Dog and Pony Show Bodywork by Erica Curless

10/25/2025

10/13/2025

The Equine Core: A Fascial “Corset”

The horse’s thoracolumbar fascia is far from a passive sheet of tissue — it’s a dynamic anchor point that integrates the work of multiple muscle groups to stabilize the spine and transfer force between the forehand and hindquarters. Through this interconnected network, the horse’s trunk functions as both a support system and a power conduit, maintaining postural integrity while enabling athletic movement.

🧬 A Fascial Network of Integration

One of the thoracolumbar fascia’s most important partnerships is with the abdominal muscles — the re**us abdominis, internal and external obliques, and transversus abdominis.
These muscles converge on the linea alba, the central seam of connective tissue that runs along the belly.
When the abdominals contract, tension is transmitted into both the linea alba and the thoracolumbar fascia, creating a girdle-like support system that stabilizes the trunk from above and below.

The intercostal muscles, running between the ribs, provide lateral support and fine-tuned control of ribcage movement, directly influencing both spinal mobility and breathing efficiency.
Meanwhile, the pectorals, particularly the deep pectorals, connect the sternum and ribcage to the thoracic sling, linking the front limb to the trunk. Together, they supply ventral support, balancing the tension distributed dorsally across the thoracolumbar fascia.

⚙️ The Core as a Living Corset

This interconnected system functions much like a corset — but a living, adaptive one:
• The thoracolumbar fascia forms the broad, tension-bearing back panel.
• The abdominals and linea alba tighten from underneath, drawing tension upward and inward.
• The intercostals cinch the ribcage laterally, guiding subtle rotational and respiratory motion.
• The pectorals complete the system, linking the underside of the trunk into the thoracic sling for balanced front-to-back integration.

When these tissues engage in harmony, the horse’s core behaves as a stable, elastic cylinder.
This integrated system supports the spine, transfers power efficiently from hindquarters to forehand, and provides a resilient spring for propulsion and postural control. It protects against sagging, twisting, or collapse while allowing lift, flexion, and flow through the back.

🌐 Dynamic Reality: Beyond the Metaphor

While the “corset” analogy is useful for visualizing this fascial integration, it’s important to remember that real fascial and muscular synergy is fluid, not rigid.
Fascia and its associated muscles don’t hold tension statically — they adapt, dampen, and redistribute forces continuously in response to movement, balance, and load.

In quadrupeds, this becomes especially complex. Horses move through three planes of motion, with alternating limb support, spinal flexion and extension, and significant shear forces acting through the trunk.
The fascial “corset” model simplifies this complexity, but it remains a valuable conceptual tool — illustrating how coordinated tension across multiple muscle-fascial layers maintains both stability and mobility.

💧 Adaptation and Individual Variation

Fascia is a living tissue — constantly remodeling in response to use, training, injury, and age.
Over time, it can thicken, densify, or lose glide, altering how effectively the corset system functions.
Each horse develops a unique fascial signature shaped by posture, conformation, and workload — which means that the “ideal” fascial integration varies from horse to horse.

🜂 In Essence

The thoracolumbar fascia and its muscular partners form a dynamic, responsive “core corset” — one that stabilizes without restricting, connects without constraining, and transmits power through a fluid interplay of tension and release.
When this system is balanced and hydrated, the horse moves as nature intended: supple, lifted, and strong from within.

https://koperequine.com/the-bow-the-string-and-the-corset-how-equine-ligaments-and-myofascial-systems-support-movement/

10/12/2025

😍🐴😍

10/06/2025

Neurophysiology is the branch of physiology that studies how the nervous system functions — how nerve cells (neurons), spinal pathways, and the brain communicate, process information, and control the body.

In simpler terms, neurophysiology explains how the nervous system senses, interprets, and responds to the world — including how it controls movement, posture, tension, and pain.

Here’s a breakdown of what it includes:
• 🧠 Neural signaling: How electrical and chemical impulses travel between nerve cells.
• 🦴 Sensory input: How receptors in skin, muscles, fascia, and joints detect pressure, stretch, or pain and send that information to the brain.
• 💪 Motor output: How the brain and spinal cord send signals back to muscles to contract, relax, or adjust tone.
• ⚖️ Regulation: How the nervous system integrates sensory input to maintain balance, coordination, and internal stability (homeostasis).

