Jean Servantie, Vétérinaire, Ostéopathe, Acupuncteur équin

POSTURE AND LIGHTNESS IN RIDING

2009-03-03T18:14:19Z

Lightness in riding (whatever the discipline)is the result of a particular postural balance, spontaneous in good horses and more challenging if not impossible in others. Establishing a correct working posture requires the installation of a perfect balance between all the muscle chains. This very dynamic state, by definition impermanent, as always perfectly adapted to the changes and totally reactive, is built around three main totally interdependent pillars :
the lumbo-sacral and abdominal box
the scapular arch and scalenus muscles
the hyoïde apparatus and poll THE ABDOMINAL BOXis created by the tonic and balanced contraction of psoas muscle (g) and abdominal muscles, mainly large right abdominal muscle (h), increasing intra-abdominal pressure together with the diaphragm (f). The resultant forces are centered on the center of the horse power source of the pulse. THE SCAPULAR ARCH, based on the abdominal caisson, and contraction and tonic again balanced scalene muscle (e) and longissimus (d), can erase part of the cervico-thoracic curvature and raise back the withers, While this balance can not settle by the fine tuning of the region of the neck muscles splenius dorsally (a), all the hyoïde apparatus (b), the digastric muscle (the reins of the mandible in man!), and sternocleidomastoid muscles, omohyoïdiens and long of the head (c) ventrally.

Adjusting the posture of the head is closely linked to the contact, through the mouth, with the rider's hand. The bending of the head on the neck will turn on the nucal ligament and its extension the supraspinous ligament, helping to unify the whole body of the horse, to facilitate the support of back and harmonize locomotion.

The muscles involved in propulsion (including the semi tendinous, i) may come into operation on a horse united under him as lightweight, opening the chest, the withers ready to welcome the momentum accumulated by the form below (the conceptus vessel in acupuncture) and expressed by the line above (the Governor vessel). The front is led forward, vertical, and head and neck posture is well coordinated by a mouth relaxed so dear to Baucher in CESSION DE MACHOIRES.

This posture, except quadrupedi, is quite similar to the actual posture of the rider in the practice of Tai Chi. (see Article Mag Tan Tien).

Restrictions in the scapular arch considerably degrade the locomotion of the horse. The horse becomes heavy in front, heavy on the hand and shortens its stride. By shortening in front, the horse severely hinders the rear limbs, causing problems in racing trotters. The restrictions of the first ribs are very painful and cause pain in the a girth area, using a surcingle can be the source source of defense and aggressiveness in some horses. see video.

COMPLEMENTARITIES OF OSTEOPATHY

2009-03-03T18:14:16Z

Like any sensitive approach, osteopathy is, in principle, open to any therapeutic proposal , friendly to the horse in care .

The text ofPhil Rogers expresses exactly this : "Holistic medicine is the best medicine for humans or animals. It embraces the best of conventional medicine, plus the best of "complementary medicine". Where necessary, it includes surgery. It attains optimal clinical results with minimal side effects to the patient and at less cost than high-tech conventional medicine. Holistic medicine examines all the interactions between the external environment and the body-mind-spirit of the patient. It does not view the Syndrome (the Lesion-Symptom Complex) as the disease per se. The Syndrome is only the clinical manifestation of the disease, i.e. the Branch, or end-result, of the body's defensive reaction, its attempt to try to correct the Energetic Imbalance, which is the Root cause of the disease. In Chinese Medicine, Holistic medicine aims to diagnose the predisposing factors (usually energetic and/or genetic) and the precipitating factors (usually external factors, but sometimes internal-emotional factors) that trigger the Syndrome in the weak physical structures, organs or parts of the body or in the psyche / spirit of the patient. It places less importance on the Syndrome (Branch) and the weak physical structures than on the Root causes.

Treating the Branch is like taking an analgesic for a headache, or an antibiotic for a bacterial infection. It may be necessary for rapid symptomatic relief, but it does NOT address the Root cause of the headache, or of the suppressed immune status that allowed the bacteria to overcome the body's natural defences. Where possible, holistic medicine Treats the Root, i.e uses whatever methods are needed to remove, neutralise or alleviate the root causes of disease. Its modalities include acupuncture, herbal (especially oriental) medicine, homeopathy, immunostimulation therapy, osteopathy / chiropractic, nutritional supplements, dietary adjustment, advice on lifestyle, physical / mental exercises, stress control / hypnosis / relaxation therapy, etc. When indicated, it also uses conventional physiotherapy, medicine, surgery, nutrition, counselling, etc. If Root Treatment does not give the desired result, and in all syndromes that pose a serious threat to life, it Treats the Branch, i.e. to tackle the symptoms and or lesions directly. In many cases, for example in severe pain, it combines Branch and Root treatment, including helping the client to attain a more balanced mental-spiritual state." “Phil ROGERS”

