MUSCLE ATROPHY and the Saddle Fit Connection By Jochen Schleese, CMS, CSFT, CSE
Muscle atrophy is usually something we see happening in old people—and old horses. Muscles waste away from simple aging and lack of use. Sadly, rescue horses who have suffered starvation usually show signs of muscle atrophy, regardless of their age. In short, muscle atrophy is a decrease in muscle strength because of a decrease in muscle mass or the amount of muscle fibers. Atrophy can be partial or complete, causing varying levels of weakness.
resulting in frailty. It is often partnered with osteoporo- sis, a loss of bone density that is similarly associated with aging. But age isn’t the only cause. If your horse is laid up due to injury and his regu-
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lar exercise comes to a grinding halt, you can expect his muscles to atrophy to a degree. But what if your horse isn’t old, hasn’t been on stall rest and you are exercising him diligently on a regular basis, yet you notice his muscles diminishing? Unfortunately, muscle atrophy does some- times happen, despite your best intentions and efforts. The primary concerns for a horse owner are whether the muscle will regenerate, returning to its normal size and shape, and how to treat the horse to help it recover. Physiotherapy often helps, but it’s important to first consider the possible causes. Let’s assume you haven’t really changed anything in his
daily routines, including his diet. There are many diagnos- tic tools available to determine the cause of muscle atro- phy, including examining the muscle enzymes, measur- ing serum samples to determine Vitamin E concentra- tions, ultrasonography, radiography, nuclear scintigraphy,
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hen atrophy occurs in the aging process, it’s referred to as sarcopenia. Sarcopenia is defined as an age-related loss of skeletal muscle,
A horse reacting defensively while being saddled presumably in antic- ipation of pain he has previously felt by an ill-fitting saddle.
electromyography (EMG) and even muscle biopsy. Before all that, however, it is useful to consider some- thing simple but all-important.
Consider the Saddle Muscle atrophy in horses is often caused by an ill-fitting saddle. If an unbalanced saddle puts too much pres- sure on a particular muscle and the horse tries to remove or avoid this pressure, he goes into ‘defensive mode’ by contracting the muscle (and the surrounding ones) and may even alter his gaits. Under the point of pressure, where circulation is impacted (thus reducing nutrients and oxygen to the affected area), the muscle will ‘unde- velop’ or atrophy. Atrophy will occur under severe instances of constant
pressure. The pressure will first damage the hair follicles (resulting in hair loss and/or white hair). The atrophy can be reversed only when the cause is addressed (i.e., the pinching saddle), allowing the muscle to regrow— although the white hairs will remain. Muscle memory will help in the rebuilding of atrophied muscles if they were properly trained in the first place; it will take significantly longer to build up untrained muscles or incorrectly trained muscles that never developed properly in the past.
Courtesy of Karen Loshbaugh, CSE.
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