Movement is medicine

TEXT: SHELLEY WOLHUTER

Horses are designed to move. In fact, when it comes to horses, movement really is medicine. In the wild, horses have been known to cover an average of 40km daily. Different terrains and climates would affect this average, but regardless, that distance is still rather impressive! Living as Mother Nature intended offers certain health privileges, such as a high baseline fitness, robust bare feet, a hardy immune system and the absence of colic, laminitis, ulcers, and stereotypies, to name just a few. Some might counter that the wild horse has evolved to be tougher than the domestic horse. However, their physiology remains the same.

All of this demonstrates that there are many important benefits to increasing your horse’s daily movement. Here we will discuss just a few.

BLOOD CIRCULATION

The first and foremost benefit of movement is increased blood circulation. The circulatory system is the transport system of the body. It delivers oxygen and nutrients to cells and removes carbon dioxide and other waste products. It is also the medium that hormones and immune cells travel in. Of course, blood will continue to circulate regardless of whether there is movement or not, such as during a period of rest. However, an increase in movement will demand an increase in circulation to meet the cells’ increased needs. Increased blood supply to cells is always a positive thing.

JOINT LOADING

For cartilage lining joints to remain healthy, joints need to be loaded. This is due to the sponge-like properties of cartilage. Proteoglycans, tiny cells embedded in the cartilage, draw liquid in like an absorbent sponge. In order to remove this liquid, the sponge needs to be squeezed by loading the joint. This constant drawing in and squeezing out of liquid is the cartilage’s food delivery and waste removal mechanism, keeping the cartilage healthy. A joint that is not loaded enough is at risk of developing a build-up of waste metabolites and thereby having a toxic environment in the cartilage. Simply put, the more your horse moves, the healthier their cartilage will be. This is also the case for osteoarthritis in humans - in fact, movement is often recommended in the treatment protocol.

BONE DENSITY

Bone density is a product of the forces it is subjected to. That means that loaded bones will be stimulated to deposit more bone, and those that are unloaded will become atrophied – that is, decreased in size and density. Ultimately, dense bones are strong bones, and movement is needed to create this! This phenomenon can be clearly seen in a person that has broken a bone and has been forced to unload said bone completely. After the cast removal, the most obvious observation is the bone and muscle wasting, especially if it is a weight-bearing bone, such as a femur. As alluded to in this human example, the same principle applies to muscles - a lack of load and usage results in atrophy. In simpler terms, when it comes to important body structures like bone and muscle, the phrase “Use it, or lose it”, describes the process perfectly.

TENDON LOADING

Tendons also respond to load. In fact, the leading cause for tendon injury is prolonged periods of rest, followed but periods of high tendon load. In such cases, the tendons have not been gradually conditioned to the loads they are subjected to. An example of this would be a horse kept in a confined space for a prolonged period of time, who then gets taken out to jump big fences or perform advanced dressage movements. This is relevant not only to an exercise schedule but also to paddock size and turnout time.

HOOF CONDITIONING AND DEVELOPMENT (BAREFOOT ONLY)

In the barefoot horse, movement stimulates healthy hoof development and conditioning. Movement also assists the heart to pump blood back up the legs due to the hoof’s ability to flex on loading. Shoes, unfortunately, fix hooves in one shape and prevent the natural flexion and, therefore, the blood-pumping action that barefoot horses experience.

MENTAL STIMULATION

Movement in horses can also offer mental stimulation. With horses being such intelligent creatures, they thrive off stimulation. Whether the movement mostly comes from a large paddock or a long ride, either way, your horse is being stimulated. Horses that are fortunate enough to have large paddocks with varied terrain AND get ridden or worked benefit the most in this regard, as they have constant mental stimulation as they navigate their surroundings.

DIGESTIVE MOVEMENT

Low-intensity movement causes an increase in blood flow to the muscles in the gastrointestinal tract (GIT). Much like squeezing a toothpaste tube, these muscles are responsible for massaging food through the tract as nutrients are absorbed. Insufficient movement can cause gut activity to slow down. This is why horses that colic are often hand walked to get the gut moving again.

THE VERDICT

Nature has created a fantastic model that can inspire holistic and practical horse husbandry, and perhaps clues lie in this model to explain why wild horses are so healthy and hardy. We can look to our horses’ wild friends for answers when faced with the challenges of trying to optimise our horses’ lives.