Equine Kinetic Myofascial Connections With Dr Vibeke Elbrond

Some of you may remember that last year I was lucky enough to be selected as Brand Ambassador for the Horses Inside Out Annual Conference in February 2020 after entering a competition on Facebook.

This meant I got to attend the conference and post about it on social media. It was at the conference that I first saw Vibeke Elbrond and heard her talk about the Myofascial Lines in the horse.

This concept was all new to me, so to find myself in a lecture with Vibeke, discussing the Myofascial Lines in horses kind of blew my mind. You can read more about Vibeke’s lectures at The Horses Inside Out 2020 conference HERE

I was captivated by Vibeke, she is a fabulous speaker and her enthusiasm and curiosity for the subject got me wanting to know more, so I was super excited when I saw that Vibeke was doing a live course in the UK just a few months after! I quickly secured my place on this.

Unfortunately shortly after the conference COVID19 hit the world and we all went into lockdown.

Sadly this meant the live course with Vibeke was postponed and rescheduled, only to be cancelled once again as lockdown continued.

And then Gillian Higgins (Horses Inside Out) announced they would be hosting a one day online live event with Vibeke instead, I just had to get a place!

I am so glad I did, the course was this Monday and it was AMAZING!

Vibeke was just as captivating as I remembered and as passionate as ever.

The course ran over Zoom and was a full 8 hour day with various comfort breaks and a one hour lunch break.

Prior to the day Gillian sent out the Zoom joining link along with a link to handouts which we could print off ready to make notes.

Me being the geek I am printed and bound mine to make my own Myofascial Connections ‘bible’

During the day Vibeke presented to us:

· An introduction to fascia (what it is, why it is interesting, what we know about it) · The Superficial Lines (Superficial Dorsal line, Superficial Ventral Line, Lateral Line) · The Deep Lines (Deep Ventral Line, Deep Dorsal Line, · The Front Limb Lines (Front Limb Protraction Line, Front Limb Retraction Line) · The Helical Lines (Spiral Line, Functional Line)

We learnt about the anatomy of each line, were shown dissected images of each of the lines, and learned about symptoms we may recognise in the horse if each of the lines was dysfunctional.

There was so much information my head was pretty fuzzy by the end of the day!

I look forward to going back through my booklet and notes over the coming weeks and digesting it all!

But even though it was a full and jam packed day it was easy to continue to listen to more and more from Vibeke.

During the day Gillian encouraged participants to use the chat function as a community of professional therapists to discuss ideas and thoughts with each other.

I thought this was really nice, as we were not all live together in a room able to discuss things, and sat at home alone, it felt really comforting to see others discussing ideas and commenting and made me feel more confident about asking questions in front of my peers.

We were able to ask questions using the Zoom Q&A function and then as each part of the lecture came to a close Gillian would put those questions forward to Vibeke.

I think this worked really well as the questions asked were relevant to the lines Vibeke had just been talking to us about.

Vibeke answered all the questions and I love her honesty, as the research is still fairly new, it seems we do not have answers to some of the questions, or the cause and effect for example cannot be scientifically measured at this stage.

However Vibeke was open to saying if it was something she did not know for sure and was happy to discuss ideas put forward from the participants. I found this to be really refreshing and also exciting as it feels like being part of this course and party to this knowledge and research is like being the part of something new and pioneering in our understanding of horse anatomy and therapy.

Who knows how we may be able to use this knowledge to adapt our therapies for the good of the horse in the future?

All that was missing from the day was the practical application – I think Vibeke and Gillian are planning to get their heads together to see how they can make this work around COVID restrictions.

I believe I can speak for all of the participants on this week’s course, we all want to learn more about how we can influence the lines in order to help horses.

The course was not recorded, so you are unable to buy the course if you did not make it live this week but I understand there may be future opportunities to attend this online theory course in the future – keep your eye on The Horses Inside Out website and Facebook page as I am sure Gillian will announce it as soon as there is.

I would highly recommend this course for any equine professional looking to have a more in depth knowledge of the horse’s body.

Jess | Jessica Limpkin Equine Massage Therapy