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Causes of muscular problems:
1. Overuse, overstretching and overloading muscles
for example too many uninterrupted repetitions of
the same activity.
2. Sudden injury such as a slip or fall, getting cast etc, causing
muscles to be torn.
3. Micro-trauma, part of the normal repair process.
4. Fatigued muscle: when glycogen levels fall below required
levels.
5. Delayed onset muscle syndrome (DOMS): occurs after
intense exercise starts as mild pain and reaches its peak
after 1-3 days. Thought to be a protein breakdown.
Contributing Factors:
A. Conformation.
B. Poor muscle conditioning.
C. Too much work on a young, inexperienced horse without
breaks.
D. Insufficient or inappropriate warm up.
E. Insufficient cool down: a horse needs to walk for 10 Min's
after exercise.
F. Continuing to work a tied horse.
G. Badly fitting tack.
H. Poor foot balance.
I. Rider imbalance.
J. Dental pain.
K. Dehydration, electrolyte imbalance.
L. Hormones: individual hormone levels may effect muscular
metabolism.
M. Viral infections.
"When the body gets working appropriately, the force of gravity can flow
through, then, spontaneously, the body heals itself"
Ida Rolf
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