Re: miss manners/chiropractic adjustments

["Robert Morris" <bobmorris@rmci.net>]

Kat and List:

Sorry but I am going to have to get into this chiro thing again!! I am open
for flames as I was the last time. 

Please refer to a good equine anatomy book prior to tearing me to pieces. 

You state:<<<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..>>>>

Please realize that the horse would have been so incapacitated, with a hip
out of joint, that it would have not lasted for six years!!! If you put an
arm out of joint it is extremely painful and takes either expert
manipulation or great strength to re-adjust it. The pain is extreme. (this
from experience) A hip and you are completely incapacitated!!!

After six years, or even six months, the anatomical changes would be
astounding. 

I would postulate, the hip was not "out of place" but certain muscle groups
were not in proper condition, i.e. over contracted or stressed improperly .
The relief of these relieved tension and pressure on nerves. 

Never will you get me to believe "the hip was out of place"!!!

You might refer back to this same subject referring to a knee "out of
joint"  about a year ago. I believe Trumann was in on this and I know that
Tom Ivers and myself were on it. Tom consulted with Dr. Rooney on the
subject of "dislocations and chiros" Check out the archives if interested.

Bob Morris
Morris Endurance Enterprises
Boise, ID

----------
> From: K S Swigart <katswig@deltanet.com>
> To: KIMBERLY PRICE <PLOUGH1@ix.netcom.com>
> Cc: Endurance List <ridecamp@endurance.net>
> Subject: miss manners/chiropractic adjustments
> Date: Tuesday, March 10, 1998 10:29 AM
> 
> 
> 
> 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.
>