Connected Bodywork

09/07/2026

Early recognition of a CSF leak doesn’t just help the patient. It can help the whole healthcare system.

A patient with a CSF leak may present again and again with:

“migraine” “vertigo” “neck pain” “tinnitus” “fatigue” “brain fog”

But sometimes the biggest clue isn’t where the head hurts.
It’s what happens when the patient stands up.

Think about spontaneous intracranial hypotension (SIH) when a patient describes:

→ A headache that becomes worse when upright and improves after lying flat
→ A headache that is relatively mild on waking but builds through the day
→ A sudden thunderclap headache followed by an orthostatic pattern
→ A new daily persistent headache that initially had a positional component

Unexplained symptoms

And then listen for the symptoms around the headache:

Dizziness or disequilibrium.
Nausea
Muffled hearing or blocked ears
Tinnitus
Posterior neck pain
Cognitive difficulty
Fatigue
Photophobia
Visual blurring

The 2023 multidisciplinary consensus guideline recommends considering SIH in patients presenting with an orthostatic headache.

Because every missed clue can mean another appointment.
Another investigation.
Another treatment for the wrong diagnosis.
And another day that patient remains disabled.

Earlier recognition → earlier investigation → earlier appropriate treatment.

You’ve probably never heard of a CSF leak — I hadn’t either, until I had one.

It’s when the brain fluid leaks, causing severe headaches that ease when lying flat. Many go years undiagnosed.
If you’re a healthcare professional, please repost.

Awareness saves lives. 💙

09/06/2026

09/04/2026

Anyone in our Mass area interested? I am reaching out to potential host barns, as this would be an incredible learning opportunity for any rider or rehabbing horse!

09/04/2026

Another exciting publication from CSU Equine Sciences!

Some mares have a harder time clearing the normal inflammation that occurs after breeding, a condition known as persistent breeding-induced endometritis (PBIE). This can make it more difficult for these mares to become and stay pregnant.

In this study, we asked a simple question: Could a daily supplement help the uterus recover more quickly after breeding?

The results were promising! After about three weeks of supplementation with resveratrol (a protein found in red grapes, and the reason red wine is encouraged for cardiac health), mares receiving resveratrol had fewer inflammatory cells in the uterus 24 hours after breeding, along with changes in immune signals suggesting their bodies were better able to regulate and resolve inflammation.

While more research is needed to determine whether this translates into improved pregnancy rates, resveratrol could provide a simple, non-invasive way to support uterine health in mares that struggle with post-breeding inflammation.

Even better, this project was led by CSU undergraduate Genevieve Denison and brought together researchers from Animal Sciences, Clinical Sciences, and Biomedical Sciences. We love seeing our students help answer real-world questions that matter to horse owners, breeders, and veterinarians!

Link here: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/veterinary-science/articles/10.3389/fvets.2026.1760273/pdf

08/30/2026

Before it was a buzzword, Linda Tellington TTouch World was bringing peoprioceptive awareness to horses and riders- safe and effective body wraps, therapeutic touch and bodywork for horses and riders, ground pole and obstacle exercises, the list goes on. Spanning groundwork to mounted work, if you havent explored what TTouch and TTeam offer, you really missed some great wellness and training methods around since the 1970s!

Riders spend a lot of time thinking about strength, fitness, and soundness. But there is another part of athletic performance that is just as important: whether the horse knows where its body is in space.

“Proprioception is an awareness of where the body is in space,” Dr. Julie Vargas, founder of Limestone Equine Performance Medicine in Lexington, Kentucky, explained on The Plaidchat.

It affects everything from balance to how high a horse picks up a leg over a pole or fence. And when proprioception is weakened by injury, neurologic disease, or deconditioning, rebuilding it can become an important part of rehabilitation.

Vargas offered a simple human example. Stand on a firm surface, close your eyes, and see whether you can maintain your posture without swaying. Without vision to help you orient yourself, your body has to rely on its own internal sense of position. That is proprioception.

For a horse, the concept is similar.

The horse has to know where each limb is without looking at it. That awareness helps the horse negotiate poles, fences, uneven ground, and changes in terrain. “How does the horse know how high to pick up his legs as he passes over a pole or a fence?” Vargas asked.

If that body awareness is impaired, the signs can become more obvious. Vargas said poor proprioception can contribute to tripping or stumbling. It becomes especially important when a horse has experienced neurologic deficits or has changed the way it moves.

