"Habitual Tension"

Just that phrase, "habitual tension" sounds uncomfortable. Who would make a habit of being tense or why would you allow it to continue day in and day out? As a health care professional, I see the results of "habitual tension" on my patients. People with headaches, stomach pains, heart palpitations or racing hearts, pelvic pain, sleep disorders, and on and on. At first they don't connect their physical symptoms with the stress that triggered it. But, the more I delve into their history including work and home life, as well as their own personal and family health history, the more it becomes apparent that their physical symptoms are part of the big picture, which is stress and tension. Sometimes, they become so accustomed to the feelings in their neck, back, stomach or head that it becomes "normal." They may take medication to dull the sensations, until nothing works and it affects their daily life. What may seem like something new in their health history, may have begun months or even years earlier and living with it has simply become habit.

What does this have to do with our horses and my recent trip to a Peggy Cummings clinic? Well, actually, a lot! We've all heard of horses who have colicked or developed ulcers from stress and if you've seen the physical signs in person, you know how uncomfortable the horse appears; rolling and pawing, standing with stomach bloated, reaching back to poke at their belly as if to say "what is that I'm feeling and how can I make it go away?" But, what about stress and tension in our horse that presents as something subtle like walking with stiffness in a left front shoulder, not turning or bending on a lead rope either towards you or away from you? How about swinging their head toward you back and forth while standing or walking next to you. Is this disrespect, is it resistance or attitude or is it our horse's way of saying, something hurts, please help me?

Unlike the human patient, we can't elicit a detailed history from our horses, and may never pinpoint the exact moment when it began, but what is now apparent to me after spending the weekend watching Peggy Cummings "connect" with horses, is that much of the tension that we see and feel in our horses starts the minute we put a halter on them. What? That would mean that even as early as the first day of imprinting, if you are so inclined to engage with your foal in this way, you may have begun to create tension in your horse.

But how the heck can you handle a horse, move them from point A to point B or direct their movement, if you can't put that physical restraint on them? Well, apparently, it isn't the rope and halter that creates the tension, it's the "jerk" at the other end. (chuckle, chuckle). Seriously, if you've been around horses long enough, you've either personally pulled on a horse or seen someone else do it. Many "natural" horsemanship trainers advocate quite a bit of pulling and jerking, especially if the horses behavior includes running, turning, kicking or lifting themselves off the ground in response to their handlers' requests. I thought that it was necessary to show the horse who was in charge and because they were big strong animals, that it couldn't be that painful or harmful. But, it begins a pattern of tension and resistance that can occur even when there is no direct pull on the horse.

Horses know what happens before what happens happens, which is to say, they are able to anticipate something about to happen, once they recognize the event that occurs just before that something. So, if every time you walk into your horses area with a halter and lead rope, you then put it on them and pull them or take them out to the round pen, arena, trailer, etc, the horse soon learns to anticipate the activity outside his stall with the lead rope and halter in your hand. If the experience is one of physical stress and strain to the horse or their handler lacks the confidence and skill to create a sense of safety and comfort for the horse, it learns to associate those experience with discomfort or even fear. Muscles tighten, the head and neck recoil, the acids in the stomach flow, tension builds. Now you add riding and you put a poor fitting saddle on the horse with a rider who has little or no balance and a whole lot of her own tension. Day after day this scenario is repeated and "suddenly" you've got a horse who is difficult to handle, lame or shows problems under saddle. If they could talk and drive themselves, they'd be in my office looking for help.

That's where wonderful people like Peggy Cummings can help. Her methods of "Connected Groundwork" use soft, slow techniques that create a way to release tension and overcome bracing. At first, it seemed as if she was holding a horse too close to their face and head on a halter with fleece cushions that would encourage leaning and pushing, but when done correctly, it gives the horse the skills to carry himself and connects the hindquarters which create the power, to the rest of his body. It was subtle and elegant. There was a dramatic improvement in several of the horses, most evident in a big warmblood, whose tension in the neck and poll had created a very dangerous habit of swinging his head rapidly and vigorously towards his handler. Peggy very calmly explained that he was looking for a place to push against to release the tension. Skeptical, I couldn't stop thinking that this horse was using his head to push Peggy away and avoid being asked to move his body, which is true, but it was because he felt tension and pain. He was perfectly happy to move, once the brace and tension was out of his body. With just two 15 minute sessions, Peggy accomplished exactly that. BEAUTIFUL!

The riding just flowed from these wonderful beginnings and now I have yet another way of enriching the relationships I have with my horses and the horses of my students. If this has helped me to relieve some of the tension in their lives as they've helped me relieve stress in my life, then it will be a fair exchange. Breaking a habit is not easy, but the first step is in recognizing it and doing something different, hopefully improving on the situation. Next time your horse acts up, resists, pulls to the right, trips, moves out slowly or any host of "issues", ask yourself, where is the tension? What is my horse trying to tell me?

P.S. One thing that was not addressed was the horses feet. Several of the horses were shod and both shod and unshod horses showed signs of heels that were too low, toes too long in the front with obvious low coffin bones and subsequent toe walking. The effect this has on their knees, shoulders and back cannot be minimized and creates its own tension and resistance when left unchecked. Assessing hoof health is another part of the "big picture". C.M.