The theory behind stretcher exhaustion in horses

In 2011, the physiotherapist and alternative practitioner Tanja Richter published her first book on the subject of equine limb exhaustion. In February 2025, another book on the subject was published by equine physiotherapist, hoof trimmer, behavioral trainer and PhD chemist Dr. Sandra Ruzicka.

This book, entitled “Carrier exhaustion in horses”, is currently on everyone’s lips. In it, Ruzicka explains that stretcher exhaustion is a generic term for various symptoms that can be traced back to one cause in particular – an imbalance in the skeleton and musculature resulting from tension caused by unphysiological strain.

The horse’s body has two predetermined breaking points in particular, which, in Ruzicka’s view, can lead to the wearer’s exhaustion: the rump carrying apparatus and the pelvic and lumbar region of the hindquarters.

If the muscle loops that support the trunk are tense, the horse can no longer cushion the movements and the energy goes directly to the joints, tendons and ligaments of the forehand.

However, if the horse is tense in the hindquarters, it can no longer allow the energy from the hind leg to pass through to the front. This in turn can have an effect on the trunk, as the horse can no longer lift it. This may or may not be related to the rider. In any case, the movement pattern is now wearing and no longer healthy.

Ultimately, Ruzicka says, stretcher exhaustion is the sum of various problems that lead to compensatory movements and pathological relieving postures, through which the horse tries to compensate for the problems, but ultimately only becomes more entangled in them. In her opinion, around 80 percent of all horses show the first symptoms of carrying weakness.

The author divides horses into four categories in terms of their physical condition:

1. a horse with carrying power is the ideal. It is able to lift its trunk with the help of the correspondingly developed muscles, which it can easily control. These horses bounce under the rider. They are able to carry themselves – i.e. their own weight and that of the rider – without wear and tear and with little effort.

2. a horse that is able to carry according to Ruzicka can lift the trunk and activate the deep muscles, but is not yet strong enough to maintain this condition in the long term.

3. a horse with a weak weight-bearing capacity is in principle able to move like a riding horse, but has not yet learned to do so. This corresponds to a young, healthy horse at the beginning of its training, because no horse is born to be a mount, but must be trained for it.

4 Carrier exhaustion, as Sandra Ruzicka understands it, describes a state of the horse in which it is “trapped in its compensation patterns”. The horse compensates for its incorrect movement patterns by adopting various relieving postures and evasive movements, which can be very different and which in turn lead to new problems. The horse’s body changes as a result of the relaxed posture. Muscles and skeleton adapt to the relieving posture, the beginning of a vicious circle from which the horse can no longer escape without therapy.

About the author

Dr. Sandra Ruzicka has a doctorate in chemistry and trains horse behavior trainers. She is a physiotherapist, trainer and hoof trimmer. Various institutes list her as a lecturer. She gives lessons across all riding styles and holds courses and specialist lectures throughout Germany. She calls herself an expert in wearer exhaustion and as such is available as an interview partner for horse magazines.

The 4th edition of her book “Trageerschöpfung beim Pferd” was published in 2024 by Müller Rüschlikon, Stuttgart. ISBN 978-3-275-02283-0, price 26 euros.

Stress vicious circle

Carrier exhaustion as defined by Dr. Sandra Ruzicka means permanent stress. Because if the horse is no longer fully in control of its body and has to fear that it will not be able to run away in the event of danger, this is a potentially life-threatening situation for a flight animal. This causes fear, and fear means stress. Stress leads to tension on a physical level, permanent stress leads to permanent tension, which, according to Ruzicka, can also have organic consequences – stomach and/or digestive problems, respiratory diseases because the horses can no longer breathe easily, circulatory disorders and therefore poorer wound healing and a weakened immune system.

Chronic stress also leads to changes in character – overexcitement and aggression, but also dullness and lethargy can be the result, depending on the type and character of the horse. Incidentally, Ruzicka warns that the wearer exhaustion – tension – stress chain also works in the opposite direction: Permanent stress due to poor posture conditions, for example, leads to tension and this in turn may lead to stretcher exhaustion. In this case, the rider is not the triggering factor, but the stressful living conditions for the horse. However, in the vast majority of cases, the type of training is responsible – whether through deliberately incorrect riding, incompetence or ignorance on the part of the rider.

Riding correctly means encouraging springiness

Dr. Sandra Ruzicka sees good training as the way out of stretcher exhaustion – possibly initially only from the ground and accompanied by manual therapies. However, she emphasizes that horse owners should leave this to the experts, as stretching and the like can also destroy structures.

Any therapeutic approach must aim to show the horse how it should move as a riding horse in order to stabilize itself physiologically correctly and to take measures to enable it to do so – for example, by releasing blockages and/or adhesions that prevent the horse from lifting the forehand. Once this is done, the work under saddle must continue. As Ruzicka writes: “Ultimately, the horse only learns to carry the rider by balancing a human on its back.”

