Feature: The power of proprioception

FEATURE

The power of proprioception

It’s all about awareness. CHRISTINE ARMISHAW discusses proprioception with biomechanical expert Dr Raquel Butler.

Got a horse that trips on the flat, falters across country or knocks rails while jumping? Your horse’s proprioception might need some work. While it might be a tongue twister, it’s something you should

definitely know about if you want to

improve your horse, and working on it is

Proprio what?

Simply put, proprioception (pro-pree-osep-shn) is the perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body and its parts in space. Biomechanical medicine vet, Dr Raquel Butler, who specialises in chiropractic, osteopathy and rehabilitation treatments, explains: “Proprioception is the awareness of your legs. It’s your ability to not have to look and think about every step you take and the placement of your feet. For example, you are able to walk in the dark and navigate uneven surfaces and obstacles by feel without stumbling or falling.”

The body’s proprioception switchboard is made up of a network of receptors located within the muscles, fascia, and joint capsules, as well as touch and pain receptors, all of which relay information back to the nervous system including the brain. Working hand-in-hand with visual input and input from the balance

system in the inner ear, this kinaesthetic awareness enables us to interact with the environment around us, without falling over or crashing into things, and without having to consciously think about every single movement we make.

Raquel likens it to driving a car, once you know how to do it, you don’t think about how to hold the steering wheel, your hand position, the tightness of your grip, how much pressure to apply when turning, you just automatically do it. Similarly, when you close your eyes, you can still touch your finger to your nose – or at least you should be able to! How good is your proprioception right now?

So, what is the relevance of this type of sensory awareness for horses? “If we first think about horses in the wild, proprioception is important for them to get away from a predator. They need to be able to navigate obstacles and to run quickly, without falling over, stumbling or missing a step, because if they miss one step, they’re out!” Raquel explains.

When we look at the relevance of proprioception in a riding horse, it becomes super important from a safety perspective. “When you’re on board, you want your horse to know where their legs are, to be able to navigate small changes in the surface they are moving across and make adjustments within the muscles and fascia as they go, even if they don’t actually see a divot or mound in the earth,” Raquel says. Without this tactile ability, your horse would be less able to accommodate such changes underfoot and would be more prone to a misstep or worse, a fall.

Tangible rewards

Assuming they are neurologically and biomechanically sound, horses, like humans and other animals, are hardwired for proprioception. If your horse is tripping or stumbling, first rule out with your vet any underlying pathology creating spinal canal narrowing and spinal cord pressure. Imbalanced feet can also be an underlying cause. Akin to other characteristics that vary from one individual to the next, the degree of natural proprioception present in each horse can differ. Raquel suggests this is a trait that definitely falls into the ‘more is better’ category: “A horse that is lacking in proprioceptive awareness is really not a safe horse for us to be riding.” The good news, however, is that this awareness can be improved with targeted exercises and the potential results are worth the effort.

At the most basic level, an increase in sure-footedness and reduction in stumbling and tripping can result in a horse that overall is safer to ride. At a competitive level there are big gains to be made too. The more proprioceptively aware your horse is when galloping over undulating terrain across country, the safer and more successful you are likely to be in eventing. The advantage in show jumping is potentially leaving more rails neatly in the cups, as your horse has a more developed sense of their leg position in relation to the placement and size of the fences they are attempting to clear.

Simple exercises for improvement

The interesting thing with improving proprioception is that it’s not about the big movements. “When a horse goes faster, even in the trot, they can compensate for poor proprioception by using speed for balance,” Raquel explains, adding that when we want to improve proprioception, we have to connect the mind to the legs, which is a slow and controlled process.

Her favourite go-to exercise for assessing and improving a horse’s proprioception is straightforward and requires just one pole on the ground. The horse is walked up to the pole,

FACING PAGE: Navigating obstacles in hand is a great way to improve proprioception (Image by Lynne Murray). ABOVE: Standing on variable surfaces such as SURE FOOT pads is another useful exercise (Image by Dr Raquel Butler).

Walking over alternating angled poles (Image by Lynne Murray).

asked to pause in front of it and given a moment to look at it, sniff it, and acknowledge that there is something in front of them.

A horse with healthy proprioception will be able to walk in a slow, controlled fashion over the pole. “They will be able to stop in any position, with any of their limbs over the pole, and will not take an elongated or pronounced step. They know exactly how to get their legs over that pole and where the pole is in relation to their body,” Raquel says. From there you can increase to two, three, or four poles and repeat that same steady, controlled exercise in walk with the expectation that your horse will still figure it out with ease.

However, a horse that rushes over a single pole, even in walk, is not using proprioception properly and needs to be slowed down. Other horses may stop completely in front of the pole and find it seemingly impossible to walk over (even after previously rushing over it). “Sometimes it can take 20 minutes for the horse to step over the pole, and that’s proprioception. That’s the horse establishing new neural pathways,” Raquel explains. The rider or handler’s role is to simply help the horse maintain their balance and prevent any rushing while they wait for the horse to figure it out.

Raquel tells me that another great way to improve proprioception is to ride at walk across as many different surfaces and at varying speeds within the walk as you can: “Having your horse walk on sand, then over a really rocky area, then around and between logs is all great proprioceptive training.” She even trains horses to negotiate their way through tyres on the ground, boot-camp style, but recommends starting with just one tyre first. The caveat is that it always has to be slow, controlled and relaxed.

Be the tortoise

The biggest temptation to avoid is rushing your horse. If it seems like it’s taking a while to see results, then that simply highlights how much you need to spend time focusing on kinaesthetics. Remember, the key is to focus on small, deliberate movements, rather than ones that are fast and momentum-based: “Otherwise, you’re bringing in all the bigger muscle groups and you’re not really training postural control and limb awareness as you should,” Raquel says.

When you aim for precision in the slow work, it has the potential to transfer across to an improved show jumping technique, an enhanced nimbleness on the cross country course, and to create an altogether steadier horse on your journey toward riding success. Keep your tactile training sessions short but integrate them regularly, and enjoy proprioception becoming another handy item to add to your horse training tool kit.

Watch the full interview with Dr Butler at Equestrian Hub. Learn how proprioception can improve float training, and hear about the horse that took 40 minutes to step over a single pole.

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