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.