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Does Asymmetry = Abnormality?

December 17, 2022

So you have a horse with a pelvis that appears to be higher on the right than on the left. Uh oh… right? Well maybe, maybe not. I have heard quite a few equine service providers tell people that their horse is higher on one side of the pelvis than the other. And I have also had clients call me and schedule an appointment because their horse appeared this way. But does this actually mean that there is a problem?

No. In fact, in humans and in animals, asymmetry is the norm! Nothing in our bodies is symmetrical.

Go stand in the mirror and look at your head. Are your ears level? Are your eyes level? Are the corners of your mouth at the same level? Cover the entire left side of your face, and then cover the right side. Do you even look like the same person? You would be shocked if you did this assessment on people you come into contact with on a daily basis. Sometimes, areas of the body can appear to be symmetrical to the naked eye, but upon measurement, they are not. Even our eyes are not at the same depth in our skulls. If they were, we wouldn’t have depth perception! Have you, or do you know of someone, that has different size feet? Well YOU actually do… but some people have such a difference that when they buy a pair of shoes, they need to purchase one shoe in a certain size, and then the other shoe in another size. This is an extreme example, but one that articulates my point.

This is no different in animals. Some horses have a clubbed foot. Some have a narrow foot on the front right, and a nice rounded foot on the front left. There is always a difference. You may not see it, but your farrier does. These asymmetries are present all over the body, and become more noticeable as the body parts become larger in size. Not only that, but when you have bones that are close to the surface of the skin, versus bones that are buried under deep layers of tissue, such as muscles, fat, ligaments, etc., they become even more noticeable. A great example of this is the SI joint. The SI Joint is made up of the sacrum, and the ilium (see illustration A). Notice the size of the bones at the SI Joint. Relatively speaking, they are very large. And as already stated, asymmetries are more apparent in larger bones. Not only that, but the top of the highest part of the largest bone that makes up the SI Joint (Called the Tuber Sacrale) is very close to the surface.

For more information, or to schedule an appointment to get your horses checked and adjusted, visit us, at www.sporthorsechiropractic.com, and on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter!

Thanks for reading!

Dr. Alex Micek

Dr. Alex Micek was born and raised in Osceola, Nebraska. She grew up on a the back of a horse and began showing quarter horses in multiple all-around events as an active member of the American Quarter Horse Youth Association. She became more interested in roping, running barrels, and goat tying and convinced her mother to travel across the state of Nebraska to the high school rodeos.

She received a rodeo scholarship from Oklahoma Panhandle State University where she went on to rodeo at the collegiate level for four years. She earned her bachelor degrees in biology and animal science. During this time, she accomplished many qualifications to the American Quarter Horse Association World Championship Show in Oklahoma City in breakaway, heading and barrel racing with many top 10 finishes.

Dr. Alex had her equine athletes adjusted during the rodeo seasons and was amazed by the benefits and relief it brought to her horses. She was intrigued by the importance of the chiropractic adjustment. From then on, her passion was to become an equine chiropractor.

Dr. Alex attended Parker University in Dallas, Texas, earning her Doctorate of Chiropractic as well as completing the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association certified course in Animal Chiropractic at Parker University.

Dr. Mike Adney

Dr. Mike is a retired military veteran. He served in the U.S. Air Force as an F-16 Avionics Technician, and then in the Coast Guard as a helicopter pilot. During this time he obtained is Bachelor’s Degree in Professional Aeronautics with minors in Aviation Safety and Business. After he was retired from the military, he started his own business teaching senior citizens basic computer skills and repairing their computers. He happened to join a business networking group where he met a chiropractor that changed his life. Now he provides chiropractic care with the hopes of doing the same for others.

Dr. Mike Graduated from Southern California University of Health Sciences with his Doctorate of Chiropractic in 2016. While he was in school, he was introduced to an amazing person, who had been doing Chiropractic on horses for the past 40 years! Intrigued by the thought of adjusting horses, Dr. Mike decided to find out what he had to do in order to become a horse chiropractor. So in 2015, he attended Options for Animals, an animal Chiropractic certification program.

Upon graduating from the program, Dr. Mike passed the IVCA certification exam, which certified him as a member of the International Veterinary Chiropractic Association, the largest animal chiropractic certification in the world. Being a member of the IVCA ensures that Dr. Mike is always up-to-date on the latest methods and research pertaining to equine Chiropractic.

Dr. Mike’s passion is adjusting performance horses. Realizing that all professional sports teams have chiropractors on staff, and that the Chief Medical Officer for the 2016 U.S. Olympic team was a chiropractor, it became immediately obvious how important it is for performance animals to get adjusted as well. After all, the stresses that a performance horse’s body undergoes is arguably as much, if not more than that of a human performance athlete. After becoming an authorized equine chiropractic vendor at Westworld of Scottsdale, AZ, and providing equine Chiropractic care for those horses, it became clear that the horses needed what he does. The competition results along with the responses of the riders and trainers, confirmed that equine chiropractic is indeed a service that is desperately needed to keep performance horses functioning at their best!

Dr. Mike has a mobile equine practice which is based in Phoenix, AZ; however, he routinely travels long distances to manage the chiropractic care for his clients and their animals. He also enjoys traveling to horse shows and adjusting performance animals during their competitions, to ensure that their structure is in an optimum position to enable them to compete and perform at their best!