“It takes four times longer
to develop a muscle than it does to lose muscle…”
or bruise this nerve against the shoulder blade, causing prolonged and continuous muscle damage. This compression of nerves is also seen in other places on the body, leading to muscle atrophy wherever it occurs. When a muscle has been developed through training
more than it would have naturally, and then not used for a while, it will naturally ‘atrophy’ back to its shape as nature would have determined it. It takes four times longer to develop a muscle than it does to lose muscle, which is why a person’s illness resulting in bed rest can have such a drastic effect on his/her leg muscles when he/she starts to move around again. The effect on a horse on stall rest can be similarly dramatic.
Warning Signs: Check Your Saddle! The physical signs of saddle fit trauma and the atrophy that follows are easier to spot than the psychological signs. Warnings that your horse is in pain include head tossing, bucking, stumbling, tongue issues, rearing and resistance. White hair, dry spots and muscle atrophy are visual effects of poor saddle fit. Each of these manifestations has originated in a saddle
that has not been fitted properly to the horse—either the gullet channel is too narrow, the tree points and gullet plate are not roomy enough at the withers, or the angle of the tree at the gullet does not match the shoulder angle, allowing it to pass through clearly (like a sliding door). The spinal issues, nerve damage and cartilage injuries that are the result of poorly fitting saddles may take months or even years to appear. One sign is a horse that is ‘girthy,’ anticipating pain once he’s girthed up. Those of us who fit saddles have seen terrible muscle
atrophy in the trapezius created by pressure from a pinch- ing saddle, but there is one major potential mistake in what is being written about atrophy. If your horse seems to be narrowing behind the shoulder area, it is not neces- sarily due to muscle atrophy but rather because the muscle lengthens during use. A good analogy is when the hand goes up to the shoulder, the biceps becomes big (contracting, shortening, wider). But then when you stretch out your arm (i.e. lengthen or stretch the muscle) you’ll see how narrow your muscle appears—just like a horse’s back which is stretched. As your horse becomes more supple, the longissimus dorsi muscle should lengthen. Unfortunately, this is sometimes mistaken for muscle atrophy.
Just like in bodybuilding, understanding muscle defi- nition and biomechanics will explain why certain parts of the body become bulky, while others become more defined and appear slimmer. After working out for a year, a bodybuilder probably needs a new jacket because his
52 July/August 2018
upper body has gotten bigger, and new pants because his waist has gotten smaller—and not because of atrophy due to pressure from his belt!
Do the Right Thing Horses do not consciously behave badly and really want nothing more than to please their leader. Horses value this bond between themselves and their riders. When the saddle causes pain, it creates confusion for the horse and frustration for the rider. As a rider, you intuitively know when something is
wrong in your relationship, even before you see the physi- cal signs of saddle (or any other) pain; you see it in your horse’s eyes, you feel it when he doesn’t nicker or come to you freely when called. When the horse expresses himself this extremely, he has already suffered for many days. Now he is anticipating pain. Make sure that you aren’t exacerbating the problem because of what you perceive to be the problem. It’s important to address the root cause as soon as possible. Your saddle may need to be adjusted. In fact, it should be checked regularly. If that doesn’t solve the problem, consider other possibilities. Some forms of atrophy are actually caused genetically, such as PSSM (polysaccharide storage myopathy). Muscle atrophy is a common clini- cal sign of this, which is most common in Quarter Horses, Belgians, Percherons and Warmbloods. Always contact your equine professionals to help you
determine what`s going on whenever your horse seems resistant or in pain. Your partner deserves nothing less.
Muscle Conditions Compared
Another question that sometimes comes up is ‘what is the difference between muscle atrophy and muscu- lar dystrophy?’ While atrophy and dystrophy are both terms related to muscular functioning, muscular atro- phy is the wasting of muscles due to loss of tissue (because of inactivity or due to the above influences) while muscular dystrophy is a group of muscle diseases that lead to reduced mobility because of neurological weakness in the muscles. Muscular dystrophy can be seen to be more severe than muscle atrophy since dystrophy is hereditary and has no cure. Loss of muscle tone due to muscle atro- phy can usually be regained, although this depends on the underlying cause. Muscle hypertrophy is an increase in the size of a
muscle through an increase in the size of its compo- nent cells. It differs yet again from muscle hyperplasia, which is the formation of new muscle cells.
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