In the context of manual or equine therapy, neurophysiology helps explain how touch, movement, and adjustments influence the horse’s perception and motor control — not by changing bones or tissue directly, but by changing how the nervous system processes sensory information.

Manual therapies, such as massage, myofascial release, or chiropractic adjustments, influence improvement primarily through the nervous system rather than structural changes alone. By applying specific touch, pressure, or movement, these therapies provide sensory input that the nervous system interprets, helping to reset muscle tone, reduce perceived pain, and improve coordination. Over time, this can enhance a horse’s movement patterns, flexibility, and overall comfort. Essentially, manual therapy “re-educates” the nervous system, allowing the body to move more efficiently and respond more appropriately to physical demands.

The Box Analogy (and why you should know it) -
https://koperequine.com/the-box-analogy-and-why-you-need-to-know-it/

09/17/2025

In celebration of cowgirls everywhere on National Day of the Cowgirl enjoy this epic photo of inductee Tad Lucas. Whether you are trying out your first hat and pair of boots, keeping ranches running and thriving, a National Champion or a cowgirl at heart. You are part of the rich history of women of the west.

08/16/2025

🚩Horse with Sacroiliac SI joint pain? What if the real problem is in the HEAD? 🐴🧠

So my last post about horses and headaches went viral.
That brought about some great conversations and questions.
This post will hopefully start to answer some of those ❓️:

“Could my horse’s headache actually becoming from the hind end? Does he have a headache?, he's only ever been diagnosed with back pain and sacroiliac dysfunction. I am told his behaviour is just him."

Could this involve the sacroiliac joints?⁉️
Could it all be interlinked 🤔

⤵️ The Craniosacral Reciprocal System:

From an osteopathic perspective, your horse’s skull and sacrum work together in a finely tuned rhythm — known as the Primary Respiratory Mechanism (PRM).

This is a rhythmic, involuntary motion that is present throughout the entire body, but most noticeable in the skull and sacrum.
It moves in alternating phases of flexion and extension, with the skull and sacrum shifting in a coordinated way.
When that rhythm is disrupted, it can create tension, restriction, and compensation patterns far from the original problem.

📖 The dura mater — a strong connective tissue sheath — surrounds the brain and spinal cord. It’s not just a protective layer; it’s part of this living, moving system anchored at both ends of the body. When one end is restricted, the other end feels it.

Key Structures and Attachments:

Sacrum: The dura has a solid anchor at the second sacral segment S2, linking pelvic stability to the spinal system.

The filum terminale anchors the spinal cord and meninges to the coccyx (tailbone), providing stability. the filum terminale is a continuation of the pia mater, with contributions from the dura mater.

Foramen Magnum: At the opposite end, the dura grips firmly inside the skull at the foramen magnum — the gateway where the spinal cord exits the cranium.
Remember those headaches?!

Cervical Attachments: Just below, there’s a lighter connection at the second cervical vertebra (C2), before the dura “free-floats” along most of the spine.

Vertebral Periosteum: At each vertebral exit point, the dura merges with the vertebral periosteum.

The dura mater of the skull, does attach to the inner lining of the temporal, frontal, occipital, and sphenoid bones. The dura mater is a tough, fibrous membrane that surrounds the brain and spinal cord, and it has several layers, one of which is firmly attached to the bones of the skull.

Think those hind end joints are the whole problem?

Sometimes, those sore SI joints are just the symptom, not the cause. Here are a few tell-tale signs the real trouble could be coming from further away in the body and of course one end affects the other, in both directions:

🚩 Ongoing headshyness or poll sensitivity
🚩 Back pain that keeps coming back, even after local treatment
🚩 Uneven muscle development along the topline or hindquarters
🚩 Pelvic restrictions that simply won’t release or keep returning after bodywork
🚩 Unexplained changes in ridden behaviour — especially during transitions or when engaging the hind end

The message :

🐎🐎🐎 WHOLE horse assessment!🐎🐎🐎

Let's not segregate areas of the body.

📌 Would you like me to follow this up with a post showing you exactly how to spot craniosacral imbalance in your horse — from the ground, before you even touch them? Comment below.

And… if you’d like to be first in the queue for practical ways you can help your own horse, drop your email using the contact form in the comments or DM it to me — you’ll be the very first to know when my new short video courses are released. 🐴✨

07/22/2025

Several longtime Washington large animal veterinarians are sounding alarms following the Washington State University veterinary hospital’s decision to offer only mobile services due to staffing shortages. The situation highlights a […]