09/13/2026
One of the great things about presenting on Facebook is talking about ideas that people find challenging and then seeing where the holes are in my presenting. This really helps me to tighten up the study and the data points.
One thing that came up in the last post was that I had compared a “skinny horse” with a fat horse. It makes little difference to the skeleton what the body score of the horse is. The weight of the hind end muscles is immense and the pelvic floor by comparison is very small…..in short there’s allot of weight pushing inwards and little opposing force pushing outwards. One of the most common questions I get is can it be fixed? I would never use the word “fixed” this can be managed is the most hopeful I can be. This answer will be different for every horse…it’s nuanced because of things like age, breed, early workload and compensation factors then also how long has the horse been functioning in this state? Compensation means the horse is now having to load areas that were designed to work in harmony with the pelvis, not take the main load. Then also factor in the horses conformation, where is the lumbo sacral junction placed within the pelvis as this can vary greatly! Is there a sacralised lumbar present? Kissing spines? Does the horse have pre-existing NPA in the him feet?
Palpating the hind end of the horse has become a specialty of mine and knowing where the boney land marks would be in an ideal position. Variations exist for sure but our human expectations can make things worse for the horse.
Can they come back from pelvic collapse? With good rehab and lowered expectations of the horse you can strengthen and stabilise for sure. If the horse is resilient enough they can still perform for sure but the cost will be earlier boney changes down the line. That is a decision every horse person will need to make, what you do with your horse is your business! I just want everyone to have the information because in my mind prevention is better than cure. This is why I am very careful how much work I do with my horses before 5-6(mare,5 gelding,6)
I did a rehab last year on a pelvic collapse TB horse and followed his journey, his name was Gordon. Although I was able to keep him comfortable I think he will be unridable before his teens.
Riddle me this…..if the Skeleton is the scaffolding for the soft tissues and the scaffolding fails then what happens to the function of the soft tissues? Some atrophy(normally the longissimus and medial glutes) and some hypertrophy( the hamstring group and PSOAS) because as one under performs something has to pick up the slack…..this is dysfunctional. There’s a definite artform to bringing some function back to these horses. There’s allot more going on that we are collecting data points for through Etica Equine Charitable Trust.
But again, you can cover anything with fat……