During recovery, sometimes the horse needs to relearn a movement pattern. Vargas explained that sensory input can be used to encourage a limb to move differently. “Even just a bell boot could act like that sensory input to change the movement,” she said.

📎 Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/08/26/what-is-proprioception-and-why-does-your-horse-need-it/
📸 © The Plaid Horse

08/29/2026

The Intelligence of Elasticity: Stiffness, Cadence and Mechanotransduction
“Suspension and amplitude are not created by stretching and relaxation, but through the appropriate coordination and stiffness of elastic structures.”

— Jean Luc Cornille

Movement is not created by muscular contraction alone.

The horse's body functions as an integrated system in which muscles, tendons, fascia, joints and other connective structures interact continuously with gravity, ground reaction forces and inertia.

Within this system, muscles may work concentrically, eccentrically or isometrically while tendons and other elastic structures deform, store energy and return part of that energy during locomotion.

This interaction between muscular force and elastic structures is fundamental to efficient movement.



The Stretch-Shortening Cycle
In many athletic movements, an active lengthening of the muscle-tendon system precedes shortening. This sequence is commonly described as the stretch-shortening cycle.

The principle can easily be observed in human athletics.

During throwing, jumping and running, the athlete does not produce power through one isolated muscular contraction. Movement results from a precisely timed sequence involving multiple body segments, muscular actions and elastic structures.

The horse is different anatomically from the human athlete, but the fundamental principle remains relevant: efficient locomotion depends upon the coordination of force throughout the entire body.

The hind limbs, back and forelimbs do not function as independent mechanical units.

They function as parts of a coordinated system.

The rider cannot directly control each muscle, tendon or deeper structure involved in this process. The rider can, however, influence the conditions under which the horse's nervous system organizes them.

This distinction is fundamental to intelligent equine training.

We do not manually position the deeper structures.

We create the conditions allowing the horse to coordinate them.



Elastic Energy
The horse's limbs are remarkably specialized for economical locomotion.

Long tendons associated with relatively short muscle fibers allow portions of the limb to function as elastic energy-storage systems.

As the limb accepts load, elastic structures can deform and store strain energy. As loading changes, part of this energy can subsequently be returned.

This reduces the amount of muscular work required for locomotion.

The horse therefore does not move efficiently simply because muscles contract harder.

Efficient locomotion depends upon when force is produced, how force is transmitted through the body, how tissues deform under load, and how effectively elastic energy is stored and returned.

This is considerably more sophisticated than the traditional opposition between contraction and relaxation.



Stiffness Is Not Rigidity
The word stiffness is often misunderstood in equestrian language.

Stiffness does not necessarily mean rigidity.

In biomechanics, stiffness describes the relationship between an applied force and the deformation of a structure.

A structure that is excessively compliant may deform without efficiently returning useful energy. A structure that is excessively rigid may be unable to accommodate the forces and movements required of it.

Athletic efficiency exists between these extremes.

The horse continuously adjusts the stiffness of muscles, tendons, joints and the body as a whole according to the mechanical demands of each instant.

This is functional stiffness.

It is not muscular rigidity.

Nor is it relaxation.

Rigidity and slackness represent two extremes. Neither describes efficient athletic locomotion.

The athletic horse needs sufficient stiffness to resist inappropriate deformation, transmit forces and utilize elastic recoil while retaining the mobility necessary to coordinate the next phase of the stride.

This is why the traditional instruction to simply make the horse “relax” provides an incomplete explanation of efficient movement.

The objective is not relaxation.

The objective is coordination.



The Horse's Natural Cadence
The efficiency of elastic energy storage and return depends strongly upon timing.

This brings us to one of the most important elements of athletic training:

cadence.

Every horse has PLEASE CLICK LINK TO READ ON much more to read! :) https://scienceofmotion.com/documents/mechanoresponsiveness_22.html

08/29/2026

Madalaine has been helping beginners to Olympians with these concepts for over 20 years - its nice to see the wider acceptance and normalization of the shared influence between horse & rider 😉

04/13/2026

Our planned partner for this month’s event in the Plymouth area (April 24-26) had to change plans and now we are looking for a new donor horse. If you know of a horse that might be ready to cross the bridge and help over 20 equine proessionals learn and deepen their understanding, please reach out! 508-658-0078 or [email protected]. Thank you🦄