LARRY BAILEY HORSE WORLD

Form to Function

Volume 5  Continued (7/27/08) THE NOSTRIL

 After looking at size and shape of the nostrils next begin to note the different degree of color within each nostril. One side may be a bright red color and the other more subdued in tone more like a pink than red. The color could be indicators of infection, allergies, unequal function of the left and right nostril, pneumonia etc. The point here is to start to look at these areas of your horse and know what is normal for your horse, what is normal color after exercise for your horse, normal resting color etc. Following the looking of the color of inside the nostril look then for the type of tissue within each nostril. Again is it the same, thick, medium or thin tissue in each. Look for the eustachian tube, what is the size of the opening, is there any inflammation, is there alot of drainage or lack of drainage. All these observations tell you more and more about your horse or other horses you observe. 

Look for the use of nostril in terms of sense of smell. Are they very mobile, does the horse have the ability to expand them easily to take in more scents ? Since horses use scents to greet and recognize each other the nostril is pretty important to them as a reciever and gatherer of information for the horse.  Can you tell how a horse is feeling or temperment by their nostril ? The answer is yes, some horses when upset, apprehensive, scared , or worried will reveal that to you through the breathing through the nostril, which looks like " huffing and puffing" to us. Kind of like when people start to hyperventilate, the horses nostril will expand and contract quickly as the horse blows short puffs of air through them. When a horse is calm and relaxed there is a slow soft expanding and relaxing of the nostril as the horse breaths. The important thing here is to increase your awareness, noting as many details as you can.

(Above)Fine tissue with pink color (inside) large nostril

Horse below has large round nostril, alittle thicker tissue than the horse above and very light pink color of tissue. 

This Trakehner below has a kidney shaped nostril , two different sizes, placement on head not set evenly across from each other on the head.

 Very unusual shape of nostril, placement uneven too.

The above Sporthorse is a very large horse with a very small nostril for his size. Taking into consideration that this horse's job description as a Sporthorse requires alot of exercise etc. this nostril seems inadequate to supply this horse to make him a efficient athlete. I would imagine that when worked hard he is really having a hard time getting enough air in to supply his large body and muscles.  What do you think?

Here are 4 racehorses in a race, notice that each horse has a different shape nostril but all four have about the same size nostril and same size nostril ratio to the size of the horse. Could this be an indicator that horses that do well racing generally will have larger nostrils ? Why not check that theory out for yourself. It would seem to make sense for this athletic endeavor ! (Especially for horses that run longer races) Notice the color of the inside of the nostril of number 8 horse. You can see that the color is dk red inside the nostril an indicator that a  lot of blood is being pumped through the horse to feed oxygen to his muscle system etc.

Next check out horses in your barn , notice how many shapes , sizes, tissue color, membrane thickness there are. Increase your awareness!!!

VOLUME 5

NOSTRIL

The nostril most important function is that it is the intake valve /passageway for air into a horse's system. As with any athlete plenty of oxygen is needed to sustain  athletic activities. The efficiency of the nostril as this valve is directly related to a horse's stamina during physical activity. Have you ever stopped to look at your horse's nostril(s) ? Well now is the time because they could be a key to unlocking some problems your horse may have chronically had but couldn't figure out why. For example... A large horse with a deep chest (large lung and heart fitting into that deep chest) has very small nostrils in size and the shape tends to be oval and slightly pinched in. What could be some problems with this horse's ability to do physical activity? First the size of the nostril is not in proportion with the size of horse or size of lung capacity. This means that this horse who needs to fill those lungs with alot of air to fuel its system can not get enough in to do so. Results probably would be muscle cramping, tying up, quickly fatiguing during a workout, and lethargic. Long term could be breakdowns in the form of pulled muscles (and ligaments) because they lack the elasticity that oxygen would provide therefore making them prone to constant injury. And how would this condition affect your horse's attitude toward work ? How would you feel about workouts if every time you had a workout you were experiencing cramping, possibly pulled or strained muscles and the inability to breath comfortably ? As you can see this is a serious situation when the nostril does not match the horse!

So to start, begin by looking for

 *Different diameters of nostrils on each horse's head.

* Look to see if the size of the left nostril is the same as the right.

* Look to see what the shape of the nostril is, round, oval, kidney shaped, or like a slit. Next see if both nostrils are the same shape too.

* Look to see where the placement and angle of the nostril is on the head.

