Homeopathy

I'm sure some of you are wondering, what is homeopathy? Well a common statement of homeopathy is: 'what ails the body, heals the body'. Homeopathy states that any substance which causes the symptom of illness can also be used in treatment of that condition. If that makes sense to you!

I haven't had much chance yet to use homeopathy, but learning about the different kinds and what certain remedies can be used for was quiet interesting.

Here are some of the common homeopathic remedies:

Arnica Montana - for immediate injury, inflammation, shock; helps muscles.

(this is a very common homeopath in the horse world!)

Belladonna - for early stages of collic
Calcarea Fluorica - reabsorbs calcification; good for bone spavins

There are many more of course. Like Rhus Tox and Ruta Graveolens(not to be given to mares in foal), which are usually given together to help heal ligaments and tendons. Usually these remedies can be given in a small tablet form.

The answer to the previous question is the stifle. Very much like the human knee in many ways!

Collitis X

Correction to the question from the previous entry 'Neck Fractures'. It is Aslike clover. False. Aslike clover is not good for your horse. In fact, it's quite poisonous. You'll start to notice a sort of 'sun burn' on the white parts of your horse, this is an effect of clover poisoning. They'll start to act lethargic and sick, so watch out for this!

On to Collitis X. Anybody know about this? If you don't, listen up! This one is important and happens VERY fast. It is a fatal disease in the intestines that does not have a cure if you're too late.

You're basic sign: severe diarrhea. (However, there has been cases where the horse has died before diarrhea has even occurred) Soreness in the abdomen area, severe loss of weight and black gums are also signs of this. A horse can go from good to dead in less the 24 hours, so watch out! If any of these signs are noticed, contact a vet IMMEDIATLY. Don't waste time trying to treat things yourself, its better to be safe then sorry, especially in this case!

Next question.. What part of the horse is similar to the human knee?

Hypothyroidism

A month later.. I'm back. Sorry about the wait everyone. Things have gotten busy around here.
Just recently I had a mare finally foal out. We had been waiting and waiting, partly because we didn't quite know when she was going to foal. But she finally did and to my disappointment she was not a perfect baby. I found her across the fence from her mom and as I tried to help her up, I quickly realized that there was something wrong with her legs, being she could not stand. In all my excitement it didn't bother me at that moment and I ran back to get help so that she could nurse. After things settled down, I thought more about how she looked and wondered what she had.
First Observation: Her legs were crooked. She looked like she was contracted in her knees and that her fetlocks were quite weak. Her hind end looked pretty regular, other then the fact that she was very weak and couldn't stand up for long.
Any ideas?
As I spent more time with her and talked to a few people, I started to see more things in her that I had missed in the beginning. For example, yes her knees couldn't straighten out, but it was actually her fetlocks that were contracted that were causing her knees to be crooked. As I watched her try to walk, I realized that she was walking on the tips of her toes. And the last thing that I noticed near the end, was that she had a bit of a monkey mouth(her bottom jaw stuck out farther)
Any guesses?
I didn't want to guess it at first, but realized that she was indeed a slightly hypothyroid baby. So I spent most of my day and the following keeping her eating, mainly from a bottle and sometimes from the mare. However, on the 3rd day, just when I thought she was going to be ok, things went downhill. She quit eating, wouldn't try to stand much and eventually died that afternoon. So apart from the fact that she was hypothyroid, it seemed like she must have had something else inside her that wasn't working quite right.
But back to hypothyroid babies... Foals that have this are usually contracted in the tendons all the way around. They have extreme monkey mouths and are usually missing hair in lots of areas. These are extreme hypothyroid babies.
So why do some mares foal these kinds of babies? Well there's lots of possibilities. A main one is if the mare is very overdue and if she lacked selenium during her pregnancy. Other reasons could be if she was eating something very green, or if there was uteral problems.
Treatment?
After 2 weeks if the legs are still crooked there are a couple things a vet can do like periostrium stripping or transphyseal bridging. Something you can do is continually stretching their legs, first wrapping their legs in warm water mixed with linament.
However some things just don't work out how you want them to, like my baby. In that case, try again and learn from the previous experience!

Neck Fractures

The title of this entry, is actually the answer to the question from the previous one. Fractures.