http://homepage.eircom.net/ progers/roghome.htm

The essence of osteopathy is to find the primary lesion, the root of the problem, and to deal with it by the most effective means: it can be a digestive disorder resulting from a feeding problem, a stressful environment, a congenital malformation, bad harnessing, a shoeing problem, poor track work ... the causes are multiple and sometimes old and forgotten. We should remain open minded to any possibility. It is simplistic to summarize a locomotor disorder to, for example, a painful fetlock. Why this joint is painful, what is the root cause, how to prevent recurrence and ensure that the horse copes well with his arthritis? There may be a different answer for each patient!

The difficulty is not to have information but to give them meaning and to prioritize

Acupuncture may be a first approach on a horse hypertensive or hyper allergic, allowing at the same time an osteopathic approach otherwise impossible. This can sometimes be the only effective therapy in depletion capacity for self-body cure. The discovery of major dysfunctions should guide the osteopath to tests: radiography, ultrasound, endoscopy, scintigraphy, any modern means of science to define the problem. It is very difficult to accurately identify what the responsibility of osteopathic manipulation is or not, the experience is of great help, but, I think, especially the perpetual challenge of his choice and his diagnosis. .

INDICATIONS OF OSTEOPATHY APPROACH

2009-03-03T18:13:58Z

After understanding the neuro-physiological data, it is easy to understand that the signs of osteopathy are numerous, both therapeutic and preventive.

Frequent semiology adapted by Dominique Giniaux : : Having identified the body scheme by the comprehensive review (holistic) of the horse, the osteopath is seeking the primary cause explaining (and sometimes hidden by) the many changes over time, and installation of recurrent disease . Each segment of the spine is associated with specific disorders described below:

C0 C1C1are often associated with behavioral disorders, aggression, high reactivity unpredictability, a horse that rears up easily because it is unable to mobilize its neck because of an indelicate hand, often by restricting the the tip of the nose. The association with lesions of the temporo-mandibular joint (ATM) and temporo hyoïdienne is common. cf symposium Saumur .

C2often associated with ATM,tooth or masseter pain, the horse is one sided with a marked rotation of the head, one ear lower than the other. The muscle pain is intense.

- C3 is often associated with T2 T3 , with a horse favouring one side or lying down on one side depending on the type of use

C4right more common during spinal ataxia syndrome, or Wobbler, often isolated, without other significant dysfunction. Ataxic horse falls without hurting itself.

C6 C7 : in general, if the horse favours its right, lateroflexion and restricted left shoulder or left scalene and first rib. Associated with cervico-brachial neuralgia (the brachial plexus pass between the scalene and the first rib) and vascular disorders in earlier disturbances that can favour foot problems ( see degenerative navicular disease)

si T1disturbed, this dysfunction is associated with emotional distress due to the interaction with the stellar ganglion: sweating post the manipulations are very common!

Garrot : very rigid front, stumbles easily, jumps badly with difficulty in lifting his front legs, hard to stop, brakes with the knees where frequent blockages may develop into chronic arthropathies common in the PSA and TF with high hyper extension of the carpus in his gait. girth painful. Can head shake in a longitudinal direction. The horse is unable to raise its front, becomes heavy on the hand, its strides are shortened: his brilliance is gone.

T7included, metallic heart sounds, associated with the pericardium in Chinese medicine the seat of the sympathetic neurovegetative system: mediator, adrenaline!

T8 T9 T10 associated with pulmonary and diaphragmatic disorders, cause or consequence?

T 11 is associated with biliary function and associated muscle disorders

T12 is associated with the stomach, to tick, to ulcers, to head shaking (horse pull his reins), stiffness in the saddle more often associated with pain in two sacro iliac joints! The alarm point of the stomach is frequently painful, between navel and xiphoïde on the white line.

T13 liver and muscle involved. Failure postural dysfunction will promote the spinous conflict (CAE), always secondary!

T14sweating a lot and a second time in the box (San Jiao, TR acupuncture), complementary to the pericardium, parasympathetic component of the neurovegetative system.

