Does it work?
On April 7th, Kelly will be at Hearts and Horses presenting for their Veteran’s Social night!
She was honored to have been asked to give a short talk on the science behind equine massage and then a demonstration on some of those topics covered.
Before and After
Can you spot the changes before and after a bodywork session that includes sports massage, myofascial release, trigger point therapy, and TENS?
Making snow angles
Caper leaving horse versions of snow angles in the not so freshly fallen snow
Frosted tips!
Frozen fog, when not driving, is so cool! It coats everything, including the horses’ hair, giving everything an ice palace look!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Adding TikTok to our business social media plans as a way to make quick educational videos. For now, though, they are just fun videos.
Say No to No Stirrup November
Say No to No Stirrup November?!?
It's that time of year again, when the air is frosty and trainers pull stirrups from saddles and riders down bottles of pain killers and horses spontaneously develop back problems and the reluctance to go forward.
Before you ditch your stirrups, take a minute to think about the reason behind the season. We want to develop balance and strength right?
At the walk, riding with no stirrups lets gravity stretch your leg and soften your hips, which is especially great at the start and end of your ride.
At the trot and canter, though, taking your feet out can lead to pinching with your knees, gripping with your thighs, and balancing on the bit. Oh, and, sharp pain up your spine. All of this then leads to tightened hips and resentful horses- the opposite of the intention of no stirrup November.
While a couple of minutes here and there may not be a big deal, if you make your whole ride all month long, No Stirrup November, the season encourages your horse to spend a month hallowed out and working all the wrong muscles. All the sudden you went from a rider who knew how to support themselves using their whole leg and core to sitting heavy and randomly falling one side to another. When you bounce your back hurts, it also encourages your horse to drop their back to protect themselves. Balance and position changes that your horse has to brace for to compensate.
Its not all doom and gloom though! I love the idea of trying to strengthening your legs and improve your balance in the saddle as goals for November! But if there is a way to do so without sacrificing your horse’s back and downing a bottle of pain killers every week, wouldn’t that be better?
SEBB’s Facebook and instagram pages will have exercises to make you stronger this month. Fridays the exercise will be on horse and Mondays the exercise is off horse. Give them a try instead of bouncing around with no stirrups this month.
Facial nerve damage
This is what facial nerve damage looks like. Don’t worry, Macchi has since healed up. A few weeks ago, he surprised me with a deep laceration on his right cheek. The vet was concerned that there was damage to the facial nerve because his bottom lip was drooping. He said that the other thing they see with facial nerve damage is that the muscle gets pulled to the same side as the damage. The reason for that is the muscle is no longer getting signals to hold itself up.
New Farrier
We have been here almost a year. Last month our farrier group decided they were no longer servicing the area, that their farriers were too spread out and they had to cut back on travel to keep their services reasonably priced. Certainly no hard feelings there, but searching for a qualified farrier who does a good job and treats the horses with respect (and patience for my old guys…and Macchi) is always stressful.
Joe brought out a few cadaver hooves, while his focus was on the point of rotation in comparison to landmarks on the sole, it always amazes me how little holds the coffin bone in place and how thin the protection from the ground to the bone.
Our new farrier was found as a mention from some random person on some random northern Colorado horse Facebook page. Yes, dangerous sounding I know. But I was delighted to see on Joe’s website that his background is in mechanical engineering. Being from a science person myself I thought this might work. http://ironhorsehoofcare.com/
When I asked our vet if Joe was a farrier that they liked, they said they were happy with him. Dr. Leclair did go on to say that Joe goes into the math and science and a lot of people get turned off because of that but that I would like what he did. He was right.
Joe diagramed out center of balance, how changing it changes the stability of the hoof (simplified to a box) and the strain that gets translated to the tendons when the center of rotation is not balanced correctly. Summer and Sage both came over during the lecture to see what was going on- they approved.
While we made some bigger changes then I would like made at once, the horses are already walking better, showing that there was some strain on their legs due to hooves being a bit out of balance. Thank you Joe!
One Year Part 1
We have a few 1 year anniversary to celebrate coming up. Today was our 1 year anniversary of closing on the farm here in Colorado!
