12/05/2025
🤷♀️ I probably shouldn't tell this story, but it's me... So you know I love having an educational moment at the expense of one of my mistakes. Let me make them so you don't have to. 🤦♀️
So I was ground working my mare yesterday with corrective exercise and incline work. I knew she was a bit lethargic from the long ride the day before, but she was moving really well. Slightly short in her surgery leg so opted not to ride. She was working great over the cavaletties and I reached a point where I kind knew we needed to be done.
But sometimes as therapists we have a tendency to challenge our personal horses more than we would a client horse. Why? Because I guess I try to reserve my own dumba$$ery for my own animals...
So I ask her for one more lope before I cool her down. She started out fine, then I saw her back grab right as she dropped her lead and broke into a stabby dual-legged bunny hop behind and then into a chaotic sprint in this circle. I hold her a few circles and try to calm her down but it's not happening and I knew she was going to pull away.
➡️ Now, getting stuck in flight and running the eff off on a lunge line has happened with her before. (It's super common with stifle horses. That's why in rehab facilities, we make sure client horses are contained where we do corrective exercises.)
But it's been a long, long time since she's had her back catch. The one thing I don't have where I'm at is an ideal fenced area to do ground work. So she ran all over the open pasture, yard, road... And we finally got her captured.
🤦♀️ How is it owning horses can have you cussing and praying literally at the same time? The moral of this story is... If you think "I'll do just a bit more" ...Don't.
It is what is and she always has a reason for explosive behavior. It was definitely my fault. But the worst part of it was trying to get her to come down out of flight. She just couldn't get herself grounded so she could let out a breath because all the running left her back CRAZY tight. With her Psoas fired off like that she couldn't catch her air.
In the end all was well, she's fine today and I didn't have to ask myself... "What should I teach the people today?"
➡️➡️➡️ The sad thing is... I work on horses that have this degree of back tension constantly and their owners can't understand why these horses are dangerous, unpredictable or unwilling to perform. It's because they're living in a chronic state of flight and they're miserable. 😢😢😢
💁♀️ Let's break down the science behind my $h!t show...
👉 When a horse suddenly grabs, cramps, or shoots forward, it's usually a neuromuscular reflex, not bad behavior. A sharp spasm in key back or hind-end muscles sends a fast “danger” signal through the nervous system, and the body reacts before the brain can think.
Think of it as the horse’s body hitting a “panic button” because something in the chain from lumbar → sacrum → pelvis → hind end fires incorrectly or gets over-stimulated.
🔶 Main Muscles Involved
▪️Longissimus dorsi (major back muscle - a sudden cramp feels like an electric or painful)
▪️Psoas & lumbar stabilizers (deep core muscles that trigger hump up or buckling motion)
▪️Biceps femoris & hamstrings (hind-end power muscles that can “snap” into propulsion)
▪️Gluteus medius (creates that launch-forward feeling)
These muscles work together, so one spasm can lock up the whole chain.
🔸 Nerves Most Affected
▪️Lumbar dorsal nerves (L1–L6) – control the back and trigger strong reflexes
▪️Sciatic nerve – when irritated, sends a jolt down the hind limb and forces the horse to leap
▪️Sacral nerves – sharp pain here equals immediate flight
👉 Why Does It Make Them Run Off?
Because the pain signal doesn’t just hurt...
It activates survival mentality.
▪️Sudden sharp pain = predator attack
▪️Pain in the back or hind end = “something grabbed me”
▪️Stay alive = get away fast
A back spasm triggers the same neural pathway as:
➡️ “A mountain lion is on me! Move now.”
Their feet start moving faster than their brain. They aren't being dramatic... their flight response has taken over.
👉 Misadventures happen, but any excess tension in the back is going to cause issues throughout the whole body. If you see elevated, raised, tense muscles on either side of the spine... You need to address this dysfunction.