-T15associated with spleen on the left and pancreas to the right, the seat of the management of liquid and the muscle anabolism

T16 T17 T18 L1:horses crossing, turn badly, or pacers (T17) as its main pivot or fulcrum is blocked, he avoids stepping on diagonals and is on 2 tracks. T17 is associated with the large intestine. T16 with the duodenum and the mother of energy in traditional Chinese medicine. Cause proximal enteritis or severe ulcers.

T18 is associated with recurrent colic type stasis (shu point of GI is between T17 and T18)

L1 is associated with pain gonads, ovaries in females and testes in males or scars in the castrated gelding, to the bladder associated with L2.

L2 leads to frequent back pain at canter and in young horses due to an immature skeletal developement , wait, it will work out! bad engagement and deferred front easily. Combined with the small intestine, headquarters of the absorption of minerals.

L3is associated with the patella, with soft and bad smelling droppings, the horse is afraid to walk and prefers to trot as the patella is less painful.

L4 hock vacillating

L5 if associated with L1, General hormonal problem is feared

L6 often in extension, associated with sphincter disorders (chen, kidney in Chinese), blocked bladder thus urination difficulty and often with L2 bending, whith disorders of urine production

Sacrum : a blockage of the sacrum, accompanied by many problems of locomotion with bad engagement and bad propulsion, possibly a pneumovagina, penis disorders, circulatory disorders of the hind legs with engorgement easier on the blocked side. The horse tends to roll on one side only, organize his straw in his box to find a comfortable position. The sacrum and the hip are closer to the occiput and the ATM, in perfect conformity with the old riding masters. The sacrum is the site of insertion of the femoral biceps muscle to stifle and semi tendinosus muscle to the hocks. It seems to me that crashes on sacrum L6 are not necessarily associated with sacro-iliac blockages, but not more frequently! The lesions are frequently in extension, more in steeplechasers. The discovery of a restriction of mobility leads to a correction osteopathic (structural or fluid) through manipulation in the absence of injury that may indicate the against.

The clinical indications : *In musculoskeletal disorders of whatever kind : it is always important to understand why lameness occurs. Of course, sprains, fractures and other violent accidents are major causes of lameness. But why such a relationship on a horse? it is common to consider predisposing causes, a very disturbed body scheme supporting, by overloading, existence of arthritis or tendinitis. The osteopath can post to understand this sequence, the address and assist in the healing of the lesion caused, managed by all means of modern science. It is much more interesting to understand this disrupted pattern before the appearence of a serious injury. An osteopath is able to capture the subtle dysfunction before clinical visual expression, although already collected by a careful rider.

*Many diseases can benefit from osteopathic approach: recurrent colic, pulmonary disorders, urinary disorders, any visceral dysfunction worsened or initiated by a disturbance of the autonomic nervous system (ANS): Each vertebra is attached to a métamères (segment body) and through the SNA to an organ or viscera. Osteopathic diagnosis can direct or guide, if necessary, the tests and save time and money.
Major contre indications : fractures and serious infections. - Articular fracture - Fractured pelvis.

Relative contre indications a number of joint disease (or visceral) lesions lead to adaptive whose only treatment is sometimes effective but only provides temporarily relief.

OSTEOPATHY DEFINITION

2009-03-03T18:13:46Z

Each osteopath has a very personal relationship to the patient and therefore each diagnosis is unique and individual. Whatever these differences, life is complex and difference is rewarding: «Those highly focused on Science increase the inability to think what is global, connected, complex. Science ignores the complexity of reality.» Edgar Morin, directeur de recherche au CNRS

Osteopathy is concerned with mobility restrictions and their correction. This approach, codified by Still is not so recent:« It is necessary to have a solid knowledge of the spine, because many diseases are actually caused by a defective condition of the body » HIPPOCRATE De Articulis §45.

Restrictions on mobility, or osteopathic dysfunctions are the result of existing neurological disorders The nervous system, that great messenger, which affects all the tissues of an organism, is obviously the key to try to understand how all the symptoms associated with osteopathic lesion can interact and especially how osteopathic manipulation can work?

How can articular disruption (bone and soft tissue) that can affect locally and remotely, be connected with other pathological factors, be positively identified and corrected by osteopathic manipulation and, thus, all associated disturbances?

For a physiologist, it seems reasonable to assume that resistance to movement that characterizes the osteopathic dysfunction of a joint, is the product of the action of one or more of the muscles that move the joint in question. Muscle tissues not only activate the movement but are also the shock absorbers, this antagonistic role is what makes the movement smooth!

