Horses Inside Out Conference 2020 - Anatomy In Action - Part 3
Hello and welcome back to part 3 of my Horses Inside Out Conference 2020 - Anatomy In Action blog.
Today I would like to talk about the first speaker of the conference. The wonderful Vibeke Elbrond, and her presentation on understanding the profound visceral myofascial connections in the horse.
During this blog I hope to share some of Vibeke’s key facts and findings in a way that most of us can understand without taking anything away from the fascinating and detailed research she has taken out on this subject.
As an Equine Massage Therapist that focuses on the soft tissue including the fascia, this is a subject that is close to my heart and one of the lectures I was most looking forward to at the Horses Inside Out conference.
Vibeke Elbrond is a graduate of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the University of Copenhagen and has a PhD in Anatomy and Physiology. Vibeke has focused her research in the field of the functionality and integrity of the fascia.
Some of the main points I took away from this lecture were:
Fascia acts as a 3-D model that adapts it’s fibre arrangement and density according to local tensional demands
The line of tension is the line of collagen fibres
A full body approach is necessary - if there is damage or problems in one ‘end’ of your horse there will also be the same in the ‘other end’
The amount of collagen fibres relates to the amount of tension in the area
‘We (or the horse) are one bit muscle in 600 different bags (made from fascia)
When fascia is warm it becomes more slippery and the muscle is stronger
Collagen fibres can be de-formed and then re-formed which is why warm up and cool down of your horse are so important
The horse has no adipose (fat) tissue between the skin and the superficial fascia (unlike a human or a dog) so with horses we have a more direct contact with the fascia
All the layers of the fascia ‘slide and glide’ in relation to each other/ If they don’t, movement will be restricted
There are 3 superficial myofascial lines
All the superficial lines meet at the TMJ (where the horse’s upper jaw bone meets the lower jawbone) and the hindlimb
Various postures of the horse can be explained by the mysofascial connections
Compensations in the lines will build on top of each other
Fascia can be affected by nutrition, medication, the parasympathetic nervous system and mental state of the horse
An increase in movement for the horse can increase the number of collagen fibres
Visceral fascia (relating to the internal organs) can be split into 2 types - Investing fascia and Insertional fascia
The basic skeleton of all of the internal organs is made up of fascia which also contains blood vessels, lymph vessels, and the somatic (nervous) system and the Insertional fascia which encapsulates the organs
The Fascia with it’s universal presence, is a tissue that needs to be taken seriously and considered when performing an examination of a horse.
I appreciate these points may not cover the entire lecture and all that Vibeke wanted to put across, but these are the points I personally took away from her lecture.
I hope this blog is useful, it certainly inspired me, so much in fact that I have booked onto a 2 day course with Vibeke in April to learn more about the Facia and Myofascial connections.
And I look forward to sharing my new found knowledge with you and using it to improve my treatments and further help your horses!
Please look out for more blogs in this series of Horses Inside Out Conference 2020 blogs to learn more.
A huge thank you to Horses Inside Out for allowing me access to their professional photos
In my next blog I will be sharing with you the some of the research from David Kempsell of WOW Saddles.
Thanks so much