My horse is extremely one-sided!
Most issues require multiple approaches to fix the whole bigger pictures.
Yes, massage work to resolve existing muscle spasms caused by very mismatched feet is just fixing a symptom. But you’re going to have a very hard, if not impossible time, truly fixing feet if you’re always fighting muscle issues.
The same goes for skeletal out-of-whackness which is definitely a real thing.
Think of all this as the Dressage training pyramid. You work on the base functions, like relaxation and suppleness first, so that you can get a straighter horse. But until you get some more straightness, you can’t get more relaxation and suppleness that you need to get more straightness. You’re always climbing the pyramid just so you can start over at a new level.
You can’t just massage once, or do shoulder-in to straighten once.
chiro work IS part of PT, just as massage is. If there are some bony misaligment issues, they can constantly be pulling muscles into tension, and massage alone won’t fix that.
All of this is a “peeling the onion” adventure, and no single therapy can fix it all
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Thanks for your input! I totally agree that multiple approaches are required. I’m skeptical that alignments will fix skeletal misalignments in a way that contributes to actually fixing the root cause, but I don’t see how they could hurt so why not. My main issue is the idea that the corrective shoeing is dependent on the body work - I just don’t understand the farrier’s rationale and I don’t like having an essential part of my horse’s care depending on what I see as a non-essential part. Maybe this is a case where I need to get over myself and trust the farrier, but I’m not convinced.
skeletal misalignments are just as important as muscle issues which can pull the body out of symmetry.
the phrase “no hoof no horse” means a lot more than just "if the feet hurt the horse can’t do much or anything
Have you ever seen a person who walks “soundly” but with one shoulder lower than the other? A lot of those are due to imbalances in the feet, which ended up working its way up the body in compensation.
You couldn’t ever just fix the feet and have the body suddenly symmetrical, because there are months and years worth of muscle asymmetries that developed. Once you start working on the feet, the body will move differently, and things will be sore, and a body will want to move back to old movement patterns which will work against fixing the feet
You cannot fix a foundation and expect the structure above it to be ok all on its own, when the structure has had to adapt
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I get it, I do! I think there are enough poor chiros out there to give the whole profession a bad name.
I think too many people go to a chiro because it’s “sexy” when a chiro isn’t what’s needed
I have personally seen how 2 different chiros have made immediate and appreciable changes in 1 of my horses.
I’m not sure who you’re talking to (me or the OP), but I can guarantee you all horses are born asymmetrical, and the entire purpose of proper work is to not only keep that innate asymmetry from getting worse, but to minimize it. Way, way too many horses end up with riders who just get on and go, not caring that the horse is moving with his hips just a few mm to one side, and over years and hours of carrying himself the easiest way he can, “suddenly” he looks like a crooked horse.
Add to that the insane number of farriers who see youngsters starting in with a bit of an upright foot, declare “that’s just how he is” and do nothing to minimize the differences, and you end up with a horse like the OP’s, wtih shoulders that are obviously different and feet that are way different than their genetics said they should be.
A chiro isn’t where I’d start with this horse. He at least needs a good vet exam to make sure there’s nothing fractured, no malformations likely, etc, and then I’d start with massage or other muscle body work and just start seeing what’s what.
And I guarantee a horse with this type of asymmetry has some structural imbalances that might - or might not - be able to be resolved at this point. No, it’s not a one-and-done, not when something’s gone on this long. It’s going to take months to start seeing real changes, and likely several years of regular back and forth work - feet, body, feet, body - to see a more balanced horse.
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Echoing JB’s point - it will be a cycle (a year, 2 years, maybe more) of getting the feet a bit better then addressing the soreness in the body from moving differently as a result of the change in the hooves.
My horse is a pretty extreme case but it has been about a year and 3 months of her hooves changing and her body changing after (sometimes good sometimes not). She’s finally trending towards for the better consistently, but there are still times where she gets sore (hooves or body) and I have to remind myself she is still healing and real change in hooves (the soft tissue especially) can take a lot of time.
