Variable Feeding Positions - Passive Physio In Action — Jessica Limpkin

Late last year I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a seminar presented by Equine Anatomist Sharon May Davis.

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One of the topics was VFP (Variable Feeding Positions)

Today I thought I would share with you some of the key points from this seminar that you might find useful for your own horses.

Horses have been genetically and structurally compromised since domestication, partly due to the environments we keep them in.

The environment can limit the range of motion in the horse’s musculoskeletal system and it will in turn alter to that range of motion.

Horses are designed to travel miles each day over varied terrain and also graze as well as browse to find food.

Grazing is defined as eating below knee height. Wild horses would do this around 80% of the time that they are feeding. Grazing also requires constant movement - unlike standing at a hay net or hay feeder for hours.

Browsing is defined as eating from above knee height. Wild horses would do this around 20% of the time that they are feeding.

During Sharon’s research into the way wild herds graze in comparison to domestic horses she discovered that domestic horses, which cannot graze and browse at this ratio suffer with issues not only in the musculoskeletal system due to not eating from a varying range of positions but also uneven teeth wear or jaw alignment and altered foot growth compared with the wild horses.

Beth browsing a willow tree - compare this image to the one of Harvey above to see how different muscles are being recruited and stretched in each position

She also discovered that horses eating with the 80:20 grazing to browsing ratio were more symmetrical in their bodies and ‘squarer’ compared with horses that graze 100% of the time which tend to develop an ‘up foot, down foot’ position. (see image below for an example).

Harvey displays the ‘up foot, down foot’ posture only seen in domesticated horses that stand still to eat

The horses that Sharon looked at also had more even Masseter and Pterygoid muscles when fed at the 80:20 ratio. Where as 100% grazing horses often had larger Masseter muscles.

Sharon suggested feeding hay at different heights around the field/yard/stable to mimic the 80:20 grazing to browsing ratio.

Also spreading hay out across the floor instead of putting it in large piles, so encourage your horse to move more when eating and mimic grazing. Or using multiple haynets or feeders with less hay in each to prevent your horse standing at the same spot for too long.

Feeding in variable positions can also be a useful ‘Passive physio’ technique.

Beth grazing downhill, using muscles in her body that would not be used should she only ever graze on a flat surface

For example where a horse is recovering from injury and you need to stretch or target specific tissue you could feed the horse on a slightly up or downhill area encouraging them to load the required limbs and stretch the required area.

e.g feeding uphill will stretch out the iliopsoas muscles and strengthen the back and hind end.

Or feeding over the fence, encouraging the horse to stretch and elongate their neck and load their front end.

Here Eric is eating from a hay net hung so it is not near a wall or fence. This encourages equal lateral swing of the neck and body as he browses the net

Depending on what you are trying to achieve there are many options, and the best part is the horse is doing their own physio in a gentle way.

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Another useful way to use this information provided to us by Sharon is to look at our horses, what are their asymmetries, or tight areas they are struggling with and have a look to see if the environment may be a contributor.

If your horse tight in the right hand side of the neck or poll? Could this be because you hang your haynet in the left corner of the stable and your horse is turning his head to the left to eat his hay all night?

Could you hang a haynet in each corner instead to even up the movement?

At the seminar Sharon gave an example of 2 horses that were stabled next to each other and constantly fighting each other over the door. I am paraphrasing here but this is the basic story.

Their trainer complained that one horse struggled to bend to the left and one struggled with bending to the right. As the trainer was telling her about this she watched as the horses were bickering with each other over the stable door. One was swinging his head to the right to bite the other horse that was swinging his head to the left to bite him back.

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She asked if this was normal and the trainer said yes it was and they were at it all day!

Sharon suggested the trainer hung a haynet on the outside of each stable on the opposite side to the other horse.

This caused the horses to stretch their necks the opposite way to their friend in order to eat their hay.

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So now they were bending their necks the other way too, doing their own physio, and straightening themselves back out.

I think this is certainly food for thought and on many levels.

So I urge you:

Look at your horse’s environment, can you give them the 80:20 grazing to browsing ratio they need?
Assess any asymmetries your horse has, could they be caused by the way you feed them (this includes forage and bucket feed)?
Think outside the box – what changes could you make to encourage your horse to do their own ‘passive physio’ and ‘square up’

Thank you for visiting my blog, I hope you have found this useful.

If you have any questions please get in touch any time.

Jess | Jessica Limpkin Equine Massage Therapy