Ruby's chiropractic exam

Not a DVM, but Rick was highly recommended by several people so Heather and I decided to take a chance. 

I'll state here that I have never had an animal of mine adjusted, nor have I ever seen a chiropractor myself.  I did observe while Candy (Heather's Haflinger mare) and another horse at our barn was adjusted by a different chiropractor a month or so ago.  It seemed like a lot of popping and cracking and throwing the horses off-balance...and made me extremely nervous for my recently-injured and healing horse.  So, take my ignorance into account here.

When I made our appointment, I explained that Ruby suffered a ligament injury last fall, and told him about her recent Nascar activities and resulting fall and I rehashed it all when he arrived.  He started poking and prodding and looking (insert worried Ruby face here - she was so sure this guy was another vet that was going to prick her with needles), then he pulled out his little laser light thing and started going over her.  I expected Ruby to get irritated with this pretty quickly (she can be impatient and doesn't enjoy much attention from people she doesn't know), but instead she got droopy lips and sleepy eyes, hmm...While he was doing this, he was explaining how this is connected to that, and so on.  I didn't really buy into it much until later when he started the hands-on work. 

Rick worked on Ruby with the laser for close to an hour.  By this point, I was getting droopy lips and sleepy eyes myself and couldn't stop yawning.  When he stared on the body work, I started paying attention.  He started on her rear end, and she was highly reactive to pressure in certain areas, tucking her butt way underneath herself.  So, he went up to her face with his light and held it on a few different spots, then went back to her butt.  She was less reactive but still obviously uncomfortable.  Then he showed me what he wants me to do between visits, basically using my entire forearm to put steady pressure along the line of her butt from near her hip to near the point of her buttocks. He did each side for several minutes each, then tested her sensitivity again and didn't get a reaction.

He kept moving to different parts of her body, finding the sensitive areas (and there were a lot), and working through them with Ruby getting more and more relaxed. Then he returned to her butt.  She reacted less than she had originally, but still reacted so he redid everything in that area.  Towards the end of the visit he did pop her a few times, but never jacking up a hind leg then nearly pushing the horse over.  Still, it was a hard thing for me to listen to *shudder*.

When Ruby was all finished up, he went over again a few things that he wants me to do with her (not popping just pressure on that area of her butt and where her neck meets her shoulder).  He said her butt/hips are going to need a lot of work, but if I'm consistent her top line should start filling in - I can only hope!  Then it was Candy's turn.

Candy was Ruby's opposite.  Whereas Ruby was reactive, Candy was so stoic that during his initial evaluation he couldn't get her to react at all.  He went over Candy with his laser, and when he was done she started reacting to the points.  He said that Candy had gotten so used to being tense in these areas that she had tuned them out completely.  Then he worked on loosening her up, too.

I have to say that it was pretty remarkable to see how differently the horses' behaved after he worked on an area. I would expect them to become less reactive if he was working on one small area for 15-20 minutes (massaging, etc), but instead he seemed to find their problem areas, use his light somewhere else on their bodies, then come back to the problem area to check the progress - and the issue was usually resolved.  Kind of bizarre, actually. 

I wish I'd had time to ride after, but it wasn't possible.  He spent at least two hours on Ruby, then I was trying to absorb what he was saying and doing with Candy.  It was obvious that both mares were feeling good at the end.  Before Rick left, Heather asked him for a business card.  Turns out he doesn't carry any and he doesn't advertise, he gets all of his business via word-of-mouth.  And he didn't charge us a trip charge because he was going to see another client on his way home (over an hour and a half away).  He's affordable enough that I may be able to get Ruby on some kind of schedule for a while.  Heather is all for this plan.

So, Heather and I are both pretty impressed - Heather even more so since she was able to stick around and watch Candy in the pasture afterwards.  I'm going to watch Ruby closely over the next few days, to see what changes may take place (is she sore, is she moving differently, etc).  And I'm going to push on those tense spots on her butt to see how reactive she is tomorrow.  All in all, I am pleased with how things went and am looking forward to seeing Rick in the future.