Equine Mechanix

01/24/2026

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Superman, Kryptonite, and Why We Keep Freaking Horses Out🦸‍♂️

Let’s start with Superman.

Superman is absurdly strong. Faster than a speeding bullet, etc. But the thing that brings him undone is not a bigger punch or a clever argument. It is kryptonite. A very specific weakness that targets the very thing that makes him powerful.

If you want to destabilise any organism, you do not attack what it is bad at. You attack what it relies on most.

Humans understand this instinctively. Our superpower is our mind. We plan, imagine, remember, anticipate, narrate, catastrophise. So if you want to break a human, you target their thinking. Trap them in situations they cannot reason their way out of. Haunt them with stories. Keep them awake with anxiety about the future or replay the past until it corrodes the present.

We get this. Entire industries exist around it.

What we consistently fail to grasp is that horses are not humans with hooves.

A horse’s superpower is not cognition. It is athleticism. Movement. Balance. The ability to organise their body at speed, under load, against gravity, with extraordinary precision.

And that is exactly where their kryptonite lives.

For a horse to move with power and agility, their body must function across three frames of movement. Side-to-side bending. Flexion and extension of the spine. And the one almost nobody talks about, rotation of the barrel left and right.

Those three frames are constantly adjusting, even when the horse is standing still. Micro-adjustments to stay upright. To distribute force. To manage load as each hoof meets the ground. This is not optional. This is survival physics.

So what freaks a horse out?

Anything that restricts those frames.😱

Joint restriction. Pain. Tissue breakdown. Loss of load-bearing capacity. Subtle asymmetries that reduce how force can be absorbed and redirected. You might not see it. They might still gallop in the paddock. Just like a person can laugh while struggling with anxiety.

Horses are exceptional compensators. Four legs buy them options. They reorganise constantly. They cope.
Until we show up.

Then we sit on their backs. Add load from above. Ask them to move on a line, in a posture, at a tempo they did not choose. And we are often oblivious to the fact that we are demanding precision from a body that is already negotiating kryptonite.

We would never deliberately terrorise a human with words or psychological pressure and call it kindness. Yet we routinely destabilise a horse’s balance, restrict their movement, and then moralise their behaviour when they struggle.😑

Here is the uncomfortable bit.

Much of what gets labelled as trauma in horses is not narrative. It is physical. It lives in the frames.

Yes, horses form associations. But they do not ruminate on identity, meaning, or consent. Their nervous system is organised around movement and balance. When those are compromised, everything else deteriorates.

So no, honouring a horse’s “no” is not the solution. Waiting for consent is not insight. Granting agency without restoring physical capacity is not ethical. It is projection.

If you want to help a horse, give them back their movement. Restore their frames. Train gymnastic function.

Examine how your management, riding, and expectations create the very kryptonite you claim to be protecting them from.

Stop confusing human psychological reality with equine biological reality.

Because until you understand what actually destabilises a horse, your compassion is just well-intentioned interference dressed up as virtue.

Collectable Advice 137/365.
Share it. Save it. Quote it with attribution. ❤
Steal it, repackage it, or AI-wash it and call it yours, and that will be your kryptonite.🤥

fans

Acknowledgements: Tami Elkayam Equine Bodywork for helping me see krytonite 🙏

12/08/2025

How Horses Experience Touch: The Three Neurobiological Pathways That Shape Their Response

In 2016, cognitive neuroscientist Dan-Mikael Ellingsen and colleagues outlined three major ways mammals experience touch.
These same mechanisms apply directly to horses — and they explain why touch can regulate, soothe, sensitize, or even overwhelm them depending on the situation.

Horses, like humans, process touch through attention, prediction, and context.
These factors determine whether touch feels safe, regulating, threatening, or simply ignored.

Here’s how each pathway shows up in horses:

1. Gate of Attention: What the Horse’s Nervous System Notices

The “gate of attention” refers to how the nervous system chooses what sensory input to focus on and what to tune out.
Horses constantly filter countless sensations — tack pressure, footfall vibrations, air movement, insects, your leg, their own breathing.

Because they filter so much, they may not show awareness of a restricted or sore area until your touch draws attention to it.

Equine examples:
• A horse doesn’t react to a tight region in the back until you palpate it, and suddenly they flinch, brace, or soften.
• A horse grazes comfortably despite a mild injury, but reacts strongly when you groom or touch the area.
• Under saddle, they may tune out subtle discomfort until a specific movement shifts attention to it.

Your touch often opens the gate to an area their nervous system had been suppressing or ignoring.

2. Prediction: What the Horse Expects Touch to Feel Like

Before touch even happens, the horse’s brain predicts:
• what it will feel like
• whether it will be comfortable or threatening
• whether it usually precedes pressure, pain, relief, or relaxation

These predictions are shaped by prior experience.

Equine examples:
• A horse who associates grooming with discomfort may brace before your hand even lands.
• A horse who has learned that soft, slow contact leads to relaxation will exhale and drop their head as soon as you start.
• One who finds myofascial-style touch relieving may tilt, lean, and “seek” more pressure.
• Horses previously handled with force often anticipate discomfort, and their body prepares for it.

