miss manners/chiropractic adjustments

[K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>]

On Mon, 9 Mar 1998, KIMBERLY PRICE wrote:

>     Would you do this for herdbound individuals who act up as they 
> leave their buddies?  And if they ignore your reprimand, would you just 
> make them work instead (side passes or such?), until they refocus? 

Yes, but I would guage the mentality of the horse to determine whether I
felt that the horse was really ready for it (some horses are just so
herdbound that they need to be "weaned" from it slowly as they will simply
not "refocus" and to attempt to make them do so just distresses them more,
until they are completely "checked out").

>     Also, Mystery just had his right hip adjusted back in place by 
> Sandy Schular DVM and I could SEE the difference.  Follow up of course 
> is proper exercise and dressage work.  Mystery probably put the hip out 
> when he went through the side door of a two door straight load 6 years 
> ago..he was pretty skinny and wild then.  Or, he could have fallen in 
> pasture at any time, who knows....  He really shouldn't need another 
> adjustment unless this one doesn't "stick"...

If this really is a result of a 6 year old injury, then it probably won't
"stick."  Over six years he would have developed the muscles to hold the
hip out of place.  In such situations I prefer to do the "proper exercise"
and dressage work to slowly work the muscles so that the horse's muscles
will perform the "adjustment."

I find that chiropractic adjustment can work for recent injuries (i.e.
before the muscles have compensated for the injury), but for old injuries
it will take either once a week treatments from the chiropractor (just
like human chiropractors do), BUT I don't recommend this as a chiropractic
adjustment is a "trauma" (in the medical sense) to the horse in the same
way that the original injury was (i.e. it took great force to jerk the hip
out of place in the first place).

Unless the muscles of the horse itself can hold the "alignment" that the
chiropractor did, I don't bother with them (although they can be helpful
in deterining just whether that really is your problem). You need to
reschool the muscles of the horse; depending on the severity of the
original injury, the length of time since the injury, and how much your
horse has "compensated" since the injury; expect this redeveloping of the
muscles to take between 6 months and 2 years.

And unless you can get the horse to maintain "using it's muscles
correctly" for the entire duration of the ride; I wouldn't recommend
endurance riding as part of this reconditioning program.  Every step that
you allow the horse to take using himself "incorrectly" (i.e. the old
way), is undoing any progress you may have made in getting him to use
himself correctly.

>     I do enjoy your posts and will be checking our your suggested books 
> in the near future.

It may be difficult to check the Noel Jackson book as, unfortunately, it
is out of print.  Maybe if enough of us request it, the publisher will
reprint it :). (When I saw two copies of it in the "remainder" book
section of my local tack shop, I bought them both.)

Best of luck in your reconditioning program.

kat
Orange County, Calif.