Now, I will say that I think there are times when equine chiropractic is necessary. Or, it may be a good choice to get things back on the right track. But, if you are only using an equine chiropractor and not addressing the soft tissue at all, you will most likely need your horse to see the chiropractor indefinitely.
There are multiple reasons that I have decided to stop using equine chiropractic manipulations. One is that I am not a veterinarian. Even though - technically - I am not doing anything illegal (at least in the state I live in), I do not feel that I want to take the chance of harming someone's horse. Chiropractic techniques are called "High Velocity Thrust" for a reason. You need to apply them with a very quick movement. Even though I like to consider myself a careful, gentle person, I recognize that at high speed things can go wrong.
I was talking to an equine veterinarian one time at a horse show and he was asking me what I do. I told him that I was an equine therapist and went through my list of qualifications - which includes equine chiropractic training. I continued to tell him that I was uncomfortable with applying chiropractic and had decided to no longer offer it as a service. Partly because I was uncomfortable with it, but mostly because I was finding that correcting the soft tissue was actually more effective.
He said he felt that was very responsible of me and continued to tell me a story about someone he knew who was a human chiropractor who was willing to work on horses. This man went out to do an adjustment and ended up crippling the horse. It ended up that the vertebrae had a fracture in it and the High Velocity Thrust from the manipulation caused the bone to break and damage the spinal cord.
That was all I needed to hear to decide that I was going to stick with my decision to no longer provide equine chiropractic services.
I became even more interested in finding ways to affect the skeletal structure of a horse without using the High Velocity Thrusting necessary in equine chiropractic adjustments.
I studied more about Equine Myofascial Release and even altered some of the chiropractic techniques to turn them into soft tissue therapies.
I remembered from the second time I took the chiropractic training that most of the adjustments were actually to "break up the muscle spasm". I kept hearing the instructor saying this over and over and it made me think "why not just break up the spasm"? Why do I need to do these manipulations in an aggressive way when I can apply them in a gentle way that will correct the actual problem (the soft tissue) and avoid any possible harm to my horse?
The other thing that I thought about was what I had learned from one of my clients whose husband is a doctor as well as from the massage therapy school that I went to. It is a well known, but little talked about fact, that skeletal manipulations using High Velocity Thrust will actually loosen theligamentsover time - or even one time if the adjustment is too aggressive.
I have experienced this myself after seeing a chiropractor for an extended period of time. My pelvis actually started to feel "loose". I noticed it mostly after getting off my horse after a ride. My bones would actually "click". I could feel them move in a way that didn't feel normal. I informed my chiropractor that I no longer wanted him to perform the techniques that were causing it. He argued a little, but gave in. What was he going to do, it was my body and I had said "no".
I also experienced this in a horse that I have had as a client. His hips were so loose that they kind of "clunked" when I performed an evaluation on him to check for movement. He had been seen by an equine chiropractor on and off for years. Not only did it not solve his problem, I believe it caused the loose hips. When they stopped using the chiropractor and started using me, he improved immensely in just 2 sessions and the loose hip problem has gotten much better.
Again, I am not saying you should never use a chiropractor, I am just saying to use them sparingly. Consider that the soft tissue controls the skeleton. Think about using soft tissue therapies such as Equine Massage Therapy, equine myofascial release , stress point therapy , Range of Motion Exercises, and/or Equine Stretching Exercises to help solve the problem.
If you are willing to give soft tissue therapy a chance, I believe you will have to agree that your horse's comfort and performance have been greatly improved. I have seen it happen with my own eyes time and time again in my own horses as well as my client's horses. I strongly believe that equine structural problems can be corrected better with soft tissue therapy than with equine chiropractic adjustments.
For instance, did you know that the horse's shoulder is actually only attached to the body by ligaments, tendons, and muscle? Yet I have seen equine chiropractors "adjust" the shoulder. It is not possible to adjust the shoulder. All you can do is influence the soft tissue. Doesn't it make sense to apply a soft tissue therapy to soft tissue?
