Wonders of the Horse Body

Equine BodyWork is about so much more than the body. However, it also has a LOT to do with the body. You know I am going to keep talking about how important mindfulness, breathwork, and gratitude are, you know I’ll keep talking about the principles of intuition, and we definitely need to keep talking about the cornerstones of equine communication [Energy-Intention-Body Language], and we’ll have to revisit the principles of passive leadership too! But for this article, let's really talk about the horse's body and how it works.

It’s part of being a holistic horse person, knowing the mind/body/soul of both ourselves, and our horses.

I have studied anatomy my whole life, and biomechanics and kinesiology too, I love it, I think it’s incredibly interesting. The body is a miraculous thing to study! However I have ALWAYS struggled with the main landmarks of horses legs. I STILL struggle to this day. I don’t want you to struggle like me, So I’m going to do you a solid.

Below is a surprisingly simple but powerful cheat sheet. If I could have this cheat sheet tattooed to my forearm, it would be SO helpful. I’ve gone 44 years without a tattoo, maybe it's time?

I like to relate horse body parts to human body parts, it helps me make sense of it all. Maybe it can help you too? This little chart is awesome in that case.

The first word is the horse body part, and the word after the = sign, is the equivalent on our human bodies, here goes:

BACK LEGS OF HORSE:

Horse = Human

Stifle = knee
Hock = ankle

FRONT LEGS OF HORSE:

Horse = Human
Knee = wrist
Elbow = elbow

What really throws me off is calling the horse knee a wrist??!! Why not call it the front hock, anterior hock, arm hock, basically anything besides the knee please. We call the elbow an elbow, so I'm not sure who's in charge here but if anyone knows, lets start a petition! LOL Oh well, it’s definitely not in my control, and maybe if you haven’t studied human anatomy this isn’t so confusing. Either way I hope that chart is as life changing for you, as it has been for me!

Now that I have your rapt attention, let's keep going?! Let’s continue to see how horses are similar and different then us, as a learning tool to understand them better. You can get really GOOD at bodywork by knowing the body, and you can get GREAT by knowing the mindfulness methods, horse language pillars, AND the body. Let’s make sure you have access to ALL the things because we are interested in greatness at My Horse Journey!

I think it is incredible that horses basically have the same skeleton that WE do. In fact, it’s virtually a bone for bone likeness. The muscles are named the same and they basically do a lot of the same things. Our resting heart rates are relatively similar. Our heart and lungs are built the same, and situated in a similar way, and basically work the same way. It’s really fascinating, horses and humans, we are such a natural partnership.

Our bodies are congruent, our brains are congruent, they thrive on our strengths and we thrive on theirs. We bolster their weaknesses, as they bolster ours. We really are a good pair!

Back to anatomy, even though they are mostly similar to us, there are some big differences: horses walk on 4 legs and we stand upright, that’s a big difference! Gravity works differently through our bodies as a result. It’s easy to think of gravity as pushing down on us, or more accurately sucking us toward the middle of the earth. (Gravity SUCKS!) This is only half the picture however.

As we contact the earth, either through gravity or motion, (walking/running/dancing/jump roping, you get the idea) the ground acts as a force that goes BACK UP through our body, we call it ‘ground reaction forces’ in biomechanics. So a really clever way of talking about this is to examine how the ground reaction forces move through a horse.

More on this at a later, more advanced date. This concept is KEY for assessment, so don’t sleep on it. Back to anatomical differences now.

Horses actually walk around on the equivalent of our middle fingers. Yes, your horse is perpetually, constantly, giving you the bird finger. Just kidding, a very juvenile joke. I'm sorry, besides it’s pointing down anyway! It’s more like they are constantly doing 1 finger pushups, so strong! Also, they don’t have a clavicle like we do. The clavicle helps our shoulders have a ridiculous range of motion, horses arms and shoulders are more stabilized against their body, they are built for stability, rather than mobility in this way.

The other difference is SIZE. A horse's heart weighs 8-10 lb’s, while ours is less than one pound. The horse heart pumps 10,000-14,000 gallons of blood a day! For reference sake, we have a 1 thousand gallon water tank that supplies our family of 5, plus 4 dogs, plus 5 full size horses, plus one mini donkey, with enough water for an entire week. It's hard to fathom 14 of these 1000 gallon tanks and the amount of energy it would take to pump 14,000 gallons of fluid every 24 hours! No wonder horses eat so much hay?

Speaking of hearts, I have to remind you all about the cool research from the Heart Math Institute. Magnetometers measure the human heart’s energy field radiating 8-10 feet around us, while a horse radiates 40-50 feet! Even more incredible is that the strength of the electromagnetic field of horses is stronger than our own, and can even influence ours as well. WOW!

Those of you that have worked with me for long, know I refer to this phenomenon as the Horsefield (get it, a horse's forcefield = horsefield, pretty clever huh?), and I will continue to invoke Jedi training references to wielding the Force when doing Equine BodyWork. (The force is strong with Cailin, for example!) More of that to come for sure. Back to our anatomy and physiology adventure:

Another fun differentiator between humans and horses is the sheer athletic prowess of the horse compared to humans. We have established their giant hearts, but now let's explore how that translates to performance. Horses are power AND endurance machines. For the exercise science nerds among us (anyone??) V02 max averages (this shows how efficient you are at creating energy to exercise) at an astonishing 144-173 ml/kg/min while ours is a humble 27-40 ml/kg/min. Part of this is that horses have 50 times more alveoli in the lungs than humans! (alveoli are the little microscopic bags that transfer oxygen and carbon dioxide into and out of the lungs).

Speaking of lungs, the capacity of a horse's lungs is staggering. Their capacity is a whopping 55-liter compared to our measly 5-liters! Our own lungs can uptake 6-8 times more oxygen during maximum exertion compared to chilling on the couch, pretty impressive right?! Not so much, says the horse, they can uptake 40 times more oxygen during maximal exertion versus rest! My head is exploding at how incredible horses are. But we aren’t done!

Anyone remember Hussain Bolt's amazing world record sprint. It was amazing. However, a world class endurance race horse can MATCH Bolt’s top speed, for 7 hours! Secretariat reached a peak galloping speed of nearly DOUBLE Bolt’s 100 yard dash for well over 1 mile. This is 5 whole laps around a traditional track, while Bolt did a quarter of a single lap, for perspective. Aren’t horses amazing!

Know what else is AMAZING, they don’t have to let us ride them, but they DO!