start to collect to be able to create a more fluid motion and give comfort to both rider and the horse.

The last area that I check is the ability of the horse to flex its head; first to one side and then to the other. Doing this will allow me to determine if the horse is more restricted in its movement one way or the other, also this will inform me as to the extent of the skeletal misalignment that this horse is suffering from.

What I look for in this situation is indicators of pain and the degree that the horse may be going though at that particular time of evaluation. The first indicator that I look for is the height that the horse is carrying their head at. The higher the head is the more pain that is involved. Also in this picture you are able to see a fair amount of white around the eye, this will either show fear or denote pain. In this case it is pain since the horse is quite relaxed and calm.

When the back feet are trimmed correctly there are major changes that are seen within minutes of the completion of the balanced shoeing techniques and we will start to show the level of the hip. Now the changes do not stop there the back has a major improvement, again within minutes of the balanced farrier techniques are preformed. The first picture will show the back before any trimming was accomplished and it appears as most horses backs are today.

The next photo shows the same back, the same horse when proper balanced farrier techniques are preformed and the results that are achieved.

In this picture you can see that the back is much smoother and will fit a saddle much more comfortably, there is much less dip and this change will allow the parts of the skeletal structure that were misaligned to start to find there way back home.

In the area of the neck flexing there is also major changes. It become supple and the ability to flex equally in both ways becomes quite evident as in the next photo.

Notice that the head is much lower than before, there is greater amount of elasticity within the neck itself, the eye is very soft (relaxed) and in general terms the horse is much more relaxed. In addition there is a greater amount of flex that is being shown than before.

The front feet need to be evaluated much in the same way, although they as less apt to put the back out of place you can almost guarantee if the rear feet are that much out of balance then the front ones will be as well. What an unbalanced front end will do is aid in the misalignment of the neck and help to keep it out of alignment until it is trimmed and shod correctly. 

This is what I, veterinarians and other quality farriers see on a very regular basis. We are always asked to see what we can do for sore backed horses, horses that have gait problems and other situations that arise from imbalance. Watch your horse move, watch other horse move learn what is natural and what is right, learn gaits, movement and be able to spot what is not right. That is most likely the best information that I can give any horse owner, veterinarian, farrier or other horse professional.

Remember, we have made the horse dependent upon us and that has made the responsibility ours.

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