Another problem in horses is to have the 7th cervical vertebrae (known as the C7) rotated. I have a book that I got off the internet from a used book store that is the manual they use at the American Veterinarian Chiropractic Association for their training. The book does not even mention the 7th cervical. It goes right from the 6th cervical to the 1st thoracic vertebrae. Why don't they even acknowledge it? Because they cannot influence it. I have found that the C7 needs to be addressed by using soft tissue therapies, such as equine myofascial release.
I have heard equine chiropractors say that the C7 is not a problem because it is so deep in the horse's muscle structure. I am here to tell you that this is not true. My experience is that not only is it a problem, but it is fairly common and it seems to affect the entire horse. I have had multiple horses who were being extremely "naughty" and others who were just miserable whose main problem was the C7.
These horses have a major change in attitude as well as physical ability when the C7 is corrected. Meanwhile, the people have been spending lots of money having an equine chiropractor come out and deal with the compensation patterns, but the real problem was not addressed at all.
One particular horse was so miserable that he would no longer put his head down to eat. The owner had what she said was one of the best equine chiropractors who also knew equine acupuncture come out at the tune of $250 a session for 2 sessions. Needless to say, he did not correct the problem. I was actually the one who corrected it by addressing the C7 and I didn't charge her anywhere near $500. The poor horse was so relieved, he started eating hay off the floor during the session.
Another thing I want to mention before I close. Beware of people who call themselves equine chiropractors who have no real training.
I went one time to watch a man who was supposed to be this great equine chiropractor. I have to tell you that he was so aggressive and doing everything that I was warned about staying away from in my equine chiropractic training. I had never witnessed this before, but it was so disturbing that I had to leave the barn!!! Meanwhile, people were hauling their horses to this man and paying him a hefty fee for his "services".
He was extremely aggressive in his manipulations. I feel he was doing harm to the soft tissue by the way he was "adjusting" them. The horses were rearing up and throwing themselves against the back corner of the stall as he worked on them. He was forcing his manipulations on them by holding onto the cartilage in their nose.
At one point, he grabbed a front leg and yanked it hard and fast away from the horse's body. Now I don't know how many of you realize this, but horses aren't meant to move that way. (This was one of the times a horse reared and threw himself backward.) He explained that he had to do this to get past the reflex reaction (or some ridiculous thing). I think that what he was calling a reflex, was really soft tissue. It is not meant to move that way, or that fast for that matter. The muscle can go into a protective spasm if yanked too hard and then muscle tissue can be torn or pulled.
He would probably know this if he had any real training - so.........
After a while, I decided to ask him about his training. I don't want to get into details about what he said - I don't want to say bad things about anyone specifically. I will just say that he had no formal training. He learned it from "some guy". He was using terminology incorrectly (he didn't know that I was a professionally trained equine and human therapist and didn't realize he couldn't fool me). I think he was what my equine chiropractic instructor called a "quack".
Also, beware of anyone who uses a hammer and a mallet to perform an equine chiropractic adjustment. This is not the proper way to apply chiropractic treatment and these methods can cause damage to your horse.
I am constantly amazed at how many people will allow someone to do something to their horse that they would never allow being done to themselves or their child. In my opinion, the only difference between a horse's body and a person's body is that the horse can be forced to allow something that a person would be able to say "no" to. A horse's body is still bone, soft tissue, and nerves. They feel pain just like we do. Just because they are big does not mean that they can not be harmed.
If you are going to use someone to do equine chiropractic, or even equine massage therapy, on your horse, please check into their education and experience. Do not think that just because they tell you they know what they are doing that they do. Even if you get a referral, I would urge you to check into this yourself. After all, I was told this guy was a really good equine chiropractor.
I hope I have been able to give you some things to think about in regards to equine chiropractic. I hope I have provided some education on the use of equine massage or other alternative equine therapies that can be used to complement or replace equine chiropractic treatment. And, I hope I have shed some light on what to look for if you do decide to use an equine chiropractor.
Thank you for taking the time to read this article. I hope you found it helpful. To learn more about equine therapy and how it can help your horse - Go to:
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