RE: Re: My Broken Jaw & Arabian Stereotypes

[Marlene Moss <marlene.moss@wcom.com>]

I had a vet/chiropractor recently suggest using a lip chain on my horse.  He
was at a trainer's and realized he had some chiro issues.  Chiro comes out
and starts a little too fast on the horse and he freaks.  He can be a well
behaved horse, but I haven't been firm enough with the ground rules, mostly
because he is pretty well behaved.

Anyhow, he runs all over us and quite dangerously.  He is really in pain
with this.  He normally stands for the vet beautifully for routine stuff as
well as dealing with injuries.

So for the second session, I knew the chiro was going to get serious about
the lip chain so I dug out this thing I'd bought years and years ago called
the Stabilizer.  I don't really go in for gadgets and have never used the
thing.  But I bought it because it supposedly works on pressure points and
should help the horse relax and therefore be able to learn through a
situation that he wouldn't with drugs.

So after the first huge reaction (before even being touched) I suggested
trying the Stabilizer.  Basically it's a small rope with a pulley.  There's
plastic things to hit the pressure points behind the ears and then a soft
plastic tube to go over the part that goes above the gums.  There's a handle
so you can control it alone if need be, but he was too hyped up for that.
But it allows you to control it to much greater degree than a chain, which I
wouldn't have allowed.  I would have gone with drugs first.

It was a little bit of a fight to put it on, but then, even with it loosely
in place after about 15 seconds, he stood stock still for all kinds of
little adjustments.  He ran through a couple times on the bigger
adjustments, but each time less and less of a reaction and pretty soon dealt
with all pretty well.

I suspect we might have to use it a time or 2 more, but that he should
figure out that these sessions will make him feel better rather than worse.

The chiro said it operated on the same principle as a lip chain - endorphin
pressure points.  But I doubt that anyone but the most experience handler
and the calmest horse would allow a chain to only apply enough pressure to
release endorphins and not make a mess of the gums and freak the horse out
more as you suspected.

So very interesting tool and I'd hoped to never use it, but I am very
impressed with the result this time.

Marlene