These two functions of creation and absorption of energy are based on the same cellular mechanism, that of contraction. The diagnosis is based on osteopathic research of facilitation or restriction of mobility: it is in its braking functions that the muscle can become the major and highly variable in mobility in the joints : 1.in structural techniques, mobility and amplitude are important criteria. 2.In the functional techniques,the emphasis is on ease of movement, and resistance to movement in the injured "métamère" appears to vary in an exponential manner, this resistance in a normal "métamère" changes in a linear fashion. The restriction in the joints found in dysfunction is active opposition or protest against physiological muscle movement direction, and the ease or fluency is a cooperation and a tender muscle in the opposite direction. The muscular strength is not due to a phenomenon of inextensibility or dislocation as viscoelastic ligaments, but to changes in the degree of activation and deactivation of contractile machinery, ie the degree of muscle contraction .

The functional techniques work in the direction of ease of movement ,bringing closer the muscle insertions, reducing tension and muscle length. The disparity between intra-and extrafusal fibers is reduced and the movement is done slowly as opposed to the triggering accident, the CNS has time to adjust the level of gamma activity by reducing the frequency of discharge and the muscle can regain its neutral position. Joint compression is relieved by the same methods. The treatment should take into account all the bodily disorders , the emotional and visceral, the sensitivity of each one, use it in fact, the neuro-motor re-education or proprioceptive if necessary, correction of a faulty diet, dental rebalancing, shoeing...

Returning to the CNS :in fact, the spinal cord does not read the signals individually, but seems rather to deal with complex signals that are presented collectively and from thousands of items of information. The Spinal cord is in a facilitating state when the information is contradictory, signals are unintelligible (a kind of seasickness): the highly sensitive receptors signal falsely that the muscle is stretched almost to the maximum, while it is actually shortened. The spinal cord segment is disturbed and becomes disruptive to any physiological activity in which it participates. Manipulation restores the sensitive function properly allowing the segment to operate smoothly. The hyper-sympathetic nerve activity induces an increase in the centripetal(towards the CNS) discharge , facilitating the automatic maintenance of the vicious circle of osteopathic dysfunction.

Life is not composed of visceral functions, we are not peristalting, we are not vasodilatating… activity starts to move all or part of the body and the substrate, essential for all these activities is the contraction of skeletal muscles. Life is expressed through processes contractile striated muscle, myriads of carefully controlled movements. Implication in the osteopathic globalist perspective, the musculoskeletal system is the primary machinery of life. The primary biological machinery is directed by the central nervous system that acts on behalf of it, in response to sensory information continues: heterokinesis function. Viscera are concerned about the care and maintenance of this neuro-musculo-skeletal system, providing food, elimination, defense, repair: function homeostasis. The mediator essential for adjustments of the somatic visceral is the sympathetic nervous system, in dependence of the CNS (especially hypothalamus), sensory information and chemical modification of the blood.

Health requires that there be a continuous line between a visceral functions and other applications of the soma and the environment. Health requires the smooth functioning of our somatic machinery (neuro-musculo-skeletal), which is the source of the majority of sensory information that reaches the spinal cord.

Accordingly, ill health and disease can be attributed to a breakdown in communication between the two main components of the body, the soma and the visceral. Disorders resulting from such failure can occur in several ways:
the application of the musculoskeletal system is excessive or inappropriate.
When the CNS receives information so senseless so that it can not respond adequately
Where the viscera provide answers inappropriate, inadequate or confusing somatic applications Tensions, imbalances, which exist in an injured tissue , either a bone, a joint, ligament or muscle is continuously reported to the spinal cord, scrambling the transmission patterns of normal sensory information. The noise associated with that due to nerve irritation pointed out, noting one or more individual segments as well as tissues or organs of the same metamerism. Thus, the function held normaly vertically in the marrow becomes clearly affected on a horizontal level (facilitated level ) and the clinical disorder should be seen in cross section. The tissus are offended or offensive, changes are detectable on the surface of the body: muscle tension, tissue texture, function and visceral circulatory, secretory function ... all of which is an integral part of osteopathic diagnosis. The osteopath searches for signs, restrictions of mobility, muscle tension, changes of tissue and vascular disorders associated with visceral troubles, and uses the musculoskeletal system to break a vicious circle from which the spinal cord is essential.Facilitating spinal level help to understand, by the summation of multiple stimuli, a "blocking" does not happen by chance: the region has long been prepared to react to sudden and excessive trigger even something altogether more benign . (the step, the little slip ...) everything is an interdependent phenomenon of what precedes it.