In part one we discussed the sensation of a saddle with a rider on a horse’s back and some of the damage this can cause. In part two we will continue that discussion as it relates to NHE and what we have learned through our research.

CONFESSION
Let’s frankly confess that the Nevzorov Haute Ecole Rider, when on horseback, in principle, can bring to the horse the same unpleasant physiological feelings as an alcoholic show-jumper. I assure you, the endomysium or perimysium of the muscle experiences compression and distress, which translates to discomfort or pain. The title, degree, and intentions of a rider aren’t important. The horse doesn’t care if this discomfort comes from the desire to just stupidly “pleasure ride”, jump over painted bars or from the fine intention to rehearse a difficult element. This confession is a turning point, an incredibly important moment. But even its sincerity should be based on absolute knowledge.

What happens inside a horse’s back? An average TOTAL surface area of the panels of the saddle that contact the horse is about 300-500 cm2. But this is the total area; let’s not fool ourselves. We can and we must speak only about the surface area of the strongest pressure, i.e. about those miserable 50 cm2, that have the most influence on the horses’ back. An average rider’s weight is 70 kilograms (154 pounds). The pressure for 1 cm2 of the horses’ back is about 1 kilogram, 300 grams per cm2 This figure can vary from 1 to 1.5 kilos (2.2 to 3.3 pounds). What does this figure mean?

This figure means, that with a saddle perfectly fitted to the specific horse’s back, with an ideal, “glued” School seat on the soft tissues of the back, and to be precise, on the tissues of the transversospinal muscles, the trapezius muscle, the tissues of the longissimus muscle, the epidermis and dermis which is filled with sensitive receptors, on all of these structures we have a pressure, on average, of 1.5 kilos (3.3 pounds) per square centimeter. Take a bar weighing 1.5 kilograms, with an end that has the surface area of one square centimeter and put it on your back, near the spine, asking somebody to hold it so it doesn’t fall, but let it rest on your back vertically. Imagine that there are 50 of points of pressure like this – united or not. And that’s not all.

The average weight of a saddle is about 5 kilos (11 pounds). This is if you just rest it on the back, not tightening the girth. And if the girth is tightened? How many times will the pressure increase? Not the weight, but the force of pressure on the horse’s back?

There is a simple School example done with a string, which can explain a lot. We take a simple scale. It should tell us about what horse feels. We put a common leather string on the scale.

By itself, it weighs about three grams.

Now we tie it like a girth around the scale, not very tightly. Now the scale feels the string like it’s something that weighs 4 kilos (8.8 pounds). Its weight has essentially been multiplied.

A “crushing” effect between two objects took place. A horse’s back experiences the same thing that our scale does. Compressed between the drawn- tight girth and the panels of the saddle, it feels the multiplied saddle pressure, which seemingly weighs just 5 kilos.

We must add this multiplied saddle weight to the rider’s weight and talk about the aggregation of impact on soft tissues of the back by these TWO factors. In total, we get a pressure of not less than 3 kilos (6.6 pounds) per square centimeter of the horse’s back. This is already a serious problem.

A RIDER IS “A BLUNT OBJECT”

And now honestly and in detail we shall examine the physiological effect and therefore the feelings of a horse. The formula of “trauma by blunt object” is well known in forensic science. Ironically and bitterly, it is this formula that shows the most complete and the most honest way of characterizing our situation. The rider himself is the “blunt object”. It is a sad and funny conclusion after many thousands of years of riding. The presence of a man on the horse’s back can only be considered a “traumagenic” factor, and not in any other way. Moreover, in our case we must speak about so-called “combined” trauma, due to the damage of the anatomical structures of tissues that happens in multiple areas.

The extreme effect of the presence of a saddle, girth and rider you can see in the photo.

But these are extreme, criminal effects.

These “extreme effects” enable us to confidently say that a saddle and a rider, in essence, are creating that traumagenic situation.

Of course, there are stages, but if the end result of the impact is a deep trauma and destruction of skin and some of the muscles, then the beginning and intermediate stages are discomfort and pain.This is a law of traumatology.

Most saddles have a hard wooden, fiberglass, plastic, or metal tree. Its effect in addition to the rider’s weight and the impact of the shifting of this weight will always, no matter what, accompany all of a horse’s movements regardless of saddle stuffing, pads, sweat flaps etc.

FOR THE ESPECIALLY DENSE MINDED

Forensic examination classifies impact of this type as “compression, friction, crushing of organs and tissues, global or local graze wounds.” I shall repeat, horrible photos that are shown only as an example of the logical completion of the type of impact we are studying. We won’t speak about such deep trauma. We are not touching the area of terrible traumas, we are only talking about discomfort and pain as the first stages of the impact that leads to similar traumas.

So, on to “trauma by blunt object”.

I’m quoting a typical forensic textbook:

1. Practically every object that is in prolonged forceful contact with the skin or muscles of any living being damages them to one degree or another.
2. Pressure is a prolonged forceful interaction of an object and body tissues.
3. The exterior sign of pressure is an inappreciable or significant impression in relief of an object’s traumatizing surface. In criminal cases that is, for example, an imprint of a tire tread or the bars of a radiator on a person who has been hit by a car. In our case, it is the impression of a saddle pad.
4. The most traumatic pressure is “straight, direct, perpendicular pressure” (which is exactly our case).

One more sign of pressure is sweat production in the area under pressure. We can see both; saddle pad impression and sweat production under the saddle on a horse. All are signs of pressure. The effects of AA (aggressive action) on live tissues are in front of us.

Take note!
The tissues that suffer the most and are exposed to microtraumas are the transversospinal muscle tissues … It seems they are hidden more deeply, but the fascicles of their fibers run from the spinous processes behind the vertebrae, to the mastoids which lie afore, which makes them especially vulnerable to pressure from above simply because of their location.
In short, we have a scientifically proven fact, which allows us to state that not a single horse feels pleasure from a rider being on his back. That is the sad physiological truth. All the discussions from riders and their “feelings” about what horse experiences under the saddle – are strained feelings, self-deception, fantasies and ignorance.

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