Equine Chiropractic Care

Maintaining flexibility of the spine is imperative for a horse to be able to work comfortably and perform to his optimum potential be that as a happy hacker or a racehorse. Chiropractic is most commonly used in response to your horse suffering pain such as a ‘bad back’, lameness or reduction in performance.

Chiropractic adjustments affect the nervous system, the control centre of the body, and therefore can be used to correct many disorders within the animal including systemic problems. Owners will often note improvement in horses with digestive disorders, nervousness, impaired immune response and unexplained sweat patches.

Unlike any other quadruped, the horse’s spine has to not only work for the horse, but for the saddle and the rider also. In order for any horse to be able to perform its work correctly for the long-term, a healthy spine and nervous system is essential. Horses are generally resourceful creatures of willing nature and will often find ways to work around a problem, thus compensating for biomechanical disorders very well. Short-term this can allow the horse to continue working seemingly well, perhaps with the odd change in temperament, or slight stiffness when asked to perform certain aspects of their work.

However, long-term, as the horse changes its posture to compensate for a sore back, tight muscles or subluxations, this places additional mechanical strain on other parts of the body. The result is that the horse creates secondary restrictions in other areas and the condition deteriorates. It is often at this rather late stage that the horse may really start to show clear signs of a problem and the Vet is called in.

Chiropractic works to thoroughly examine the equine as a whole, not only correcting and relieving pain in symptomatic areas, but to locating the primary source of biomechanical dysfunction in order to get to the root of the cause. With this in mind, Chiropractic is often used as a ‘last chance’ for horses with lameness’ which do not appear to have a clear cause or pattern.