Articles

The following articles may be of interest.

Equine Muscle Release Therapy

You can never rest out a spasm, nor can you walk out a spasm, it has to be addressed manually. Spasm requires a very high level of motion to activate the malfunctioning fibres, via the nervous system, as with the harmonic vibrational response of the EMRT moves.

You know when you are on a spasm, it hurts, there is no give, it feels rigid. The horse will let you know how deep the problem is by the amount of his reaction. It is very important to cool an animal down after strenuous exercise to prevent the build up of lactic acid, this spreads through intercellular fluids and produces fatigue in the spasm it can be the cause or a reaction to a deeper cause.

When direct pressure is applied to an area, that pressure provides hyperemia, that is, excess blood to an area, this pressure also allows enzymes to be released which help retain the increased blood supply for many hours. Spastic fibres are being held “glued” together , in an EMRT move when you cross the fibres it can signal the spasm to release. EMRT moves are nearly always applied directly across the muscle fibres inward towards the bonebody. Spasm is not only a bunch of contracted muscle fibres but it is also glued together, if this happens they can never reach their full stretch.

All movement is achieved by contractions, that is, shortening of the muscles, as it shortens it pulls against the bone, ( this explains why sublaxations of the spine occur). If the shortened muscle does not relax, it pulls on the bone eventually pulling it out of alignment.

I feel honored to be given the opportunity to be helping the horse, my mirror and teacher, mother nature in its finest form. Many apparent anomalies of anatomy can be explained if we remember that the horse has evolved from a small animal, living in water, not needing a complex structure to survive, into a creature that we know today .

The horses main means of protection is to run away from danger, the limbs have been highly modified, using only one digit on each limb, but elongating this to the extreme to give maximum leverage and increase its speed. Horses being prey animals,( humans are predators) must be more perceptive and have a faster reaction time than predators or they don`t survive. The horses nervous system, its cardiovascular system, its skeleton and its muscles are all designed to survive by running away from danger.

The horses sense of smell and its hearing are similar to our own, except that they are far more acute. Imagine being able to smell the ground and identify who has recently passed that way. Horses can smell fear or anger in a human, we emit chemicals called pheromones in response to our emotional state.

A horse in his so called right brain is not thinking. He is reacting purely out of instinct because in the wild, if a predator is trying to get him, its his instinctive reaction that will save his life. He doesn`t have time to think. A horse in his left brain is thinking. He is confident, unafraid and deliberately does what he does, positive or negative.

If a horse is starry eyed, head high, with nostrils dilated, has a tense jaw, a tense wind pipe, or tight flanks, a tight and arched back, a tight tail, then he is scared and defensive. He`s got all his self preservation reflexes strung tight. A scared horse will not look at you with two eyes, he`ll even look away as you approach to put himself in position to get out of there.

A horse that makes the transition from right brain to left brain mode will blink his eyes, wiggle his ears, lower his head and lick his lips. Don`t blame a scared horse from acting like a prey animal, learn to identify it so you can do something before it causes trouble.