Sixth Sense .... but not as you know it
👂🏻👁️😋👃🏻🤗....We all know our 5 senses, right? but did you know that proprioception is commonly known as “the sixth sense”?
🤔💭So, what is proprioception and why do I prescribe exercises to improve it during rehab?
Working alongside the vestibular system, proprioception is your horse’s awareness of his own body and sense of position, a clever automatic and unconscious body monitoring system of co-ordination, balance and movement all working together, allowing him to know where his limbs and body are in space.
🐎Your horse, just like us has a specialised network of proprioceptors which are sensory receptors, located in tissues all throughout the body, in muscles, tendons, ligaments and joints. Carrying sensory information back to the CNS regarding pressure, stretch, and detecting subtle changes in movement, position, tension and force within the body so that that it can work out where the body is and what it is doing or needs to do, essentially positional receptors.
The two primary types of sensory receptors are
Muscle spindles – Getting its name from its spindle shape, the muscle spindle sensory nerve cell coils itself around the individual muscle fibre located in the belly of skeletal muscles, these complex and extremely sensitive, fast reacting nerve cells relay information to the CNS with regards to the muscle length of the fibres and any other changes. As they can detect how much and how fast a muscle is shortening or stretching, they can try to prevent a tear by recognising the sudden stretch and immediately send a rapid signal to the brain to contract, shortening the muscle and therefore preventing injury.
Golgi Tendon receptors – located in both the origin and insertion of the muscle, their role is to look at the tension within the muscle, indicating how hard the muscle is working, so when they detect that there is muscular strain or overloaded these receptors will stop the activity in the muscle to prevent damage.
As you can see, proprioceptors are imperative in detecting muscular imbalances and crucial to then relaying the information to the CNS to correct movement to avoid injury, such as undulating ground, landing awkwardly after a jump or a sudden unexpected stretch.
So now you understand a little bit about these proprioceptors, you can see why it is paramount to use exercises that enhance proprioception alongside treatment to help to strengthen these neural pathways, to avoid injury and allow the horse to perform at his best.
It is important to consider that the horse is less aware of his body, and proprioception does not work at its best when the horse is, cold, stressed, excited, unfit, fatigued, or in pain. Which leads me nicely onto my next point that after an injury, proprioception levels will have been adapted to the presence of lameness and pain and compensatory movement patterns will of inevitably have taken place along with new neural pathways that may inhibit normal movement patterns and optimum gait function. This leads to extra strain and tension on bones, muscles tendons, ligaments and fascia restrictions. So, it is imperative to ensure the horses body is in equilibrium, achieved and supported by a well thought out plan of carefully constructed exercises to not only strengthen the tissues but to also regain proprioception, balance, joint range of movement, reducing re-injury, and restoring his confidence in correct gait function and address the body as a whole unit, promoting quality of life and the return to full function and eliminate further pain and discomfort.
🤔💭But my horse has not been injured so why would I need to enhance his proprioception?
Enhancing and maintaining good proprioception will improve balance, posture, strength, co-ordination, and optimum gait motion, confidence in movement and very importantly help to reduce injury.
There are many different exercises to improve proprioception so please do speak to your therapist first about which exercises are most suitable for your horse as not all exercises will be suitable or beneficial for all horses, they could be detrimental to his health and cause further biomechanical stresses. Take for example pole work, if your horse is not using himself correctly or carrying out the correct quality movement to clear the poles then this will put strain on many other structures, promote incorrect neural pathways and train incorrect movement patterns, the exact opposite to what we are trying to promote and encourage for optimum health, function and reduction of injury.
Muscle image curtesy of https://mx.pinterest.com/pin/397090892129860072/?send=true
