Was "Insults" Now "Your vet's shoprtcomings."

[Marv Walker <Marv@MarvWalker.com>]

At 08:13 PM 3/21/01 -0500, you wrote:
>Marv - you are too funny!  You should call yourself "Sidekick"!!!
>You deliver information very sweetly ("Just a spoonful of sugar helps the
>medicine go down..") and logically.  I liked, really liked your recent
>post re: realigning a horse's pastern zone, using a chiropractor.
>Remember me?  I do horse massage, and I'm starting to crack jokes (part
>of the horse/service trade?) like.... "You ask 4 vets where a horse is
>lame and you get 4 different answers."  It would probably be better to
>word it... "How many vets does it take to....?"  (Or - just birthing a
>new one..."How many vets does it take to diagnose a lameness?...still
>counting...")
>
>You sounds like a person that would be great to meet!!
>One of those precious names that doesn't get deleted on THIS end!!
>
>Karen Zelinsky, ESMT, in PA


Wow!  Mom was wrong.  There is some value in having a personality
disorder.

I'm flattered.  Judging from some of the mail I get when I post, oh well.

I often say the chances of a vet finding any definitive source for lameness
that has no visible physical trauma are pretty slim.  Course, I also say
that vets are to equine dentistry what the lightning bug is to lightning.

I usually add a disclaimer because if I don't some folks who love their
vets (I don't love ours yet, we've only been dating for 20 years) will
probably take me out and hang me.  I hastily add, "NOTHING against
vets!  It's just that you diagnose what you see."

Most horse owners do not take their horses to the vet unless it is oozing,
bleeding, sneezing, wheezing, running a fever or something else.  If it
isn't bruised or bleeding or colicing, the vet doesn't see it all that often
in his daily practice.

It is only in the last decade that things like chiro, massage, equine
dentistry, nutrition (Hi Susan) have begun to come into their own and
are getting more attention at vet colleges.  As more vets graduate from
the more enlightened schools more vets will be aware of these things.

And then there are those of us who promote these things among
the folks who come to us with problems.  The folks we enlighten
then go back to their vets and seek the benefits of these disciplines.
The vets then begin to investigate further and everyone benefits.

At our clinics we point out things on horse after horse that have
people dropping their jaws on the ground.  Almost all of them
incredulously ask why their vet couldn't see something so obvious.
My reply to that is, "How come *you* didn't see it?"

I have never seen a happy go lucky horse with a sacroiliac strain
( http://MarvWalker.com/com/lucy.htm ).  They are almost always
just not quite with it.  When these horses come to me their owners
have every reason under the sun for the horse being the way it is,
spoiled, poorly trained, etc.  Not one of them ever connects that
obvious hump with the horse's attitude or behavior.

Oh yeah, I'll be doing a clinic in the Central Valley New York area
June 30 - July 1.  (Email me if you're interested in attending and I'll
give you contact info) How far is that from PA?

Marv "I'm often Imitated, never understood
why I'm never understood." Walker