The Initial Horse’s Postural Response to the First Session of the Dorsal, Ventral, and Dorso–Ventral Massage Techniques

Since interest in equine manual therapy and rehabilitation is constantly growing, the need for quantification of horse’s postural response to used alternative has increased. This study implemented geometric morphometrics (GM) a dorsal profile comparison between horse groups. The was represented by centroid size shape. groups were defined using four classifiers: age, height at withers, time lap massage session, technique (dorsal, ventral, dorso–ventral). Out total 900 photographs 20 horses, 180 photos analyzed GM, including thirty landmarks. Variation principal components (PCs) representing consecutive profiles reported first three PSs as 59.50% PC1, 14.36% PC2, 9.01% PC3. differed depending on classifier ‘height’ terms (p < 0.0001) well ‘time’ ‘technique’ shape, but not ‘age’ > 0.05). GM allows visualizing differences horses’ posture resulting from selected techniques. body studied protocol indicates after being warmed-up massaged dorso–ventral most desirable.