My dream for the barrel racing industry…

My dream for the barrel racing industry is that there would be a complete mindset shift in the way we treat, train, and care for our horses. Who I am as a horsewoman now, is vastly different from who I was 2 years ago. I’m feeling some sort of way after passing the 2 year mark since I became an equine sports massage therapist in January of 2023.

I celebrated the anniversary by attending a whole horse dissection with Lorre Mueller, EDO of Trinity Equine Services hosted at Northwest School of Animal Massage. I will never, I repeat, NEVER look at horses the same way again. There were far too many revelations to put down in one social media post, so I’m going to attempt to dump some of it here.

Some of my key takeaways

• The horse’s head/neck moves with their stride. The nose reaches forward when the hind leg comes forward and relaxes back when the hind leg retracts.
• When downward pressure is placed on the bit (tongue pressure, ya know the kind that a lot of folks are taught to use for “collection”) it completely halts the ability of the hind limb to reach forward under the body.
• That restriction gets even worse when the horse is put into vertical flexion (forehead perpendicular to the ground).
• The glutes are darn near embedded into the largest muscle of the back (longissimus dorsi). The longissimus also runs under the shoulder blade and attaches to the last few cervical vertebrae. That means the GLUTES are important for the elevation of the front end which is needed for true collection.
• Horses are resilient. They will keep going, even when they shouldn’t be able to.
• The body is miraculous. It will attempt to protect itself, heal itself, and compensate however it can.
• A liver that isn’t functioning well or is overloaded with toxins can cause pain/discomfort in the withers.
• The nerves in the face are ONLY protected by skin. Proper halter and bridle fit is SO important. Also, don’t use war bonnet tie downs.
• The spinal cord is only protected by muscle/fascia between the skull-C1 as well as C1-C2. Needless to say, I won’t be hard tying my horses anymore.
• Fascia is EVERYWHERE. Everywhere. It surrounds muscles. It surrounds nerves. It connects muscles to other muscles. It connects muscles to bones. It connects skin to muscles. It surrounds tendons/ligaments.
• The front leg was wildly easy to remove from the rest of the body. Emphasizing the importance of a strong thoracic sling.
• There is only an inch (maybe) of muscle/fascia along the belly to hold all of the viscera inside the horse’s body.

And that’s just what I can think of right now. There was so much valuable information learned. I will approach riding/working my horses from a completely different perspective, now. I’m afraid that it will be even longer than I thought it would before I get back to competition. Why? Because I have to make sure that my horses are developed properly to do the job that I will be asking them to do. I’m no longer focused on just cardiovascular fitness. I will be making sure their core is strong and that they are able to support themselves completely. How am I going to accomplish that? Surprisingly, it will include lots of walking.

How boring does that sound? What speed junkie barrel racer wants to do lots of walking? This girl does, because I know it will pay dividends later. I think that is my biggest dream. That barrel racers would slow down and make sure their horse is really, truly ready to do their job. And I don’t mean ready by current industry standards. I see so many horses with a weak core, a weak thoracic sling, weak glutes. Then we just reach for the quick fix: the bigger bit, the tiedown, the joint injections, the different saddle. What if their hocks are sore because their muscles aren’t strong enough to support them correctly? What if they have kissing spines because their core is weak? What if they’re running off because they don’t have the strength to do it slowly? What if their head is in the air because that’s the only way they can bring their front legs forward?

We can use the equipment, we can inject the joints, we can change the saddle, but those problems won’t go away unless we fix the actual issue. That often takes a lot of time doing boring stuff and we don’t want to miss a barrel race because we’re hand walking our horse so they can learn how to do it right. I realize that it may sound like I’ve gone off my rocker and am tearing down an industry that helped me get where I am. That’s not my intention at all. My grandma reminded me of a Maya Angelou quote when I was lamenting about this same topic to her on the drive home from the dissection: “Do the best you can until you know better. And then when you know better, do better.” I’m in this industry because I love horses. I learned this profession because I love horses. I’m doing this for the horses. They deserve better than what we’re giving them. They deserve to be comfortable. They deserve to be strong. They deserve to be set up for success.

One last parting dream: I wish that every horse owner could attend a dissection. It would completely change the horse industry forever. Thank you to the horse that changed my life forever. I am filled with so much gratitude for the lessons you taught me on that table.