The word chiropractic comes from two Greek words – kheir, which means “hand”, and praktikos, which means “practical”. Daniel Palmer was a healer who started a school to teach this system of complementary medicine.
He was able to cure a man’s deafness, which had occurred when he bent down and felt a bone click. Palmer formed the opinion that if there was any displacement in the skeleton, this had the result of affecting nerve function, either by increasing or decreasing function, thereby resulting in a disease.Chiropractic is an excellent way to relieve pain by manipulation and to correct any problems that are present in joints and muscles, but especially in the spine.
Like osteopathy, no drugs are used.The horse gives us his spine to sit on. Imagine the discomfort he experiences when there’s a problem. Horses show us that they have a problem with their backs by not bending correctly, not taking the correct lead, battling to come onto the bit and irritable behaviour.
Many horses have been put into stronger bits because they were running away with the rider. The correct way to interpret this is that the horse is running away from the pain. Most of the time I find lower back pain and neck pain to be the problem causing most of the behavioural and training issues that people experience.If you can visualise the skeleton as a frame and the muscles, tendons and ligaments as the clothing, you’ll understand that if one of the bones is placed under tension and isn’t moving in alignment, the “clothing” will never wear evenly.
This will result in referred pain and tension, resulting in your horse bending unevenly. You as the rider may also bear the brunt of this with pain in your own body as the horse doesn’t move forward in a balanced way.If there’s a spinal problem, it’ll manifest in other areas of the body like the hip, leg or arm, a slipped disc or trapped nerve.In my experience, I’ve found that horses know that the chiropractor is there to help them and respond very well to manipulation. Some are stiff and sore for a day after the manipulation, while others regain soundness immediately. I
t’s always best to get a reputable horse therapist to perform these manipulations. This form of alternative treatment is also very successful when treating what are deemed as “difficult” horses.Massaging lavender and rosemary into the neck of a stressed horse helps relieve tension. – Kim Dyson (082 888 6511) |fw