What I have found is helpful for the body soreness: added vitamin E, added magnesium, changing her environment so she is standing in deep sand 95% of the time instead of the packed down clay, and our excellent body worker who does massage/ chiro/ PT exercises and stretches.
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I respect your reluctance to believe in the value of chiropractic work. But it sounds like you think that, at worst, it won’t be effective - it doesn’t sound like you fear that it will cause problems. So if a highly respected farrier has recommended a particular course of action, I would be inclined to follow it. I am lucky to be a longtime client of one of the best farriers in my area. She won’t work on a horse if she and the client can’t agree on the approach because she doesn’t want someone looking at a bad situation and associating it with her. If you think this farrier can help your horse, follow his expert advice. Otherwise, find another farrier. Don’t try to insist that he do something that goes against his professional experience.
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Hopping in here to ask, have you done anything to rule out arthritis/changes in the neck or spine?
I’m also a chiro skeptic, and I would NOT let one touch a horse without knowing what I’m dealing with. If you’ve got bony changes and the chiro goes in to force things to move, you’re risking permanent damage. It happens in people all the time, and it is why “good” chiros insist on X-rays first. No, they can’t feel everything.
I’m not one to disregard a good pro, but a farrier is a farrier, not a vet. Soft tissue work is far less risky and IME far more effective - if your soft tissue is tight and pulling on the spine, it’s just going to yank everything out of alignment anyways. I don’t think letting a chiro work on your horse to keep the peace is as harmless as some posters are suggesting.
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I agree that if you’re going to work with a chiropractor, a vet check, x-rays, etc. are an important first step.
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I am not a big fan of chiropractic work, either, for all the reasons others have mentioned… especially in the neck.
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OP
I share your skepticism about the farriers explanation.
I would much rather have a vet come out and take radiographs of all four hooves and the neck.
IMO, the vet is much more qualified to discuss the correct trimming for your horse than a chiropractor.
I get why you don’t want to antagonize the farrier especially since you trust his work.
Believe me, I know how difficult is to find a good farrier who is willing to work with you and listen to your concerns.
But this is your horse, and in the end, you get to decide what happens.
You could talk to the farrier and ask him if would be willing to work with your vet.
If he agrees , it’s all good. You won’t know for sure unless you ask.
If he says no, accept it, and look for another farrier.
Again, it is easy for me to say oh, just get another farrier, but I know exactly how you feel.
I went through a lot of farriers before I found one who knew how to trim high/low horses.
Good luck.
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Lots of questions. Does he have more heel on one foot because it’s clubby, or does he have high/low syndrome due to how he loads his limbs? Or does he have perhaps a mild right hind problem so that he is dragging himself around with his left front all the time? Or is there pathology in the right front? Or the neck? Or the shoulder? Or the back or pelvis?
Sure, horses are not symmetrical just as people aren’t. And they can favor one way of going out of preference as well as out of physical necessity. And we can help them learn to be more even at least to some extent through a variety of modalities (correct riding, stretching, in hand work, proprioceptive training, cross training and work on varied terrain, acupuncture, chiro, massage, swimming, etc.).
Modern chiro techniques really are less about moving bones in horses. For the most part, we are just not strong enough to do it, and using that kind of force or tools is not well tolerated by the horse. Modern techniques involve quicker, lighter movements that rely heavily on just bringing the horse’s nervous system’s awareness to an area, to the point they can sort of realign themselves. Less invasive techniques like Masterson Method and some cranial sacral type methods work on the same principles.
With that in mind, I think it’s very helpful for helping the horse to develop new neural connections to the non-dominant areas of the body. I’ve had to do the same for myself with the help of a chiro and other bodywork to fix some asymmetries that were causing back pain and pinched nerve symptoms.
In the beginning, the new patterns may not last very long. But in conjunction with all of the other work, then over time you may need the body worker less. If there is pathology, though, then certain areas may need periodic help because the arthritis or club foot or whatever it is cannot be totally cured and so some overuse/underuse patterns may persist without this kind of help from time to time, even if there is improvement from developing correct supporting musculature, improving the feet, etc. over time.
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