A fracture in the cervical(neck) vertebrae is most likely the answer to why your horse is uncoordinated(eg stumbling around) and has no tail pressure. By tail pressure I mean this: When you lift up your horses tail, there should be lots of pressure; like they're fighting to hold it down. When you get a fracture in the neck there is usually no tail pressure or very little.
A cervical fracture could happen from many things, but one good example is a curious horse sticking their head through the fence to smell another. The other one is a bit mean and jumps at the curious horse, who then has to quickly pull their head out of the fence. They might fall, or get it jammed and fracture a cervical vertebrae.
So what are the signs? Well we talked about tail pressure as well as uncoordination. Your horse could be stumbling around usually with their head lower to the ground. Also you might notice sweat marks or heat along the neck. All of these are signs to watch out for. The best thing is to get that horse to a vet and get it X-rayed!

There's not much treatment for a neck fracture other then surgery, which isn't 100% and sometimes is more then one can afford.

As for getting a chiropractor.. they can't do much other then make the rest of the horse's body feel better. We do not, absolutely do not, adjust anywhere along the neck. One small adjustment in the area of the fracture could kill the horse. So watch out for those signs!

Question 3: True or False: Alseythe clover is good for your horse.

The 'Stay Apparatus'

The answer to Question 1 is simply this, a badly misaligned pelvis. With this, they often refer so much weight to the front end, which puts more stress on the shoulders and front legs, causing lamenesses.


Have you ever wondered how a horse can sleep and stay on its feet? Well here's your answer, the stay apparatus. The stay apparatus is a group of muscles, tendons and ligaments in the front and the back end of a horse that 'lock' the lower leg joints. It takes very little muscular effort to do this which allows the horse to sleep soundly while standing up. Amazing eh?
Sometimes the stay apparatus gets fatigued. Why? Mainly because 60% of the horse's weight is on the forehand (in the front end). Thats a lot of weight and pressure to be put on the front legs. On top of that, if the horse's pelvis is badly misaligned, they refer even more weight to the front. Old age or old injuries that have caused some arthritis can also fatigue the stay apparatus. So how do you tell? Well there's a simple way to check. Set your horse up, and for a few seconds just watch at the knees. Are they shaking? Wobbling a little bit? Sometimes you can see this and know that their stay apparatus is tired. Another way to check, is with the palm of your fingers tap the back's of the kness. When the stay apparatus is fatigued, their knees will buckle forward and depending on how light or hard a tap, you'll know how bad it really is.

Question 2: What may be wrong with a horse that has started to stumble and has no tail pressure?

Feel free to send me your own questions and I can do my best to help you answer them!

The Pelvis

I am adding something a little new to my blog. A simple question and answer time along with my entries. So today's question is this: What misalignment can cause lamenesses in the front end(shoulders and legs) of your horse? The answer will be in the next entry.

Moving on to the pelvis. When I first learned about the pelvis adjustments I wondered how on earth was I going to put a pelvis back in place?! I'll never be strong enough! However, it was not as hard as I thought it would be and if you use your whole body, it's actually quite easy.
When assessing the pelvis, I look for a drop in the hindquarters as I watch the horse trot away from me. This indicates that, of course, the pelvis is dropping to that side. Another indication are the stress points. The stress points around the hip bone, when sore, indicate that there is misalignment in the pelvis and it's usually on the opposite side. The reason they're usually sore on the opposite side is from referral of weight. If their pelvis is dropped, or rotated to the left, then the horse tends to refer its weight to the right side to compensate. When they refer weight like that, it makes the areas on the right (opposite) side tight and sore because they are using that side more. Comprende?

Have you ever heard of 'dog tracking?' If any of you haven't, it's basically when a horse moves crookedly. So when you watch them trot away or towards you, you will notice that their hind end travels out to the side. This movement usually indicates that the pelvis is most likely rotated.
A little side 'safety' note: Always watch for kicking! I worked on a horse around Barriere that was old, calm and sweet.. until I got to his hind end. He let me check all the stress points and the drop in his pelvis, but as soon as I went to the side to adjust him, he threw his ears back and gave a small kick. In his case, I wasn't able to get anywhere near his hind end after that, so sadly, his pelvis did not get adjusted. Had I been more experienced and known about this habit I might have been able to get it shifted back before he realized what I was doing. So watch those hind legs!

The Atlas

I am now moving towards the head of the horse. Today is about the first cervical vertebrae, the atlas. There are, in total, seven vertebrae in the horse's neck. When doing my adjustments, I can only feel to the fifth vertebrae, the sixth and seventh are not able to be felt due to the muscling of the shoulders. Take a look...

The atlas works with many different areas around the head and brain. It works with the oxygen flow, the eyes and the sinuses. When the atlas is badly misaligned, the oxygen doesn't flow to the brain like it should. Pretty much, it's a bad headach until someone adjusts it.

