The shoulders and barrel help support the thoracic portion of the horse. The front legs are shock absorbers and lack any bony connections to the horses body. It’s attachments to the body are only structures like tendons, ligaments and muscles. A proper grooming technique will help bring circulation to this area while also releasing restrictions or tightness before your training session even starts. By doing cross fiber friction grooming on the shoulders, back, ribs and undercarriage, you “wake up” the entire truck of your horse in preparation for the work ahead. Superficial muscles here are the trapezius (thoracic portion), deltoideus, triceps, longissimus dorsi, latissimus dorsi and iliocastalis.

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