Muscle spasm is a common result of injury, underlying structural problems, excessive work load, repetitive training and overtraining. It seldom causes a clinical lameness on its own, but is probably the most underrated cause of lowered performance.

This is particularly the case when a horse is being worked on the flat, as here the horse is working in a collected manner and therefore not being allowed to utilise its momentum to carry its body forward.

In my experience most problems start in the lumbosacral region, as this is an area of the horses back where there is a lot of movement. If they fall, get cast or get into any situation where something has to give or stretch it will often to be here.

The body’s natural response to an over exertion is for the musculature to tighten around the area to protect it. Unfortunately, the resulting muscle spasm will restrict the engagement of the affected hind limb. This restriction will be most apparent when the horse works on a circle, particularly in canter. In order to achieve correct lead the horse must take its entire body weight momentarily on the outside hind leg. Therefore the horse which is perfectly happy to work on one rein but not so happy on the other is a possible candidate for muscle spasm in this area.

As a sports therapist I assess the horse by evaluating the degree of muscle spasm. Because the horse has a leg at each corner, unlike the biped human being, it does not use muscles in the same way as us to keep it upright; therefore any muscle spasm can be detected by palpation. This can be released by eliminating the muscle spasm and re-mobilising the affected area allowing the horse to regain its range of motion.

Other factors that cause muscle spasm are problems within the framework or skeleton, to which the muscles are attached. Structural problems must be addressed by your vet and eliminated before one goes down the muscle release pathway. This is why all equine patients come to me via veterinary referral.

Once muscle spasm is released the horse has to overcome the psychological barrier and believe in his new found range of movement. It is at this point that good riding and training become essential.