What does that mean? Every horse that is to move under the rider must first – or again – learn to move like a riding horse. The scale of training shows the way to a healthy riding horse. Once tact and suppleness under the saddle have been ensured, the foundation has been laid. Only then can we move on. The functional chain is completed when the horse, moving with rhythm and suppleness, begins to look for the bit and arch its neck. The horse begins to lift its trunk, tilt its pelvis more and step under the center of gravity with its hindquarters. The horse can then absorb both its own weight and the rider’s weight with the help of its muscles. It springs.

As a rider, you have to pay attention to this. You should challenge the muscles without overtaxing them. When a horse is no longer springy, it is time to take a break or stop. Otherwise the kinetic energy is no longer absorbed by the muscles, but goes into the connective tissue – pasterns and the like send their regards. This can lead to signs of wear and tear and possibly harmful compensation patterns.

Misunderstanding hindquarters activity

The focus is often on the horse’s forehand. However, the hindquarters are just as important for a physiologically correct movement pattern. Because, as Dr. Sandra Ruzicka emphasizes, “the forehand cannot lift itself without the support of the hindquarters”.

To achieve this, the horse must be sufficiently flexible in the lumbar spine and in the large joints, but not too much, according to the author: “It is often demanded that the horse must tilt in the pelvis so that the lumbosacral junction opens up. But it’s all about the how. Under no circumstances should this happen, for example with a quarter horse in a sliding stop.” Because in that case you are dealing with a hyperflexion of the pelvis, which brings with it various problems, both health and biomechanical.

In Ruzicka’s opinion, a permanently tilted pelvis is biomechanically problematic because the horse can no longer bend its haunches and the hindquarters become unstable. Background: If the pelvis is permanently tilted, the lumbosacral joint (not to be confused with the ileosacral joints) can no longer close.

The lumbosacral joint is a hinge joint that can open up to 20 degrees and connects the lumbar spine and the sacrum. Humans do not have such a joint. This is why they – unlike horses – are not able to tilt their pelvis and hollow back at the same time, according to Ruzicka. However, this is exactly what happens with a horse that is exhausted from the stretcher, which should nevertheless tilt its pelvis, she explains further. A situation that exacerbates the problem of stretcher exhaustion.

This is because if a horse with a tense trunk is ridden further and encouraged to close its hindquarters more, it can do so by tilting its pelvis while its trunk and back do not move with it. The consequence: If the rider continues to demand that the hindquarters are closed and the horse is unable to lift its forehand or back to the relatively required extent, the horse will become stressed. It will still tip over in the pelvis. However, Ruzicka is convinced that the result is not correctly locked hindquarters, but the so-called “fearful hindquarters”.

According to Ruzicka, this leads to new problems: Overstretching of the soft tissue structures above the vertebral bodies, compression of the lower bony structures and, as a result, possibly ossification, arthrosis, etc.

Efficient power transmission

However, in Ruzicka’s opinion, a permanently open lumbosacral joint and the associated fanning out of the spinous processes in the lumbar region is not only problematic in horses that are already exhausted. Apart from the fact that this can lead to long-term lumbar fatigue, the result would also be undesirable for a riding horse because the power from the hindquarters can no longer be transferred efficiently.

According to Ruzicka, in order to optimally transport energy from the sacrum to the lumbar region, the vertebrae must be arranged regularly one behind the other at the moment of the supporting leg phase, i.e. the transmission of force. Ergo: The lumbosacral joint must be able to open to allow the leg to swing forward and close so that the horse can push off.

Ruzicka’s theory is that this is also the prerequisite for real collection. Although tilting must take place, this should only reduce the distance between the pelvis and sacrum and the floor, but not significantly reduce the angle between the pelvis, sacrum and lumbar spine.

To ensure this, all vertebral bodies would have to tilt a little behind the saddle position. Then the large joints responsible for the flexion of the hips can contract and release like a spring, because the axes responsible for the transmission of force are stabilized. However, for this to happen, the cooperating joints and the lumbosacral joint in particular must be mobile, but not hypermobile.

This sums up the essence of a functioning body. The goal, according to Ruzicka, is harmony between stability and mobility. Drawing: Miriam Grau in the book “Stretcher exhaustion in horses”.

Not an uncontroversial approach

Dr. Sandra Ruzicka’s theory of wearer exhaustion in horses and its causes is not uncontroversial among experts. The equine osteopath, human physiotherapist, manual therapist and state-certified sports instructor Stefan Stammer, who has been looking after four-legged athletes from recreational to Olympic athletes with his “Stammer Kinetics” therapy concept since 1999, is also active as a lecturer at various institutions and has written several books, is particularly critical of the conclusions drawn from the problematization of certain physical characteristics and behaviours, as he explained in a commentary for EQUI PAGES.