Why is a horse's sore back so complicated? | Equi-Tape®

The horse's back is like a suspended bridge. Have you ever tried to plank for more than a minute? How hard is it for you to hold that "right" posture before your core and back start to shake?

Horses did not evolve to have a rider as much as we would like to think they did. Simply walking around through life for a horse requires immense core strength. The horse's back can become sore for many different reasons, let's take a look at just a few:

1. Poor conditioning is probably the number one reason for back soreness. Unfortunately, proper conditioning is time consuming and lets be honest, not many people and less trainers than you would think actually know how to properly condition a horse to be ridden.

2. Back injuries, these can happen for many reasons; roll backs, sliding stops, jumping, turning a barrel or catching a calf are just a few physical movements that can cause injury.

3. A horse can show soreness in the back when they have hock issues or stifle issues. This is called referred pain, it is super important to double check the hocks and stifles if a horse has back soreness. The reason for the referred pain is the back is taking to much load due to the horse trying to "get off" the injured hock or stifle.

4. Saddle fit; while we are listing this last that does not mean it is the least common. It is, however, the easiest to check for and correct.

So how can Equi-Tape® help with the above common back issues?

For conditioning, injuries or referred pain, stabilization of the back is incredibly helpful to not only make the horse feel better but actually get better. When you stabilize the back you are basically utilizing external support for the muscles, tendons, ligaments and the spine that hold the back together and up.

 

There is no other modality in existence that can do this other than equine elastic kinesiology taping. You are creating space and structure where it is needed, all while increasing circulation to the area to speed recovery. For saddle fit issues by doing a simple back application you can help the soreness go away faster, of course it will come back if you do not get a saddle that fits right! If the horse has been ridden for a long period of time before the saddle fit is identified, stabilizing the back for a longer period of time maybe required due to the amount of soft tissue and possibly spinal damage.


These applications can be found at the links provided:

The Fundamentals Of Equi-Taping Online Certification Course (Currently 20% off with code CERT20) 

The Basics Course  (Free with purchase of he Intro Kit) 

Beyond The Basics Online Course 

The Back Module 

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