Our realtor, Andrea Chirich, dropped off some lovely gifts to help us celebrate!
Continuing Education!
The value of education can not be over stated. Even though she has her masters degree is space science, Kelly is continuing to take college corses to improve her knowledge and skills.
This is the first week of classes, both taking and teaching.
This semester is the second of two Anatomy and Physiology courses. She is also working her way through a textbook recommended by a UNC faculty member who has degrees in equine exercise physiology and is currently in a biomechanics department.
Educational Opportunity
This week Kelly was at Hobby Horse Farms to give a demonstration with Q&A. If you’re interested in having an event at your barn, email Kelly: SereneEquineBB@gmail.com
Before and after images help you note progress
When we see our horses day to day or a couple times during the week, it’s difficult to see changes in their muscles, weight, posture, etc. The best way to get a objective view of how these characteristics change (and for their humans) is to take pictures. Front, back, left, and right.
Now, not all our horses are corporative for standing still for pictures, and if you’re without help for taking pictures, you can set up your phone on video mode and walk your horse through the image, stand for a moment, and then go to the next position. Then, you can go back and take screen shots. That’s what I had to do for Caper and Jayden.
Now that the hay field has been cut, the horses can go back to work! They have mixed feelings about that. Caper is a great example of a horse who very quickly loses his strength when not working, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to practice what I teach- with taking before/after pictures and doing the ground work and homework exercise. Jayden will get this too, but she has stiffness issues rather than strength and pain issues.
Another view you might want to take images of is the rump area. Often, like here, horses are weak in the glutes (and asymmetrically weak). The other thing I did was take a “wither tracing” of Caper’s hindend to help note progress. The tracings are another way to objectively measure progress.
Here is an example of a screen shot taken from a video that is at its limit of zoomed in. While the video option isn’t always the clearest option, it is better than nothing when you are trying to note positive progress.
Thanks Macchi
While we waited to hear back from the vet, Macchi very sweetly (i.e. bribed with grain) allowed me to flush the wound, add some terramycin to the eye and the cut, and to put a bandage on the cut to keep it clean. Since I wanted tape that wouldn’t pull on the wound as he moved the muscles in has face (the skin around the wound was pulling it open with each eye blink and each grab of grain/hay), I used KT.
For my birthday, Macchi got me an appointment with the vet and some education on equine eye stitches over the eye area.
Macchi needed one stitch in the muscle layer and then a few stitches for the skin.
Summer fun
Have you see the summer educational series I’ve been running on Facebook and Instagram? Here is the post from early July. This week was triceps (though its was too hot to paint on the horses).
Lack motivation to ride in the heat? Not a problem!
Many of you who know me know that I struggle in the heat and humidity- that is one of the reasons we moved from 110% humidity Arkansas to Colorado. While summer hit a bit later and its not nearly as humid, summer weather is upon us! As the heat rises, my motivation to work the horses decreases. And you know what? Summer and Caper are not complaining! Its given me a chance to step back and assess their musculoskeletal health and just have some fun.
June's newsletter is out!
Better late then never, right?
June’s newsletter focused on human biomechanics. It started with asking readers if they knew what their instructors or trainers meant with certain common phrases. What they really meant. The technique of the month was how to find one of inner most core layer, one that protects your spine. Do you know the name of it (its the transverse abdomis)? What about other key hip and back muscles? There was a quiz and answer for those muscle actions. It ended with a short discussion on how a bit of off centered on the saddle yields a plethora of potential problems.
Newsletters go out around the 15th of even months. June’s newsletter was a bit late but still full of great information.
Painting Ponies!
For social media education posts, Kelly has started painting horse muscles. Its not as easy as people online make it seem…no surprise there. Horses have been patient so far (or maybe its due to the hay bribery).
Macchi isn’t so sure what to think about Flash’s new look.
Sage isn’t quite so sure about the new look either.
This is part of Kelly’s summer education series Facebook and Instagram. Early in the week is a post about a muscle, its job, where is it located, and some thoughts about it. Later in the week is a post about how you can test the muscle health or improve the health of the muscle. Follow Serene Equine: Bodywork and Biomechanics to be sure to too miss any information!