Body Conditioning for the Horse and Rider

By Heather Wallace, Dr. Madelyn Rauch and Dr. Danielle Shugard

Build the best foundation for long-term success with your horse with the help of and Heather Wallace, an Equine Sports Massage Therapist and Equine Ergonomist, Dr. Madi Rauch, a Human and Equine Chiropractor, and Dr. Danielle Shugard, a Human Physical Therapist focusing on equestrians. They bring together their specialties for horse and rider bo

• Language: English
• Publisher: Water Horse Press LLC
• Release date: Mar 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781087949192

Heather Wallace

Heather Wallace writes about confidence, overcoming self-doubt and following her passion. She is the award-winning author of non-fiction titles Confessions of a Timid Rider, which details her insights about being an anxiety-ridden but passionate horse lover and Girl Forward: A Tale of One Woman's Unlikely Adventure in Mongolia. Heather is also well known for her blog, The Timid Rider, chronicling her journey as a returning adult equestrian with a lot more curves and a lot more determination.By day, Heather is a Certified Equine and Canine Sports Massage Therapist dedicated to helping animals holistically. In her spare time, of which she has little, she spends her time with her husband, three children, two dogs, and pony in the wilds of New Jersey. You can follow her on social media @timidrider or at timidrider.com.

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Introduction

With time off, many horses have corresponding muscle loss. Muscle loss is only the most visible of side effects. Depending on the timeframe, there may also be compromised bone structure, misalignment, or pull on the ligaments and weakened tendons.

Most horse owners want to get back into work correctly and with proper foundation for both horse and rider. There are many reasons you and your horse may need to start a conditioning program: recovery from injury, busy work lives and no time to ride, starting a young horse, or preparing for show season after a long winter off.

Whatever your reason, we want to help you build the best foundation for long-term success together. That’s why our team consisting of a Human and Equine Chiropractor, a Human Physical Therapist focusing on equestrians, and an Equine Sports Massage Therapist and Equine Ergonomist have collaborated on this book, bringing together our specialties for horse and rider.

Each of us have been actively working for years through education and hands-on experience to improve the lives of animals and equestrians alike through our services. Each day we work with horses to help prevent injury through building a proper foundation, as we outline in this book, or to help animals recover from time off or injury. However, horses are only half of the formula as riders have a huge impact on the ground and in the saddle.

In This Book You Will Learn:

About the types of muscle, how they work, and why they are important

How to stretch your horse without harm to improve mobility

Exercises and a timeline to build a solid foundation for your horse

How the skeletal system of the horse affects biomechanics of movement

How the rider’s imbalance can create mirroring in the horse

Exercises for the rider to maintain strength and balance

A diary to track goals for both horse and rider

Suggested timeline and exercises

About Us

Heather Wallace is a Certified Equine Sports Massage Therapist (ESMT), Certified Canine Sports Massage Therapist (CCMT), Certified Equine Ergonomist, and Aromatherapist in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Providing exceptional quality and specializing in sensitive animals, Heather uses therapeutic sports massage techniques, trigger point therapy, and acupressure and stretching to non-invasively relieve inflammation, pain, and anxiety, and to increase flexibility, mobility, and speed healing for animals. She also provides horse and rider static and dynamic saddle fitting evaluations to assure best fit and long-term health for human and animal alike.

She has written on natural health and wellness for horses and dogs for a variety of publications including Horse Illustrated, Chrome Magazine, Holistic Horse Magazine, and Equine Info Exchange, and is the bestselling author of Confessions of a Timid Rider and Girl Forward.

Dr. Madelyn Rauch is a chiropractor who graduated from Life University, and is certified by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association (AVCA). She provides gentle, neurologically-based chiropractic care to all animals large and small! Dr. Madi is passionate about helping you and your animal live life to your greatest potential, may it be an equine athlete looking to move up in their career or your senior dog trying to maintain a pain-free life to continue going on walks.

Dr. Danielle Shugard went to Northeastern University and graduated in 2011 with her Doctorate of Physical Therapy, a BS in Rehab Science, and a Minor in Psychology. Since then, she has been practicing in New Jersey, in a variety of settings. However, she now owns her own mobile Physical Therapy practice. 

Danielle offers in-the-saddle assessments for riders. She has been riding horses for more than twenty years, and while most of her riding experience has been in the hunter/jumper world, she feels that many of the essential ways the human body moves while on horseback are similar across all disciplines. Combining her years as an equestrian with her years of practicing as a physical therapist gives her a unique skill set to help equestrians’ bodies move comfortably. 

Tara Moore is a lifelong equestrian with a creative edge. After graduating from the Leon Hess Business School at Monmouth University with degrees in marketing and management, she found herself uninspired by the corporate world. In 2017, she took a leap of faith, leaving her corporate PR job in New York City to follow her passion of working with horses. She became the Barn Manager of a 45-acre equestrian estate and the Program Director of a therapeutic riding program for students with disabilities as a PATH Intl. Certified Therapeutic Riding Instructor. This lifestyle change fueled her passion for using her business skills and experience to help local nonprofits and equestrian-based businesses. In early 2020, she started Farm & Fir Co. in a passion-driven effort to keep the equestrian and farming industries thriving. Offering photography, branding, website design, content creation, and creative consulting, Farm & Fir Co. takes the reins in helping business owners build their brand and market their business. 

Disclaimer

Massage, physical therapy, and chiropractic work are not substitutes for medical treatment or medications. It is recommended that you work with your veterinarian for any medical conditions that your animal may have or when beginning a new exercise program. Dr. Danielle Shugard, Heather Wallace, Dr. Madi Rauch, and Tara Moore cannot diagnose illness, treat injuries, or prescribe medications. Any information provided in this book is for educational purposes only and is not diagnostically prescriptive in nature. Contact your veterinarian before starting any conditioning program.

Part One: The Horse

Section One: Bodywork and The Horse

by Heather Wallace

Chapter One: The Muscles

There are a lot of reasons you may be getting yourself and your horse back into regular work after a significant time off. Even as little as three weeks can mean a loss of strength, not to mention a reduction in aerobic fitness. Several months off due to cold, harsh winters, or alternately piping hot summers or worse, post-injury, can result in an incredible loss of muscle.

Muscle Fiber Types

There are many differences in the muscle: superficial and deep or smooth, cardiac, or skeletal muscle. I am not a veterinarian, and for our purposes, I will briefly touch on the differences between types of muscle fiber as they will relate to conditioning and exercise plans.

Every horse has two types of muscle fibers, Type I and Type II, but the proportions are different based on the breed. In humans, long distance runners typically have more slow twitch muscles (Type I) like an endurance horse. On the other hand, sprinters have more fast-twitch Type II fibers for bursts of speed, like Quarter Horses, (and have similar makeups, all the power is in the butt)!

Type I Fibers

Type I muscle fibers are always known as slow twitch and use aerobic metabolism, which is the way your body creates energy through the combustion of carbohydrates, amino acids, and fats in the presence of oxygen to break down fuel stores in the animal. These fibers are often found in Draft