Chiropractic is a hands-on form of complementary manual therapy that many owners swear by to help keep their horses on the straight and narrow. Ellie Hughes discovers what is involved and who can benefit
AMATEUREVENT RIDER Bronia Hill has good reason to sing the praises of chiropractic therapy. After suffering from an episode of debilitating back pain 10 years ago, it was a chiropractor who diagnosed the root cause —a prolapsed disc — and fixed it. Eight years down the line, when Bronia’s novice eventer, Saunderscourt Ricardo (Albert), was diagnosed with kissing spines, the same hands-on therapy helped him to bounce back from surgery and go on to make a successful return to competition (see case study right).
Mention the word chiropractic and many will squirm in anticipatory discomfort with the thought of lying on a rack being clicked and crunched, but this is far from the reality, according to chiropractor Winston Williams, who treats humans and horses.
“There are many techniques involved — the idea that all we do is crack bones is very dated,” he says. “Chiropractors use their hands to find areas that aren’t moving as well and get them moving again. We look for abnormalities in the movement of joints and address these by performing an adjustment that allows the joint to return to a neutral position.”
A chiropractor feels how the skeletal structure underneath affects what is happening to the muscles on the top
