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Standing on Foam
how does that work?

If you've had an Equine Positional Release appointment with me, or come to a workshop, you've heard me say that it's all about teaching you techniques that you can use at home when I'm not there.

Having your hose 'stand on foam' makes it super easy to get the benefit of Equine Positional Release.

Here's why ~

Theory of Equine Positional Release and Ortho-bionomy 

Equine Positional Release is based on the premise that if a muscle is tight, it will release when it gets the neurological. proprioceptive message that it no longer needs to be tight.

The easiest way to send this message is to turn off any messages that the muscle needs to be tight.

The easiest way to do that is to quit doing things that make the muscle tight(er.)  The easiest way to accomplish this is to move the ends of the muscle towards the tight spot.

Coincidentally, this also feels really good!   Why?  Because the tight muscle is no longer being stretched beyond what it can do and so it quits feeling bad.  This also turns off the 'alarm' in the system that something is wrong.  When the 'alarm' is sounded - by stretching a tight place, it responds by doing what it knows to do to protect the system.  It tightens even more.  This is why stretching a muscle with a muscle knot in it is counter productive at best and possibly damaging. 

What's going on with the Foam under the Foot

In an ideal world, where the horse has an ideal body, it doesn't have overstressed, over tightened, knotted up muscles and we also have an excellent farrier so the horse's feet are ideally connecting with the ground.

When this is the case, the column of the leg is positioned correctly under the horse and supports the horse equally around the full 360 degrees of the column.  None of the muscle have to remain unduly contracted just to keep the horse upright and functioning.  They can activate and release completely.   

When there is a problem (and when isn't there?!) with a habitually tight muscle or a foot that has been inadvertently incorrectly trimmed or shod, the result is a misalignment in the column.  The foot no longer lands flat on the ground.  It's dangling in midair and the foot is unevenly supporting the horse.  Or, the horse is unevenly supported.  If you could measure the weight in the hoof wall, you would find that certain areas of the hoof wall are 'heavier' and pressing into the ground more than others.  Some may not even be making contact with the ground.  This means the muscles now have to compensate and work to support the horse -- the structural integrity is not there to hold the horse up, and so the muscles will do whatever they can to get the column of the leg back under the horse.   Because they are busy doing that, they cannot fully release.  They also cannot properly contract.  If not remedied, there will be gait problems and pain problems and maybe behavioral problems. 

Nature will correct this by filling in the space with hoof.  (This is because there's nothing opposing the hoof and it will not wear off until it makes contact with the ground -- which is actually where it needs to get to in order for the leg to return to normal!)  

With the foam, the same principles are at work and, better yet, it's quicker than waiting for the hoof to grown and for us people, it takes the guess work out of what to do.  We don't have to worry about doing the wrong thing.

Filling in the empty space takes the stress off the stressed muscle, allowing it to release.  When the muscle is not supported, it is being stretched beyond its ability.  This creates an alarm and the muscle contracts more to protect itself, contributing to more misalignment.  (ACK!)  When the hoof fills in or the foam pad is placed under the foot, the column is supported once again.  The message the muscle gets is that it is supported and can quit protecting via tightening.  This allows the leg to return to its correct position.  

Without support, the muscle is stretched beyond what it can do and responds by guarding and tightening.   With support, the muscle doesn't have to guard and can let go, with the result that the leg returns to its correct position.  This starts a chain reaction of returning to normalcy.

As an Example

Let's say the horse is tight on the inside of it's left foreleg.  There's been a misstep of some kind.  This pulls the leg to the medial line, puts weight on the lateral edges of the hoof and the whole support column, and leaves the inside of the hoof hanging in midair.

In the illustration, there's a bubble near the original pulled muscle; the yellow under the hoof indicates the unsupported foot; the red dots show where the joints get crunched as a result.  (provided there wasn't another problem in there beforehand as well...)

