Satori Center

Resources

Tidbit

Farriery Faux Pas
I'm not so sure this plan was thought through so well

To get an idea of where I'm coming from, you can check out a different 'article:' 08/08/14 My Opinions on Farriery and Where They Came From

The Club Foot 

Here's the traditional approach:

I now think this is exactly the opposite thing to what needs to be done.

So the point of departure here is: Why would the horse's body create a tall heel?

The answer to this question is simple: The horse's heel doesn't reach the ground.  The hoof is growing because nothing is wearing it off, because it's not in contact with the ground to get worn off.

Next question: What is the reason for that?

Next answer: Something on the backside of the horse's leg is contracted, and pulling the heel up away from the ground.

Next question: Why does it NOT make sense to take off the heel and stretch things?

Next answer: Things that contracted don't stretch.  They get damaged when they are asked to stretch.  Tendons and ligaments do not stretch by design - so you don't want to be 'stretching' those.  So that leaves muscles that are contracted and not stretching.  Which - what happens when you try to stretch a spasming contracted muscle?  It gets damaged.  It tears and rips.  (because the fibers it needs to span the greater distance are used up in the contraction, meaning the ones that are left behind have to extend beyond what they were designed to do.)  OR - even worse, it pulls on the ligaments and tears and rips those, and those take even longer to heal.  So, stretching the muscles in this case is also something to be avoided.  

Eh... so then what?

In Ortho-bionomy, the idea is that a contracting muscle is only going to release when it's done contracting, so go ahead and help it finish that by talking with the nervous system.  You do not, and it's preferably to not, have to physically manipulate the muscle strands (as in Trigger point) or stretch the muscle or anything else. 

You want to set up the situation so that the body decides "I don't need to do this anymore."  

If you think of a knot in a rope, you don't pull on the ends of the rope to untie the knot.  You push on the ends of the rope into the knot.  And in Ortho-bionomy, that's what you do with contracted muscles.  The body is already trying to bring the ends of the muscles together, so you help it do that.

One of the ways you know you're bringing the ends of the muscle knot together is that it feels better.  (Why? because that's what the contraction is trying to accomplish.  you're simply assisting the body with what it's trying to do.)  When the contraction is done, it releases.  If you can find the contraction, it will release in about a minute.   

Sometimes the contractions are intricate and there's a pattern that is involved, and so you may have to attend to different portions of the pattern individually -- and there's a 'domino' type thing, too.   Like, there may be an order that the body requires for letting things go.  Each element of the pattern can take a minute or so - or maybe longer, but usually not.  If you have five or six elements, you're looking at at least five or six minutes.  

Since you can go back one more time, you might do that and it would double the time.

(Note and Disclaimer: Now, you also have to have the right amount of 'bringing the ends together.'  This usually is in the range of about how much pressure it takes to put a dent in mostly melted butter - the kind that will totally lose its shape if you touch it.  IE it's insanely small.  In fact, if you can mentally picture this well, you don't need to even touch anything, that's how insanely small the amount of 'bringing the ends together' needs to be.   If you get to a class, you'll get a lot of feedback about how to do this.)

So can a club foot go away in about a minute?

Well - probably not, but you can make things a lot better in a few minutes if you know what to do.  (see the note and disclaimer above!)  Here's some ideas on how.

Idea 1

Looking at the diagram of the club foot (ignoring the rest of the horse for the moment) you can sort of guess where the jammed places are:

This gives you an idea of which ends to bring together.   Since this is a diagram, this is for ideas only.  Also, you'll notice I haven't explained how to 'bring the ends together.'  That's because it requires precious little force and I'd rather you make it to a class than give you any ideas.  But for those of you who HAVE been to a class, here's some ideas.  The green arrows show which ways to move into the red area.  (not through it necessarily.  for the circles, think about there being a little black hole in the middle of the red circle and you're helping the rest of the foot get into that little black hole.  although sometimes the vector does seem to be going to some spot outside the horse, so that's a possibility.)

If all goes well, the deep flexor tendon will get a new message that it can release and the joints will also get messages that they can rotate back into proper alignment with each other.

This is may be eight to sixteen 'bringing the ends together.'  So you're maybe spending thirty to forty minutes allowing for finding the correct vectors and for the responses to travel through the system.

There are also check ligaments and several other mechanisms at work and all of those would benefit from attending to as well.   So add on another twenty minutes.  For folks who've been to the mini clinics, you may remember that the hoof can be tilted or twirled as well.  That would for sure help.  Add on some time for that.

Once the foot has been released, it would make sense to attend to the whole leg and how it's attaching itself to the horse's body.  From there, you might also consider an overall pattern.   (more on this elsewhere...)

Once the patterns creating the club foot have been addressed, *then* go ahead and trim up the foot.  Or let the horses natural movement take care of the excess heel that the horse can safely wear off.  

At this point, the bones are better aligned and the muscles are better released.   The coffin bone will be landing more properly because it doesn't have forces on it that prevent it from doing so, and the leg will most likely not need all of that tall heel.

Idea 2

Want to avoid all the thinking and theory?

Another way to do this is to put a wedge under the horse's heel.  This is a little more broad, a lot less precise, but it also addresses the leg and the whole horse without having to know exactly what created the problem and which ends need to be brought together to alleviate it.

This seems intuitively wrong, but have a look at this for a moment:

bearing in mind I'm messing with a photo editor - a small wedge (green here) accentuates all the places where we want 'the edges to come together.'   

The foot looks a lot worse for a few moments, because you just do this for a few moments and then assess the benefit, but the wedge and the weight of the horse is doing all the work.  Physically and mentally.

You can have the horse stand on a slanted board, for instance, for a few minutes and the weight of the horse coupled with the slant will begin to release the contractions.  You can then walk the horse a little bit (like a circle in the barn aisle kind of thing) to integrate the changes then do a few more minutes on the board.  Repeat the walk.  Assess what has been accomplished.  

At this time, the horse will most likely be landing more solidly on the heel.

You can do this a few more times.  Be judicious - don't overdo it.

This allows for the natural movement of the horse to begin wearing down the heel, or, if it makes sense to do it, now go ahead and take off some of the heel.  Nothing radical, though.

Bear in Mind 

This is one component of the big picture.  

The forces which created the club foot may still be at work and what was released through working with the foot may not have addressed those.  Or may not be able to mitigate those forces.  

For instance, an unbalanced rider, over time, can create an imbalance in the horse which results in the ribcage rotating, which results in the withers becoming high-low, which results in heels that look tall-short.   So you can end up with something that looks like a club foot that is being perpetuated by the way the horse is being ridden.  So a key element that needs to be addressed, then, is also the rider.

OR perhaps the horse has skewed its hips somehow and throws its weight heavy onto one of its shoulders.  Chances are that foot is flat and misshapen and the one it's not catching itself with is tall.   MAYBE that's the scneario.  The scenarios are very involved.  If it is, that pattern will only end when the hips are evened out. 

The point is, where the club foot came from needs to be investigated to make sure all factors contributing to it are addressed.

And then there's more!

There's more about the rest of the horse and there's more about what to do with all that extra hoof.  But not today.

Books: Amazon Assoc. / Old Favs

Links

  Books