Often a horse responds to the adjustments by licking at chewing, but with the atlas you hope to see lots of yawning(they're getting O2 to their brain) the nose will maybe drain(sinuses are clearing) and the eyes should clear up(often they can get crusty).

In Barriere we went to this Arab place and I got the pleasure of working with a mare who had a very bad headach. Not only did she let me know it by laying her ears flat against her head, but any time I went to move a foot, or even just stand near her, she would try and take a bite outta me! Thank goodness for my partner who held her back! As I finished my assessment of her, I came to find that indeed her atlas was badly misaligned. She was also very sensitive to the stress points in that area. When I finally was able to get her all adjusted she was a WAY nicer horse. Her ears came forward and there was no more biting. It was interesting to see how quickly she responded after I got her all back in place!

The 3rd Lumbar

I'm going to start with lumbar and the reason being, because I had an awesome experience with my sister's horse that has to do with the 3rd lumbar. So, the 3rd lumbar. Altogether there are 6 lumbar(picture below), but the important ones are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd lumbar. The 1st lumbar works with the urinary tract, the 2nd lumbar works with the digestive system and the 3rd lumbar works with the reproductive system. When any of these lumbar are misaligned, it can cause many different problems with each of the systems. In example, if you have a horse that is usually easy to keep (weight-wise) and then you find its weight declining, it could just be because the 2nd lumbar is badly misaligned.
So my awesome experience involved my sister's horse, and her 3rd lumbar. The horse is about 9 now, and we have never seen her come into heat. She's a gorgeous quarter horse, nice conformation and we've always wanted a baby out of her. Problem was, she never came into heat and we never quite knew why. When I finished the course in November, I came home and worked on her about a week later. When I came to the lumbar, low and behold, her 3rd one was misaligned and quite significantly at that. So I adjusted her and then waited. About a month and a half later, while feeding cows, I noticed that she was following one of our geldings around. So I watched her and to my excitement, realized she was in heat! So now we're planning on getting her bred in about a month and hopefully finally get a baby out of her.

This was one of my first experiences that kind of proved to some people that chiropractic most definitely works.

How my work is done

I get a lot of questions about chiropractic and how I go about adjusting the horse's back. The regular comment(from people who have never seen the chiro done) is: ''So what do you do, get the horse to lay down and then crack its back?'' Actually no. There is no 'cracking' involved. Unlike human chiropractors, I use a small rubber mallet (shown on the side) along the back and move the misaligned vertebrae back into place. They can shift from side to side, and cause muscle groups around that area to become sore. For the rest of the adjustments, like the vertebrae in the neck, the pelvis, the femur and the shoulders I use my hands and body weight to shift it back into place.

Along with chiropractic I also do some massage. When your horse becomes misaligned, it causes the muscle groups to become tense, tight and often sore. I use accupressure and massage to the main stress point areas helping with the oxygen flow and loosening the muscles.

Another question I get is: ''Does it work?'' This is quite a broad question, but yes, it works. If I didn't believe it did, I wouldn't be doing it. There are so many little things that can be going on with your horse - eg. bad behavior, won't pick up a right/left lead, won't bend their neck- that can so easily be solved with a bit of adjusting. Of course, in most cases, you need to see some of this to believe it. I've seen my fair share of big and small changes in a horse to fully believe this work is beneficial!

The Beginning of Equine Therapy

Hello and welcome everyone! I have finally got together a blog for you to follow. I hope you enjoy it!
I'll start with a little bit about myself and how I got to where I am now! I grew up on Pa-Van Ranch up the North Fork. Yes, I am a North Fork folk! Here on the farm I learned to ride almost before I could walk. Horses have always been close to my heart and they always will. I love riding our horses, especially the young ones because they always keep you on your toes! I always knew that I wanted an outside job and one that involved horses.
After much searching, I came across a lady who taught horse chiropractic in Barriere. I started my schooling in September of 09 and finished November of '09. The course was amazing and I learned SO much stuff. Not only did I learn about how to adjust a horse, but I learned all about the horse's anatomy and how to recognize whats up when your horse isn't feeling up-to-date. And that was just the theory! When we started going out to different places and looking at all kinds, shapes and sizes of horses, I learnt even more. I had the very great experience of being able to work with many different breeds of horses and the attitudes that go along!
Sadly I did eventually have to graduate and leave the amazing people that I met. I finished in the top 3 in my class and now I'm here to help the local horses around Grand Forks area.
I hope that you will learn many things from my blog as I'm going to take you through some key things that I learned as well as some of the things that have improved in my horses. Enjoy!