Chiropractic
Functional Neurology for the Equine Athlete
What if you could boost performance for your equine athlete by increasing range of motion and decreasing painful stimuli in less than 30 minutes without an invasive injection or surgery? How valuable would that be to you?
Sensory input (Myelinated type II nerve fibers) from the musculoskeletal system to the spinal cord such as vibration, pressure, temperature and touch all have an actual inhibitory interneuron in the spinal cord that blocks the pain input from that very same area of the body. For instance, if you smash your thumb with a hammer (pain), you shake your thumb (vibration) to down regulate the sensation of the pain fibers firing to spinal cord and brain. If shaking your thumb doesn’t do the trick, some with instinctively grab the thumb with the other hand to apply pressure, again firing the sensory input along the same tracts and down regulating pain.
How does this relate to Chiropractic for Equine Athletes?
Every Chiropractic adjustment, if given properly, should exponentially increase the sensory input (myelinated type II fibers) and thus decrease the pain input (a delta and c delta unmyelinated fibers) influence along that same tract. When joints and supporting soft tissues feel good, they self-rehabilitate by restoring that segments own range of motion, the athlete is more flexible and healthier.
When joints are not functioning well, the athlete starts to guard against the motion of the joint or become stiff. We evaluate the entire spinal column looking for vertebrae that are not moving well. When these areas are identified they can be adjusted with very specific high velocity, low amplitude thrust to improve the motion at the particular location.
Since our integration of chiropractic into our traditional examinations, we have seen tremendous results of improvement. It is truly another advantage to using a progressive clinic like SVEC.
Chiropractic Adjustments
Chiropractic exams and adjustments, when performed by trained professionals, are safe, effective and vital to maintain the correct movement and soundness in horses. Chiropractic is concerned with the relationship between structure (primarily the spine) and function (the nervous system), as that relationship can affect health and athletic ability. It’s a bit like dancing, if it hurts you’re probably doing it wrong!