Prediction is why two horses can respond completely differently to the same type of touch.

3. Context: The Environment, the Relationship, and the Internal State

Context determines how the horse interprets your touch.
The same physical stimulus can feel safe, neutral, irritating, or threatening depending on:
• who is touching them
• how regulated the horse is at the moment
• the environment (quiet arena vs. busy showgrounds)
• the emotional history they have with that person
• whether the touch feels expected or unexpected

Context alters touch at the level of the nervous system.

Equine examples:
• A massage therapist or trusted handler can touch areas the horse would not allow from strangers.
• A horse at a show may find normal grooming irritating because the nervous system is already elevated.
• A horse who enjoys tactile contact at rest may resist when anxious, in pain, or overstimulated.
• After injury or inflammation, even gentle touch can feel sharp or threatening — a hedonic flip, where pleasant touch becomes aversive.

This flip is adaptive. It motivates the horse to protect the injured area.

The Hedonic Flip in Horses

Just like humans, horses have C-tactile afferents — the slow, emotional-touch fibers.
When functioning normally, these fibers respond to:
• soft grooming
• slow touch
• rhythmic strokes

These signals promote safety, bonding, and social connection.

But when tissue is injured, inflamed, or when the nervous system is hypervigilant, these same fibers can flip their interpretation from soothing → threatening.

This explains:
• sudden skin hypersensitivity
• irritation with grooming
• defensive reactions to normally tolerated touch
• sensitivity during certain phases of healing

The horse isn’t “grumpy.”
Their nervous system has changed the meaning of the input.

Why This Matters for Horse Handling & Bodywork

Touch is not just physical — it is deeply contextual, neurobiological, and state-dependent.

A horse’s response to touch depends on:
• what they are aware of
• what they expect
• how safe they feel
• their past experiences
• their internal physiological state

Understanding these three pathways allows you to:
• interpret responses accurately
• adapt pressure and pace
• avoid overstimulation
• create a safer interaction
• support regulation of the nervous system
• facilitate healing and movement reorganization

Touch becomes not just a technique, but a conversation with the horse’s brain and body.

https://koperequine.com/from-poll-to-sacrum-the-dural-sleeve-and-dural-fascial-kinetic-chain/

08/20/2025

I wanted to clarify the historic and current teaching that is supported in the literature and has been confirmed many times to be accurate and true.

The lamellae, very simply described are the superman “Velcro”or springs that attach the coffin bone (P3) to the inside of the hoof wall - the armour of the foot.

In the photo they are the red layer between bone and inner wall.

The dermal lamellae on the inner foot, feed the epidermal lamellae on the inside of the hoof capsule

The epidermal lamellae (think external skin- epidermis) will start just under the coronary groove and end at tge bottom of the hoof wall and at the bottom they form white line

The dermal lamellae- nutrition source) have a defined start and an end.

These lamellae are only present in the location of P3.

They do not appear on the middle phalanx (P2) the bone that forms a joint with P3. Look at the photo as its shows there are no lamellae there on the front of the bone

When the laminae fail in catastrophic laminitis, P3 plunges down due to the weight of the horse above and gravity.

As I understand- and please correct me if you know otherwise, If we are looking at reconnecting P3 to the inner hoof wall, after laminitis, we need to be looking at the right place. The place we should be looking at is new wall growth.

P3 needs to stop slinking and needs to stabilise. Then wall needs to grow and with it, new laminar connections.

I truly feel that we cannot be looking at “new wall and new connections” on X-rays when it’s actually on P2. There are no laminae on P2.

Look at the shape of the coronary groove and the top of P3. In this case the coronary groove is a nice “C” shape. When P3 drops it drags all the other tissues that are attached to it down with it. The papillae in the coronary groove are wrenched from the sockets in the coronary groove. In time, the coronary groove looses that “C” shape and becomes elongated, again, due to the dropping of P3.

07/26/2025

The term "fat leg" is pretty self-explanatory, but do you know the difference between stocking up and cellulitis?

Many horses will "stock up" with subcutaneous edema (fluid swelling) in two or more legs (usually the hind limbs). Stocking up generally results from a significant decrease in exercise and usually resolves as the horse starts exercising again.

Lymphangitis (or vasculitis, big leg disease, staph infection, or cellulitis), however, is a bacterial infection and a dramatically different condition. While its causes may vary, it’s easy to spot once it sets in. The swelling will be extreme, hot, very painful to the touch, and the horse will be depressed due to the fever and discomfort.

If you think your equine friend has cellulitis or even if you're not sure, we encourage you to seek professional help promptly. Your equine practitioner will make the best treatment recommendations, both to reduce swelling and to address any sort of bacterial infection that might be active or that could occur due to the edema in the soft tissue.

04/01/2025

Spots still available!!! Friday has a few private sessions with Laurie Hedlund, myself Rhonda Martin, and Michael Blubaugh!

01/26/2025

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01/26/2025

01/07/2025

🖤Robin Williams🖤 once said: "I think the people who have experienced the most sadness are the ones who are always trying to make other people happy. Because they know firsthand what it's like to feel empty and depressed, and they don't want anyone else to feel that way." 🤍

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