From: Jenner
As everyone else always says....Your advice is invaluable, I have truly grown to depend on you!
I have a quick question about horses and their movement. I just bought a darling five year old TB and he is not considered to be a "good mover". He has far too much knee and hock action for the hunter ring which is fine with me because I don't want to ride hunters anymore. Even so, I would like to see him move more from his shoulder rather than knee. Is there something I can do to free his shoulder and allow for more fluid movement?
Thanks so much,
Jenner
This is a short question, but not a simple one. Much depends on your horse's conformation and his natural angles (shoulder, hip, and pastern). Take some photos of the horse at rest, and study the photos to get a good idea of the angles and relative length of his shoulders, hips, and pasterns. It's also possible that a short-strided horse may be "using itself" as well as nature allows - horses with short, straight shoulders, hips, and pasterns will never be big movers with long strides.
Soundness and unsoundness are nice, clear, understandable concepts - a horse moves evenly and comfortably or it does not. "Good movement", on the other hand, is relative. When you say that a horse has "good movement", it means that you've already established the all-important baseline of soundness, evenness, and comfort, and that in addition to those qualities, the horse moves in a way that is considered highly desirable FOR A SPECIFIC PURPOSE.
A show hunter with good movement is a horse that moves with long, sweeping, "daisy-cutting" strides, and does not have high or extravagant knee or hock action. But that kind of movement would not be considered "good" by someone looking for an eventer or a field hunter - for those disciplines, a "good mover" would be free in the hips and shoulders, but would also demonstrate some knee and hock action. Someone looking for a jumper prospect might want to see even more knee action. So for your purposes, which are NOT those of the hunter ring, your horse may actually BE a good mover.
The question of restricted shoulder movement is a tricky one. You need to look closely at your horse - or, better yet, at a videotape of your horse - and determine whether he is actually restricted in his shoulders. Knee action can be deceptive - if you're accustomed to looking at daisy-cutters, it's sometimes difficult to see clearly when you're watching a horse with higher knee and hock action. Eventers and dressage horses tend to show more knee and hock action than do show hunters, but they are not restricted in the shoulders. If you watch them move (again, videotape is very useful), you can see that they have quite a lot of shoulder action. Many horses that wouldn't be suitable as show hunters because of their "excessive" knee and hock action are actually quite loose and flexible in the shoulders and hips - but it's easy to get caught up watching the knees, and make wrong assumptions about the tightness of the shoulders.
Without seeing your horse, it's difficult to say whether his shoulder movement is actually restricted, but I rather think it ISN'T, just based on what you HAVEN'T said. I'm assuming that you would have mentioned it if your new horse had a tendency to forge, whether he was pulling off his front shoes or kicking his front legs with his hind feet. Those can be signs of tightness and restricted movement in the shoulder... but they can also be signs of a great many other problems, including pilot error and an ill-fitting or badly-positioned saddle! The point, though, is that if a horse's hind legs are working normally, but his shoulders are tight, he will very likely step on the backs of his front feet with his hind feet, and not just once or twice, but frequently. The swing, angle, and reach of his front and hind legs will not correspond - there will be much more reach with the hind legs and much more up-and-down movement with the forelegs. This is something else you haven't mentioned - the regularity of your horse's gaits. When a horse's shoulders are restricted due to injury (or to the effects of long-term restricted movement), there will be a tendency for the hind feet to trip on the front feet, because the rhythm of the horse's gaits won't be pure - the front feet will take shorter, smaller steps and be snatched up quickly to get them out of the way of the oncoming hind feet.
Of course, it's possible for a horse to be restricted in both the shoulders and the hips, and so be "level" and even and rhythmic at all three gaits, but such a horse won't look comfortable and also won't feel comfortable to ride.
Many horses do lose their range of motion over time, especially if their turnout time is limited and their under-saddle time involves carrying novice or nervous riders. Such horses can often be put right with the help of various therapeutic modalities, but since your new horse is only five, it seems unlikely that he has been restricted in his action for so long that he's already lost the range of motion in his shoulders.
If you can persuade someone to videotape your horse at liberty and under saddle, you can quickly determine the quality of your horse's movement. You'll also be able to determine his normal stride length, and how easily (or not) he can shorten and lengthen his stride at walk, trot, and canter. You'll be able to make a more educated judgement as to whether your horse's stride is shorter than it should be, based on his conformation, conditioning, and training.
If you then determine that your horse is, in fact, suffering from some restriction of the shoulders that isn't explained by conformation alone, then your next step should probably be to discuss the matter with your veterinarian and ask him to recommend a massage therapist. There are various ways to help a horse recover its range of motion through massage, passive stretching, and even chiropractic - but it's going to be important for you to know that your horse's natural range of motion IS restricted. If it isn't, massage won't help and stretching could do more harm than good. These treatments can work wonders to restore a horse's range of motion, but they can't give a horse a greater range of motion than nature gave it originally.
Get advice from your vet first, and then from a good massage therapist, and then see how your horse responds to the treatments. You can learn to do some basic massage and passive stretching yourself - just be sure to learn how to do it safely, and don't try to do too much too quickly. You'll find some information in the HORSE-SENSE archives about passive stretching. Oh, and one more thing: Don't be fooled by advertisements for special equipment and "treatments" that promise to change a horse's natural conformation and way of going. There are artificial ways of modifying equine gaits, but those are bad for the horse, completely unacceptable, and no horseman would use or recommend them. Keep your horse comfortable and balanced. Have his hooves trimmed so that they are balanced and even, and so that the angles are correct for his conformation - and do NOT let anyone persuade you that a long toe and low heel will increase your horse's stride length. It won't have that effect, but it will eventually make him lame. Instead, focus on developing your horse so that he becomes as strong and supple as possible, and always take care to warm him up thoroughly before he works (and before you stretch him!).
Take care of your young Thoroughbred, and you should be able to enjoy him for many years.
Jessica
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