{"id":558,"date":"2021-08-23T08:19:34","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T06:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsfreund-studios.com\/?p=558"},"modified":"2025-04-04T11:15:51","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T09:15:51","slug":"trittsicherheit-islandpferde-trainieren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportsfreund-studios.com\/en\/post\/trittsicherheit-islandpferde-trainieren","title":{"rendered":"Sure-footed Icelandic Horses: The Influence of Enviroment and Training"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our Icelandic horses are generally regarded as cuddly, robust and sure-footed. The horses from the island of fire and ice must also be the latter, after all, they run over scree and rocks there and often even carry tourists with no riding experience on their backs. But what seems so natural on Iceland is absolutely unthinkable for many horse owners at home with their own pony.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Autorin: Karolina Kardel, 360 Grad Pferd<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Why is it like that? Why are the Icelandic horses in Iceland so much more sure-footed than our German Icelandic horses? Or are they at all? In this article we want to get to the bottom of this question and show you reasons why your Isis might be less sure-footed than the horses in Iceland.<\/p>\n

Walking on uneven ground: \"My horse can't do it\".<\/strong><\/p>\n

Basically, every (Icelandic) horse is sure-footed and made to run on uneven ground, over sticks, stones and boulders, uphill and downhill. If a horse could not do this, it would be pretty bad for the horse's survival -\nafter all, it is a flight animal and must be able to flee from attackers in any situation.<\/p>\n

Reading Tip: We explain more about the importance in our article on horse-friendly training <\/a>of the flight instinct for training.<\/em><\/p>\n

So the predisposition for surefootedness is there. Nevertheless, there are many horse owners who say: \"That's all well and good - but my horse can't do it. And it's far too dangerous. \"<\/p>\n

This raises the question: Why can't the horse do this when its body is actually made for it? And if his body is\nmade for it, it shouldn't be dangerous.<\/p>\n

The answer: Because we humans make sure that our horse can no longer do it.
\nA horse that lives on a flat paddock with concrete floor and paddock slabs or possibly even in a paddock box with even less movement stimuli and that is also ridden on the flat oval track most of the time, will learn over time to walk safely and balanced on uneven ground and will trip over every root in the forest. For such a horse, uneven ground can be dangerous.<\/p>\n

Surefootedness requires good body awareness from the horse<\/strong><\/p>\n

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If a horse has problems walking over hill and dale, it often has poor body perception. The better a horse can perceive its body, the safer and more balanced it can use it.<\/p>\n

The horse's communication with the environment takes place through the senses. In addition to the senses\nof hearing, smelling, seeing and tasting, the horse has three other senses, the so-called basic senses: the\ntactile system (sense of touch), the proprioceptive system (self-perception) and the vestibular system (sense\nof balance). The three basic senses are mainly responsible for body perception and register not only stimuli\nsuch as touch, warmth and cold, but also stimuli that affect the movement of the body: Muscle length,\nmuscle tension, skin stretching when bending a joint, the change in the body's centre of gravity, acceleration,\netc.<\/p>\n

The perceived stimuli are processed in the horse's central nervous system (brain and spinal cord). They ensure\nthat the horse has a picture of its body, that it knows how the body is located in space, which position\nwhich leg has, etc.. And it knows, based on the stimulus processing, what it has to do to remain stable and\nbalanced in this position - because balance is always the greatest goal of the brain. Based on the available\ninformation, the central nervous system gives commands to the muscles, which then react with precise tension\nand thus with a target movement.<\/p>\n

Brain and body belong inseparably together. You can imagine the connection of the brain with the sensory\ncells and the muscles as a network of paths. The more often a path is used, the wider it becomes. So it develops\nfrom a beaten track into a motorway. Conversely, the motorway - or let's say the country road - becomes\na beaten track if it is little used. The more stimuli your horses have to process, the wider the paths\nbecome and the faster and better the stimulus processing works.<\/p>\n

The process of stimulus perception, stimulus processing and (motor) reaction cannot be controlled voluntarily,\nbut occurs unconsciously. A classic example: Your horse stumbles and reacts with an appropriate step to\nrestore balance.
\nA particularly large number of proprioceptors are located in the deep muscles along the spine and joints.\nThe deep musculature is the holding musculature, which on the one hand provides stability and on the\nother hand is responsible for fine motor skills.<\/p>\n

