What is Massage? Part 3: Hard Tissue

This going to be a post full of detailed information, so there is a TL;DR at the end for those who would prefer it.

Two of the aforementioned definitions of massage mention “soft tissue”; which brings to mind the bits of paper used to wipe noses during a cold and, unless you are inclined to remember high school or college biology in detail, nothing more than a fleeting “oh yeah!”.

Tissue is used in medical terms to describe just about every part of the body that is permanent. There is soft and hard tissue. Hard tissue is - you guessed it - bone. Soft tissue is everything else.

Since massage is the manipulation of soft tissues, we will mostly be focusing on those. However, muscle acts on the hard tissue- the bones and joints- to create movement, and since the skeleton is the physical base of the body, it will help to have a basic understanding.

This is your horse’s skeleton:

As you can see, there are many different shapes of bones and each has a specific task to perform or muscle group to support. The four categories of bone are flat, long, short, and irregular.

The Scapula (#9) is a very easily found flat bone. It is the bone that sits on both sides of the withers and is very important to saddle fitters.

A long bone offers structural support and a multitude of bony prominences to which tendons and muscles can attach. Pictured is the Humerus (#10).

Other long bones include the radius (#11), femur (#23), tibia (#25), and the cannon (#14).

At the end of the cannon bone, are three short bones: the long pastern (#16 or PP), the short pastern (#17 or MP), and the coffin (#19 or DP). These make up the rest of the leg from the fetlock to the hoof. 

Also pictured here are a few irregular bones, which, as their name states, have an irregular shape. These are called the sesamoid (sez-moy-d) bones. The proximal sesamoid bones (#15 and PSl + PSm) sit behind the fetlock and support important tendons and ligaments that help with shock absorption. The distal sesamoid bone (#18 and DS) goes by a well-known name in the horse world: the navicular bone.

Other well known irregular bones are those that make up what is called the Axial Skeleton:

 Or the spine.

These are called vertebrae and they protect the spinal column.

As you can see, there is quite a lot of variation.

So, these are your basic bone shapes which allow for varied muscle attachments and movements. 

TL;DR- There are four shapes of bones (flat, long, short, and irregular) and each shape has different muscles attached for support and movement.

What is Massage? Part 2: Terminology

Anatomy is a vast subject that encompasses the workings of the entire body. There are three books I highly recommend to help with this subject:

1. Horse Anatomy: A Coloring Atlas” by Robert A. Kainer DVM, MS and Thomas I. McCracken, MS
2. “Anatomy of the Horse” by Klaus-Dieter Budras, W.O. Sack, and Sabine Rock
3. “Color Atlas of Veterinary Anatomy” by Raymond R. Ashdown, BVSc PhD MRCVS and Stanley H. Done, BA BVetMed PhD MRCVS

Another good way to help anatomy stick in your head is to study a certain muscle or group and keep those in mind as you watch a horse move. Watch them being ridden, grazing in the pasture, or lunge them. Every time that muscle or group is in use, just watch it work. This technique helped me quite a bit during my course.

In order to keep things organized in our brains, names have been given to directions of movement, planes of the body, and every little seemingly insignificant part of the body. An easy beginning is basic equine anatomy:

(Kainer/McCracken)

1. Poll	2. Forehead	3. Face	4. Nostril	5. Lips
6. Jaw	7. Throatlatch	8. Crest	9. Neck	10. Jugular Groove
11. Withers	12. Shoulder	13. Point of Shoulder		14. Chest
15. Arm	16. Elbow	17. Forearm	18. Knee	19. Cannon
20. Fetlock	21. Pastern	22. Coronet	23. Hoof	24.  Barrel
25. Girth	26. Belly	27. Flank	28. Back	29. Loin
30. Croup	31. Point of Hip	32. Tailhead	33. Buttock	34. Thigh
35. Stifle	36. Gaskin	37. Hock	38. Hindcannon

Those are the basic, mostly every day terms used by most horse people. The ones in bold are the names for both the fore and hind limbs.

While there are multiple body planes, it is too complicated a subject to introduce in this post. So, the one that I will be referencing is the Median plane:

(Kainer/McCracken)

It is the plane that divides the body into two symmetrical parts, e.g. two identical pieces. The two most well-known and commonly used directional terms are referencing this plane:

Medial- towards the Median plane

and

Lateral- away from the Median plane

These are the other directional terms I will be using:

(Kainer/McCracken)

Dorsal Line- from point A to point B. This follows the line of the spine. If something is referred to as the “dorsal” part it means that part is the closest to this line. Think of the dorsal fin on a dolphin:

Ventral line- from point C to point D. This follows the line of the spine, but on the underside of the animal. If something is referred to as the “ventral” part it means that part is the closest to this line.

Cranial- towards the cranium or head.

Caudal- towards the caudal vertebrae or tail.

Proximal- closest to the body.

Distal- farthest from the body.

Rostral- on the face towards the nose.

When it comes to horses, these terms change below the knee/hock. The reason for this is scientists started with naming human anatomy then applied those names to other animals. Since every animal has a different niche in their environment, their anatomy varies in the types of bones available for the muscles to attach to, i.e. some animals have more intricate muscles than others. With humans, we have hands.

Therefore, below the knee:

(Kainer/McCracken)

Dorsal- towards the head (when you think about it in human terms it’s the top of your hand).

Palmer- on the forelimb towards the tail (when you think about it in human terms it’s the palm of your hand).

Plantar- on the hindlimb towards the tail (when you think about it in human terms it’s the bottom of your foot).

Axial- towards the axial skeleton or median plane.

Abaxial- away from the axial skeleton or median plane.

These terms will help you comprehend the complex subject of anatomy. I will reference this page in later posts to help keep everything straight.