Re: RC: suspensories

[JPascu@aol.com]

In a message dated 3/22/00 2:23:44 PM Mountain Standard Time, Susith@aol.com 
writes:

> I'm very discouraged because he's nicely built, nothing really obviously 
>  wrong, and is one of those who sails gloriously down the trail all strung 
> out 
>  and smooth. He doesn't have a long back, but he has a dippy back and is 
high 
> 
>  headed which I've done countless hours of dressage training to correct. 

This is the classic description of a horse that is "short" tissued along the 
top line. There is a soft tissue (fascial) continuity from the bottom of the 
rear feet, up the back of the leg, along the back, the neck to the brow. To 
get length in this area the horse will often raise it's head and hollow the 
underside of the neck or hollows the back (brings the cranial and caudal 
aspects closer together). The horse has trouble collecting. 
Besides the self serving "Rolfing would help this", the other action, more 
important to me, is to put the horse in a slow deliberate stretching routine 
to get some length into the tissue. The legs, back and neck need to be 
stretched. Think of the entire topline as a one connection, brow to bottom of 
the foot.  To compicate things one side can be longer/shorter than the other.

When you watch the horse move freely see where the motion is good and where 
it's not so good. The back should undulate at the walk like a waves on a 
lake. You should be able to determine where the horse initiatates movement, 
from the head, the front limbs the rear limbs. ( is it "reaching" with it 
nose? or "pushing" with it's toes?). Watch people we all have different 
movement initiators.

regards

jim pascucci
Advanced Certified Rolfer
www.equisearch.com/ibt