I know I’m waaay late to this thread, but I was at a clinic last weekend with Narelle Stubbs who invented the Equiband system (along with a vet at Michigan State) so I thought I could add some helpful info from what I saw/from pestering her with questions for two days :lol:
I forgot the exact development timeline, but it came about from work she was doing at MSU while doing her PhD in equine back pain and working with the vet college after that. Basically the whole system is meant to be split into three components; first myofascial release to help relax stiff/tight muscles, then a program of carrot stretches to help build flexibility and start engaging and lifting the back/core/shoulders/base of neck (I feel after watching her do some horses this is really the most important part), and the third component is the bands.
Obviously the vast majority of us are not trained to do that kind of massage ourselves, but she said it’s still effective without the massage component, however you don’t see the results as quickly. It’s easier to stretch and strengthen a soft elastic muscle than a stiffer tighter muscle, but if you’re gentle, considerate, and persistent they’ll still get there in the end. The stretches and the bands essentially do the same thing, basically sit-ups for horses. The stretches help work the core and back while also working lateral flexibilty, the bands help engage the core and back while in motion.
Although I was quite skeptical I definitely saw a difference in the horses, especially under saddle with the bands. One of the (grand prix dressage, so not an unfit nag) horses lifted his back from the loins a soild inch and a half with just the hindquarter band on. The cantle came up so far it was pushing his rider into a pseudo two point! And when Narelle added the belly band the rest of his back and the base of his neck lifted right up to match his back half and she could sit normally again. Then he was stepping much deeper under himself while looking much softer and swinging through his back. He stayed relaxed the whole time, ears were forward and he didn’t show any signs he was uncomfortable or minded the bands. It was very impressive (she did do the full myofascial release massage and the stretches first though, I don’t know that an unmassaged/unstretched horse would have lifted so dramatically). The idea is that they feel the gentle pressure from the band and lift away from it, the same way you can sometimes get them to lift their back from scratching the belly.
It was also very tiring for him. I’ve seen this same horse happily churn out one tempis, piaffe, and passage and he was sweaty and breathing semi-hard after ~5 minutes on the lunge and another 5 with a rider. However she did emphasize that the whole point of the training system is to teach them to use their core and back muscles in a different way, that they have to be given time to adjust to it and strengthen those areas, and to be quite careful not to overdo it, especially in the beginning. As in do the stretches, then 10 minutes on the lunge in the bands, and then be done. Not done with the bands and then take them off and ride (because you want to train their muscles to work in this new way, so why would you then go right back to the old way), but done as in finshed for the day. Over several weeks work up to longer periods (on the lunge and then under saddle) and after 3-6 months (or however long it takes them to get strong) it goes from a training tool to a once a week or every other week maintenance tool.
The pad itself is quite thick and stiff, definitely a dressage pad. The bands are heavier duty than therabands, I was surprised actually when I held them at how hefty they felt (was expecting something more theraband-y). They’re kind of like the heavier pull up helping bands for crossfit. She did say they used therabands when they were developing it, but they kept rolling instead of sitting flat and that they pulled hair sometimes. I would suggest if you wanted a different type/style pad (the back on track someone mentioned sounds like a good choice to me), order just the spare equibands, buy some clips (they were ~3 inch wide plastic clips) and webbing (should be able to get both at your local fabric store) and sew (or have someone else sew if you don’t) the clips on the pad in the same configuration.
Since she’s the physio for the Australian team she’d just come from the World Cup in Vegas and we had a really interesting chat about the maintenance needs of the top competition horses. The answer was basically quite a lot, for all of them, and that no horse performs at that level without wear and tear, which is why a lot of them are doing programs like this (in addition to loads of chiro, accupuncture, supplements etc). And nowdays even the young prospects are doing it (and a lot of the other things) before they’re even under saddle in an effort to help them stay sound and uninjured longer in the future. She also said that in a study they did at Michigan State they found that horses who presented with neck or back issues actually had subtle lameness in 80% of the cases. Basically there was some minor injury and they started using other parts of the body to compensate and then eventually get sore there. So a lot of the back tenderness would just keep recurring until the leg issue was sorted out and they got past the habit of trying to compensate for it. Annoyingly for the rest of us (and the vet staff) there was no correlation between the leg injury site and the area in the neck or back that was sore/stiff/tender (I asked). We also had a facinating discussion about the importance of strengthening the thoracic sling for both dressage movement (esp extended trot) and jumpers (shock dissipation on landing) PM me if you want all the details.
Anyway, I didn’t mean to write a novella for a post, but I did find the whole thing very interesting, and they had done several controlled trials and published papers on the exercises (I haven’t read the papers yet, it’s still on my painfully long to-do list ;)). I think it’s potentially a very beneficial program if done properly, especially in conjunction with chiro (it seems to me like a very natural follow-on to chiro) and external products like back on track and ice boots (because of the leg injury thing). As in keep the legs happy with cryo > use the BoT stuff/chiro to keep those muscles relaxed > use the equibands to strengthen the core so they carry themselves better and reduce the wear in the legs…