The control of movement by means of the proprioceptors represents an important protective function for\nthe horse's body and the individual joints. If too little information is sent to the brain, this protective function\nno longer works optimally.<\/p>\n

Uneven ground and the fear of broken horse legs<\/strong><\/p>\n

Many horse owners are afraid that their horse's legs will break if their horse has to walk over uneven\nground, hilly tracks and over sticks and stones.<\/p>\n

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This fear can be justified, for example, when your horse is taken back into training after a long period of\nstanding in the box. Standing and lack of exercise have caused the proprioceptors to fall into a slumber and must first be activated and trained again. The activation of the proprioceptors must take place first and before the muscular rehabilitation training starts. Only then will the control and interaction of the muscles function optimally, the horses become sure-footed and the horse's legs can withstand unevenness on the ground without breaking down.<\/p>\n

Let's take another quick look at the inside of the horse's leg: There are an incredible number of proprioceptors in the joint capsules. These communicate the position of the joints to the central nervous system and\nthe brain transmits corresponding commands to the relevant muscles to stabilise the joint according to the joint position.<\/p>\n

This means: the more varied the joint movements are - and uneven floors require numerous joint movements\n- the more stimuli are perceived. And the more varied the information the brain has, the better it can\ncommand the right muscle activity that will stabilise the joints. And this is especially important because the\nhorse has no muscles below the carpal joint on the front leg and below the hock joint on the hind leg. The\nmuscles that move the joints (muscles are attached to bones with tendons and at least two bones put together\nform a joint) are located above the hock and carpal joints. This is also the reason why the horse's legs\nare so prone to injury.<\/p>\n

The uneven ground does not damage the horse's legs, but rather stabilises them. However, and this is important in this context, the horse's body must first learn to walk on uneven ground. This means that the many, many proprioceptors have to be activated. This happens - precisely - by running over uneven ground and different surfaces. So grab your horses and walk regularly through the forest, over hill and dale, uphill\nand downhill. \"\"<\/p>\n

And if you are still unsure whether this is really safe for your horses, let's take a short excursion into the\nhuman realm: In proprioceptive training, our feet play an important role. There is a theorem that says: \"Posture\nbegins with the feet\". Here the principle is followed: Activating the foot muscles ensures that the joint\naxes are secured. Of course, our feet cannot be compared 1:1 with those of our horses - although, to a certain\nextent they can, if we were a horse we would walk on the tips of our fingers and toes. Nevertheless,\npostural control of the hoof and leg joints also plays an important role in the horse in connection with body\nperception, posture and surefootedness<\/p>\n

Muscle tension reduces surefootedness<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Muscular tension can also impair surefootedness. On the one hand, tight, tense muscles limit the possibility\nof movement - after all, a muscle must be able to stretch in a relaxed manner for movement to take place -\non the other hand, tension reduces body awareness because muscle tone and muscle length vary less.
\nIf a horse stumbles a lot, it may possibly be due to tight lower neck muscles or tense chest muscles. Muscles\nin the area of the saddle position, for example the broad back muscle M. lattisimus dorsi, are also involved\nin the movement of the forelimbs. If this muscle is tense, the equilateral foreleg cannot be adequately guided\nforward.<\/p>\n

Improving surefootedness: Here's how!<\/strong><\/p>\n

In addition to releasing possible muscular tension, the magic word for improving surefootedness is: sensorimotor\nfunction. Sounds more complicated than it is. Because basically it's all about offering the horse as\nmany different (movement) stimuli as possible to which the body reacts with muscle work.<\/p>\n

The best way to improve proprioception and surefootedness is to walk on many different surfaces such as\nsand, stone, grass, forest floor, gravel, crushed stone, etc., uphill and downhill and over hill and dale - in\nother words, typically Icelandic. So grab your horse and head out for walks through the forest and across\ncountry. Why on foot? Because you give your horse the chance to use his body the way he needs to use it.\nWe riders often tend to restrict our horse's movement by taking the reins short, etc., because we are afraid\nof accidents.<\/p>\n

In addition to these cross country<\/span>- walks, coordination training can also be a wonderful way to improve surefootedness.\nCoordination training requires your horses to use their bodies in a very specific way.<\/p>\n

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Coordination is improved through:<\/strong><\/p>\n