For a long time horse enthusiasts, owners, riders and professionals have been very aware of muscles, tendons, ligaments, bones and joints and know that caring for these structures within the horse’s body is crucial for health, wellbeing and performance.  But in the past few years there has been a new kid on the block that everybody is talking about; fascia.

Fascia isn’t actually new of course, it’s been there all along playing a crucial role within our horse’s bodies since the beginning of time, but up until recently it has been overlooked for the vital role it plays within the body and how important it is to maintain and keep it healthy. So, in this blog I hope to remove the enigma surrounding fascia and summarise what it is, the role it plays within the body and ways to keep it healthy.

What is fascia?

Fascia is an interconnecting web of fibres and is the LARGEST SYSTEM IN THE BODY! This web of soft tissues surrounds every muscles, bone and organ of the body and acts to hold it all together maintaining a balance between tension and elasticity to enable good posture and movement.

Different types of fascia

1) SUPERFICAL FASCIA: This fascia is found directly underneath the skin. It has a loose, holy appearance and is very pliable, but don’t think this means it is weak as it most certainly is not. It contains collagen fibres and fat tissue enabling not only the gliding action of the skin to facilitate movement but also acts as a carriageway for nerves, blood vessels and the lymphatic system.

2) INTERMUSCULAR FASCIA: This fascia is similar to superficial fascia in its makeup also having relatively loose, holy fibres. It is highly gelatinous in texture being rich in hyaluronic acid and is essential to allow muscles and limbs to move freely enabling a gliding action thus preventing friction and pain.

3) VISCERAL FASCIA: This fascia surrounds all the organs within the body such as the heart and lungs. It works to suspend the organs in their cavity and provide them with a protective layer of connective tissue. The structure varies depending on what organ it is surrounding.

4) DEEP FASCIA: This is the fascia that surrounds all the muscles within the horse’s body and is much denser and very collagen rich. Any dysfunction within the deep fascia will have a direct affect on the muscles ability to function. Deep fascia is made up of lots of layers as each muscle fibre is surrounded by fascia, then each muscle fibre bundle is surrounded by another layer of fascia then each muscle is surrounded by fascia and furthermore, each group of muscles is surrounded by fascia, so on and so forth creating a very strong and supporting structure. Think about a cross section of an orange – the fine white lines represent the fascia holding all the segments together to form a whole.

Why is healthy fascia important?

Being the largest structure within the horse’s body and a major carriageway for the nerve network, healthy fascia is essential for good posture, mobility and health. As explained earlier, the web-like structure covers the whole body and so a problem one area can cause multiple issues in others. Often overlooked, tight fascia in one area could actually cause lameness or pain in a completely different region as posture is impeded causing other body parts to have to work harder to compensate.

Unhealthy fascia is disorganised in structure and if damaged i.e. with scar tissue from a tear, it can take a very long time to repair itself and given that fascia plays such a vital role in the movement of muscles with a stretch and recoil action, unhealthy fascia can lead to muscle and joint injuries aswell.

How to keep fascia healthy?

So, now we know the important role fascia plays in our horse’s bodies, what can we do the keep it healthy? Here are my top tips to support healthy fascia in your horse:

1) Hydration: Ensure your horse always has free access to clean drinking water.

2) Nutrition: This links into the hydration element too as fascia not only needs to be hydrated of water, it also needs to maintain hyaluronic acid levels aswell, so good nutrition is vital.

3) Well-fitting tack: This further links into the hydration point above as fascia can become dehydrated through pressure and one of the biggest physical pressures applied to the fascia is both the tack and the rider’s weight. Therefore well-fitting tack will help minimise pressure points that are likely to cause localised dehydration.

4) Variety of movement: Fascia likes to be moved – if fascia isn’t moved it can become tight and inelastic. That said however, overworked fascia can also become tight and inelastic so variety of movement is important to work the fascia throughout the horse’s body evenly. When schooling it is important to incorporate a range of exercises in different directions and different planes (i.e. forward and lateral movement) as well as working on different surfaces such as grass, road and sand. The more variety you can incorporate the better and this includes activities to stimulate the neural pathways such as proprioception exercises.

5) Massage: Equine massage therapy has methods that directly affect the fascia helping to mobilise, rehydrate and maintain its elasticity and health.

6) Stretching: Stretch exercises to increase range of motion will help to maintain the elasticity and overall health of fascia, again a massage therapist has knowledge of stretch exercises that can be beneficial to achieve this.

7) Rest: Don’t forget rest! Rest is as important as movement allowing time for recovery and regeneration of fibres.

Summary

To summarise, fascia plays a massive role in your horse’s ability to move, perform well and stay fit and healthy, literally from head to hoof, so it is in every horse owner’s best interests to invest time to look after this mighty web of fibres! Movement is key (it is the same in humans - a more active person is more likely to have healthier fascia than an inactive person) and one sobering thought that should make us all focus on fascia far more than we have perhaps done in the past, is this: fascia is designed to be used – it is there to facilitate movement - so fascia that is not used can turn into adipose tissue (fatty tissue) which is nowhere near as flexible as fascia resulting in stiffness and pain as well as the potential for numerous other health problems.

So that’s it, my brief summary on fascia which has hopefully lifted the mystique surrounding this topic and given you an insight into yet further ways you can help support your horse to be happy, healthy and improve performance. If you have enjoyed reading this blog, please remember to share it with a friend and feel free to get in touch if you would like to book your horse in for a massage therapy session with me, including fascial release and stretch exercises.

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Thanks for reading and sharing and I look forward to catching up with you again soon!