at a glance

CHAPTER 4
Acupuncture Points
32
Acupuncture stimulates a specific point on the horse’s
body to achieve a therapeutic effect. These points or
acupoints are called Shu Xue. Shu means “communication
or passing,”and Xue means “a hole or an outlet.” In Traditional
Chinese acupuncture,Shu Xue translates as a hole in the skin
that communicates with one or more internal organs.
The horse’s body has 361 acupoints. These were located
first on human beings and then anatomically transposed to
the horse. This task was more difficult than it seems because
of anatomical differences.For example,the horse’s hoof corresponds
to a single digit, or toe, in the human rather than five
digits.Hence the location of some points is not definitive.
To describe the exact location of particular points, both
human and equine practitioners use a unit of measurement
known as a tsun (cun). It is proportional to the size of the
animal and helps describe the exact location of particular
points.One tsun is approximately the width of a single rib of
the animal. In the horse this would be roughly equivalent to
the width of two fingers, while in the pony one tsun is approximately
the width of one finger.
Acupuncture points lie along meridians and pathways of
major peripheral nerves. They correspond to known neural
structures: motor nerves, superficial nerves, nerve plexi, and