If this is not attended to, the bones in column will shift -- because the foot has to find the ground somehow and until the hoof grows in, the only way for that to happen is for the bones in the leg to readjust. They will do their best to 'split the difference.'  What has been pulled to the inside and can't return to the outside will stay to the inside, but everything else that can move back to the outside will do its best to do that and get back underneath where it belongs.

If this persists due to (obviously unintentional but nevertheless) consistent re-injury and/or misguided farriery interventions, you will end up with a horse with crooked legs and oddly shaped feet.  

If you're in this boat, cut yourself a lot of slack!  This wasn't where you were planning to be and these types of things are usually very subtle when they start out.  There aren't big red flags.  Horses will hide problems as long as they can -- they don't want to get eaten, so their job is to appear perfectly healthy and fine.  By the time they have to 'fess up, it may be a bit over the top.  AND - 

There's a way out of this!

(note: yes, these are totally doctored images that I'm using!  And also yes, if this is going on, you will have many other things going on as well.  This can turn into a chicken-and-egg thing.  But there's a way out of it.)

Ideal	Oops! Pulled muscle on inside	Hoof is left hanging in the air! Injured muscle is unsupported and guards by tightening, pulling leg even more to the inside.  Stress develops in the column.	Misalignment over time if there is unintentional but consistent re-injury and/or misguided farriery.

If you have a horse at the 'oops!' stage or at the 'results' stage, the answer is the same - put something under the medial side of the foot -- that space area I've filled in with red, and make it just a smidge higher.  

A smidge higher is maybe .25cm.  1/8."  1/16."  It's a smidge.  Not sure how much of a smidge to use?  Foam pads to the rescue!

The added benefit is that it will release one thing and then the next thing and then the next thing, and so on, and you don't have to move the foam pad or worry about the height of anything.

Why does this work?  The compression travels up the leg into the area that was tight and releases it and all the other tight places.

If you catch this right when it happens, the column is still relatively straight and the leg simply swings back out underneath the horse where it belongs. 

If there's a long standing problem, there are several areas of compensation that will need to be released.  The foam pad adjusts in height, supporting the full column automatically as releases occur.  How cool is that?  In my illustration, I've shown the releases from the top down, but this isn't necessarily how something like this would occur in real life.  The yellow areas show where the lift is targeting the release.  (And, yes, I made a pretty picture at the end...)

How to do this

There are some kitchen floor mats available (like the one pictured here) that are made of a high density foam that gives just a little bit but also fills in the areas where it's not getting squished.  I've also recently seen play mats for toddlers that would work.  They used to have larger ones with designs on them.  I'm guessing an old set of crocs you could cut up might work, too.

Double up the kitchen mat so it's maybe an inch thick.  Pick up one of the horse's feet and place the mat on the ground.  Get the horse to put its foot on the foam.  Encourage the horse to shift it's weight onto that foot.  If the horse is adamant about not putting weight on a foot, respect that!  (Also note: if you can't get a foot off the ground, it's because it's the good foot and taking it off the ground means the horses is in fear of falling over.)

Releases that can occur will occur in less than a minute.  If you figure there are seven joints in a leg, you might give it ten minutes per leg.

A long standing pattern will take more than one session!  Every day might be too much, though.  Figure a couple times/week is good.  This way the rest of the horse can adjust.

Generally, you will see greater and greater levels of comfort and performance and better attitude over time.

When you get a knack for this, you can assist releases in the neck and back as well.

It is seriously cool stuff!

So if you're not able to set up an Equine Positional Release session, give the foam pads a shot.  

If you try it, let me know how it goes!  And if you'd like some hands on, call me up for a session.  Part of every Equine Positional Release session involves how to continue on with 'self-care' when I'm not around.

Cheers!

L

Books: Amazon Assoc. / Old Favs

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"The greatest achievement was at first and for a time a dream. The oak sleeps in the acorn, the bird waits in the egg, and in the highest vision of the soul a waking angel stirs. Dreams are the seedlings of realities." 

~ James Allen