Trigger points or muscle knots are often the cause of pain and movement problems. They occur mainly due to overuse or unfavorable use of the muscle. This can be a short-term overload or a long-term light load. Think for example of an accident, a slip on the pasture, a wrong movement, warming up too short, often repeated movement (scraping, weaving, …), stress, wrong body posture, … A trigger point feels a bit like a pea, although the trigger points in the deeper muscles are more difficult to feel.

The striking thing about trigger point is that they often cause symptoms in a different location than where the muscle knot is located.

Trigger points, active or not, continuously hold muscles in higher tension. This tension makes it difficult for a muscle to be pulled to its full length and we notice stiffness and restriction of movement. Some specific examples where a horse could be suffering from a painful trigger point:

• protest
• general loss of strength
• wrong canter
• difficulties with lateral movements
• falling inwards
• lack of coordination
• dragging hoof
• shortened stride
• poor under-setting of the hindquarters
• letting the leg hang over the jump

These small muscle cramps can, in the long run, be the cause of various painful complaints, bad posture and joint pain. The horse will try to relieve the muscle with the trigger point as much as possible, overloading other muscles and joints. Unfortunately, this “relieving behavior” can sometimes be seen as disobedience.

Trigger point massage, also called myofascial therapy, focuses specifically on flushing these stress points clean. With this, you can achieve great improvement in a relatively short period of time.