Placement on the head is important because it determines the angle in which the air flows up through the nose and heads down to the lungs. The horse above in the photo has the placement center on the muzzle not slanted up or down which is the optimum position because there will be no turbulence created by the shape of its straight position and air therefore will easily flow down the passage way to the lungs, quickly and efficiently.

But besides placement on the head being simply genetics from the sire and dam there is a more evolutionary reason for the placement on certain breeds of horses versus other breeds, and that is environment. We have all heard the terms "hot blooded horses" or cold blooded horses" (which of course the mixing of the two types gave us the "Warmbloods") but what does that mean and how does it relate to a horse's nostril? Hot blooded horses are those breeds that developed in hot climates, for example the Arabian which comes from the desert. Conversley the cold blooded horses are breeds that come from cold climates, for example draft horses. Anyone who lives in a cold climate can attest to the fact when a cold wind is blowing you don't want to get a big gust of that in your lungs, and nether did the horses that survived in cold climates so they developed over time through survival of the fittest a nostril position lower on the head with a dip pointing downward so  air did not easily flow into it when the horses head was tilted down standing into the wind. (as horses do!) It also happened if the nostril opening was smaller it too would let less of that cold wind into the lungs too, so over time and evolution the size became smaller. On the other hand in the desert you need more air into the lungs to feed the system with more oxygen, so Arabians and other hot blooded horses developed a large nostril and a placement on the head to allow easy flow into the lungs. See the pictures below.

Here is a picture of a group of draft horses, notice the nostril size, (especially relative to the size of the horse) and the placement on the head. It is in a perfect position to stop too much cold wind going in too quickly.

The picture above shows an Arabian.... notice the size of the nostril (relative to the size of the horse ) the shape and placement. This is the perfect design to allow alot of air straight into the lungs. So two different designs for two very different reasons.

More to come.....

What is Form to Function?

        What is Form to Function and how does it apply to you and your horse? Form to Function is a method that I have developed for riding instructors and trainers that allows them to maximize each horses' and students' potential to its fullest. It has been my observation over the years that there are very few riders built with the perfect form to ride. This would also apply to the horse, it is the rare horse that comes with all perfect balanced set of levers to be a World class athlete, yet we all still desire to be a competent and functioning rider who can get the optimum performance from our horse. So... how do we go about doing this thing? The first step to being able to use this process is to develop our ability to observe, look and see what is really there in each rider and each horse not only from a physical standpoint but also a mental aptitude too.

        In order to be able to assess the conformation of a horse with skill and accuracy we have to become so familiar with this process that it becomes a habit. Too often trainers and instructors have a few particular things they may "look" for in a horse's conformation and because of this approach they miss a whole bunch. I'm going to challenge you to throw away your preconceived ideas of correct conformation and ask you to begin to observe, look and see it in a completely new manner. Step one is to familiarize yourself with all the basic parts of the horse. (See diagram below)

        Taking a look at the diagram we can see that no matter how many parts we break the horse into, the fact is that they are still all connected. Which means that how each piece may enhance or detract from each other is important. For example, a common conformational question that comes up frequently; is this a long backed horse or a short backed horse with a long coupling? All too often people make the mistake of confusing a horse which has a long coupling and actually a short back and calling it a long backed horse. There is a big difference in these two different types of conformation and they cause two different training challenges. The horse with the short back but long coupling will be a horse predisposed to have back problems and sore muscles because the topline of the horse is not supported. Engagement of the hindquarters will also be more difficult because of the lack of strength. Conversely the long backed horse with a short coupling will show greater strength and better engagement. This example shows that being able to observe, look and see what is really there is highly important to have a succesful outcome with any horse. In the photo below the horses coupling can be seen clearly on this horse...so what do you think? Is this a long backed horse or a short backed horse with a long coupling?

        On this horse above, the bright blue spinal cord runs along the topline of the horse or spine. The coupling area is where the last rib ends and the spinal skeleton continues to connect with the hip. As you can see clearly in this type of visual the coupling area is not supported by the skeleton. Therefore this can be a weak area in a horse the longer it is. If you look where the end of the withers are and then see the starting point of the coupling you can see this horse actually has a short back, in fact the coupling area is almost as long as the back. So this horse actually has the short back long coupling conformation. For trainer, instructor and owner, this will be an area to monitor to make sure the horse does not get too sore which he is prone to based on his conformation.