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What are the Primary Benefits of Chiropractic Care for Horses?

December 17, 2022
horse getting his leg stretched by chiroprctor

Chiropractic care has many benefits for equine athletes. The primary goal of a chiropractic adjustment is to affect the neurology of the animal, not just alter mechanics. However, restoring proper motion of a joint allows the neurology to control the joint properly, thus altering mechanics to a more normal state. In other words, you cannot affect one, without affecting the other.

Each joint, and the capsules surround the joints, contain millions of sensory nerve receptors. These receptors are responsible for what we call proprioception, which is the ability of the brain to know the position of the body in space. Take into consideration, a field sobriety test. How is it possible for a person to close their eyes, and still be able to touch their nose with their finger? This is due to proprioception! The sensory nerve receptors within the joint and joint capsule, relay positional information to the brain. Thus allowing the brain to not only know what that joint position is, but also enables the brain to send the proper signals out to the muscles that control the joint, in order to move it appropriately for the task at hand.

What does this have to do with chiropractic care? Everything! If a joint is fixated in any way, then it is unable to move properly. If it is not able to move properly, then it is unable to stimulate these sensory nerve receptors, therefore decreasing the amount of positional information being sent to the brain. Less sensory information to the brain, equals less information for the brain to calculate joint position, and therefore, the information being sent out to the muscles that control the position of that joint is sub-optimal. This is particularly obvious in the case of a field sobriety test, in which the person is actually impaired. The sensory information coming into the brain is impaired by the alcohol, and that impairment results in incorrect motor information being sent out to the body. In essence, correct sensory information in, results in correct motor information being sent out. Correct neurology = correct mechanics = correct function.

So what if there is joint fixation? My horse is moving just fine… Sure, your horse is moving just fine… but is “just fine” what you’re after with your performance animals? Of course not! To get the most out of your performance animals, optimal structure is key! Without your horse being free and clear of vertebral and extremity joint misalignments, they will have any number of compensations throughout their structure. This means that they are moving a part of their body in a way, to make up for lack of movement in another part of the body that’s supposed to be performing that function. When this happens, number one, performance will suffer because the horse isn’t using its body the way it was designed to be used, and number two, the parts of the body being used to compensate will degenerate over time.

You’ll be amazed at how well your horses move when you clear these fixations and eliminate the compensations! Always remember, Structure = Function!

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I hope that you have enjoyed this article! If you have any questions about this information, or to schedule a chiropractic adjustment for your horse(s), please contact us at 602–726–5186, or email us at office@www.sporthorsechiropractic.com. You can also find us on TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Thanks for reading!

*This information is intended to be used for information purposes only. Only a trained, certified animal chiropractor or veterinarian should perform chiropractic adjustments on your animals. If your animals are experiencing medical problems, please contact your veterinarian.*

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!