Chiropractic Care: Is it right for your horse?

Over the last several years, chiropractic care for horses has become much more popular. At many stables it is considered just another part of horse care along with farrier work, vaccinations, and dental care.  

Yet it is still considered to be hocus-pocus by many, scoffed as a new-age nonsense treatment. However, the idea that hands can heal has been around for thousands of years. Early healing through hands has been described as early as the year 2700 B.C. Massage, tissue manipulation, and joint mobilisation has long been known to be helpful to improve healing from injuries. 

At its core, chiropractic adjustments and joint mobilisations are for the health of the neuro-musculo-skeletal system

Known benefits of equine chiropractic care

• Alleviating pain
• Restoring normal function to a joint
• Increasing range of motion
• Restoring a symmetrical gait, and
• Enhancing performance. 

Specifically, at any given mobile joint in the body, there should be a certain amount of movement, which can be inhibited by many factors, including muscles tightness or injury, nerve pain, joint capsule pain or tightening to name a few. 

Chiropractic care involves helping to restore the natural joint mobility at a given area, thereby allowing for improved range of motion and
helping to restore the body’s homeostasis

In the equine world, chiropractic is especially important because humans place such unnatural pressures onto horses’ backs.  We then ask for them to do all kinds of athletic feats, often at high speeds, and things a horse would not naturally do in the wild, often while carrying a saddle and rider. 

Chiropractic Care and Equine Sports

The sport of polo-crosse is wrought with high speed turns, spins, starts and stops, riders leaning off to the side, and pushing through other horses. Keeping these athletes at their physical ensures that they compete to their best ability. 

Chiropractic care can help reduce pain and restore natural joint motion in these athletes. 

Routine Chiropractic Care

While routine chiropractic care can help prevent injuries and pain through allowing free movement, chiropractic is helpful in a horse that is showing signs of back, neck, or sacro-iliac pain as well. However, it is important to rule out serious medical conditions prior to having chiropractic care, as there are diseases in which adjusting a horse would have dire consequences. Cervical vertebral instability, fractures, and systemic neurological diseases are all contraindications to chiropractic care. 

Therefore, if your equine chiropractor is not a veterinarian, it is important to have your veterinarian evaluate your horse first. It is also important to have a properly trained equine chiropractor.

Though it has fallen out of favour now, there are still some chiropractors who use High Amplitude (long lever arm) adjustments, which have been known to cause severe damage, even paralysis.

Today, certified equine chiropractors in the United States use low amplitude, high velocity adjustments to ensure the body is not pushed beyond what is natural. 

There are three main organisations United States equine chiropractors use:

• International Veterinary Chiropractic Association (IVCA)
• American Veterinary Chiropractic Association (AVCA)
• Animal Chiropractic Certification Commission (ACCC). 

Individuals who are either human chiropractors or veterinarians are allowed to obtain certification. And the certification ensures that they have proper knowledge of equine anatomy. 

The speciality of equine chiropractic practitioners continues to grow as more people realise the benefits it has for their horse. Advances in nutrition, dentistry, and overall care for horses has led to them having longer performance careers.

Chiropractic care is merely one aspect of their (horse) care that will improve their lives. 

If you are interested in your horses receiving chiropractic care, please send me an email.

Kristin Doust, DVM

Certified Equine Rehabilitation Practitioner | Certified Canine Rehabilitation Practitioner | International Veterinary Chiropractic Association | Certified Medical Acupuncture for Veterinarians | Certified Companion Animal Pain Management

Article first appeared in the American Polocrosse Magazine Winter 2018/2019