Equine Cupping Application Techniques I Love Using
I often use cupping when working with horses as it is highly effective. There are three specific cupping applications I love to use and I'm going to share them inside of this blog for you.
How do cupping applications work for horse treatment?
When looking at treatment options, it's important to understand how these things actually work. Cupping application on a horse works by creating negative pressure.
This negative pressure skin strain will stimulate heme oxygenase, and heme oxygenase degrades the free heme. It then catabolizes it into products that the body can use.
What this means: Cupping will help get rid of what we call "free heme" and free heme is deemed as "bad".
Oftentimes, we see chronic pain associated with high levels of free heme.
When we add in heme oxygenase, it will gobble up the free heme and make it useable o the body.
When we have a deficiency in heme oxygenase (what's responsible for gobbling up the free heme aka the bad particle), we typically see increased inflammation and fibrotic activity,
This means that when we cup and stimulate the production of heme oxygenase, we see decreased inflammation and fibrotic activity, which leads to the breakdown of scar tissue by both mechanical strain and a biochemical process.
To sum it up: cupping can lead to decreased pain, improved tissue mobility, and overall improved health of your horse.
My three favorite cupping applications and how to use cups on your horse
Here are my favorite cupping applications for you to try out. I've included a quick video as well.
Before you start any of these cupping applications, you'll have to apply a lot of ultrasound gel directly on the horse's skin.
Cupping method #1: Place and plunge the cup. Place the cup on the skin and press down in the center of the cup to plunge/create negative pressure under the cup. Once the cup is on the skin, you can hold the cup with your hand, sliding it over the area of increased pain/dysfunction. You can also pull up on the center of the cup to create a more intense application.
Cupping method #2: Pre Plunge the cup. You'll press down in the middle of the cup first, then place the cup on the skin, allowing for suction to occur once it is placed. This method is a little bit more aggressive. Once the cup is on the skin, you can once again move the cup around the area of concern.
Cupping application #3: Pre-flip the cup. Flip the cup completely inside-out and then place the cup onto the horse's skin. Once it is placed, use your hands to flip the cup right-side out and suction will occur. Follow by sliding/gliding the cup on the skin around the area of concern on your horse.
How to choose which method is best for cupping your horse:
All horses are different and may respond to each method differently. If one feels better for your horse compared to another, move forward with that application.
Pre-plunging the cup can be aggressive, so you may want to try that option last.
No matter what application ends up working best for your horse, our end goal is to achieve that negative pressure and then work to glide and slide over the affected area.
Bonus: if the cup is on your horse, you can also opt to have the horse move to create some glide. Sometimes this can be a more effective treatment, as the horse moving and doing it's thing is mirroring the exact movement that the horse will do, which could be the movement that your horse is currently struggling to complete without compensation (which is why you're likely cupping/doing treatment on your horse in the first place).
The best cups for your horse
I prefer to use RockPods for cupping treatment as they are flexible and silicone-based.
They allow for not only me to move the cup with gliding and sliding force, but they also allow for a "tug" of the skin, which can help provide even more fascial movement than just a glide alone.
And, as stated above, the RockPods allow for the horse to move with the cups on, which can be incredibly beneficial.
Learn how to cup your horse
If you're a horse owner or practitioner who wants to learn exactly how to cup your horse and specific methods for different pathologies, I'd love to have you in my Online Equine Cupping Course.
Learn more and enroll in the course here.
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