Page 58 - May 2016

She finds a lot of restrictions in the pelvis and in the mid-lumbar area at L2, L3, L4
and L5 (the lower back). “This is where the horse has to flex when doing athletic work and where all the energy engagement has to come through, from the hindquarters. A horse that can’t flex properly can’t push off as strongly when running. I often find a horse in which the back is not necessarily painful when you push on that area, but it could be sensitive when a person is brushing the back or the horse might respond by being a little cranky. I’ll find that these horses are very restricted in certain vertebrae. When I make adjustments, often they experience immediate relief. Some people tell me they have a totally different horse the next day,” she says.
“This is very rewarding for me, and it makes the horse happier. These vertebral issues are things that cannot be addressed any other way. Back pain can be related to a lot of different things, but there can be issues that will be missed if the horse does not have chiropractic care as part of the therapeutic regime,” explains Johnson.
If horse owners seek chiropractic help for
a horse, they need to find someone who is properly trained and properly certified. There are many horror stories about crude meth-
ods used by untrained people. She tells of a veterinarian who lost his license to practice in multiple states for endangering the health and welfare of animals. He ran a weekend course teaching people to become what he calls chiro- practitioners, with no requirement that they
Dr. Jenny Johnson, an equine veterinarian at Oakhill Shockwave and Veterinary Chiropractic in Calabasas, California, specializes in shockwave therapy and chiropractic care. She stresses that anyone employing a chiropractor to work on their horse should make sure that individual is a member of either the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association (AVCA) or the International Veterinary Chiropractic Association (IVCA).
be a veterinarian or a chiropractor. He claimed that he could teach individuals to do this kind of chiropractic manipulation in a weekend.
“Horse owners don’t always inquire about the training of the person working on their horse. They see someone working on a friend’s horse and ask that person to work on their horse, with no idea whether that person is qualified or not. I always try to communicate with the people that I work with so they know what I am bringing to the table. And if they are using someone else, they need to make sure that person is either a veterinarian or a doctor of chiropractic,” she says.
“By law, an animal chiropractor must be either a veterinarian or a Doctor of Chiropractic (DC), with a minimum of 220 hours of post- graduate training in animal chiropractic. In California, for instance, a DC doing animal chiropractic is required to do animal chiroprac- tic work only under the direct supervision of a veterinarian. This requirement for supervision of a DC varies by state,” says Johnson.
There are two governing bodies that admin- ister board exams and provide certification
in animal chiropractic. One is the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association (AVCA) and the other is the International Veterinary Chiropractic Association (IVCA). “Whoever people hire to work on their horse should be a member of one of those organizations. If you want to find a qualified equine chiropractor, both of those organizations have websites where you can find a properly trained animal chiro- practor that is close to you,” she says.
“There are people doing this who are not qualified. Horse owners also need to know that chiropractic work is a practice of subtlety. If someone is making big dramatic adjustments by yanking a leg around or tying the tail to a tree and making the horse walk forward (to try to straighten the back), this is not chiropractic and could be dangerous to their horse. It’s important to find someone who has the proper training. People who don’t have a thorough knowledge of anatomy, physiology, neuroanat- omy and neurophysiology should not be doing this because they are influencing the nervous system,” she says. Improper attempts at adjust- ments could cause serious injury or negatively affect the horse in other ways.
“When I am working on horses, it is important to me to evaluate the entire horse. Often I can tell you what I find, but I can’t always say that this is for sure what is affecting the horse and making his back sore or limiting his performance. I will tell you what I find
and what I did, and we can wait and see what happens. Most times, it makes a big difference in the horse. However, I do not look at the back in isolation from the rest of the horse’s body. I look at the entire horse and see what I find, and address whatever I find,” says Johnson.
Dr. Johnson begins by evaluating the entire horse,
watching it move, etc. When working on the horse, she begins at the head, evaluating the muscles of the jaw, the TMJ joint, and the suture lines of the skull.
Many cranial faults on the head are related to specific pelvic chiropractic faults,
so addressing faults on the head frequently makes adjustments on the pelvis easier.
Dr. Johnson then goes to the rear of the horse and works her way forward, checking for back pain with palpation and evaluating each joint in the pelvis and vertebral column. The pelvis and mid-lumbar region is where she typically finds a lot of restrictions.
56 SPEEDHORSE, May 2016
equine health