Heart
DISEASE IN HORSES HOLIDAY
HORSE TREATS
Pilates
for POSTURE TEACHING HER TO
Preserving
AMERICA’S WILD HORSES How international eventer
HANDLE A ROPE
Elisa Wallace is making an impact
SELECTING A
equine companionship
SADDLE PAD
PADDOCK PARADISE
RETRAINING THE TRAILER-TRASHER DISPLAY UNTIL JANUARY 2017
VOLUME 11 ISSUE 6
Life in a
PASTURE PALS Adorable alternatives for
$5.95 USA/Canada
EquineWellnessMagazine.com
December 2016/January 2017
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Conte
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30
FEATURES 10 CHIROPRACTIC CARE
FOR NEUROLOGIC ISSUES IN HORSES
“Neurologic” doesn’t have to be scary! Take a look at how chiropractic care can help with nervous system interference in horses.
14 PASTURE PALS
If your horse is coming off an injury, or can’t be turned out with other horses, he might be feeling a bit lonely. Take a look at some alternatives for equine companionship!
26 TEACHING YOUR
50 LIVING IN A PADDOCK HORSE TO HANDLE A ROPE PARADISE Getting your horse used to having a rope thrown around is a helpful trustbuilding tool that helps teach him not to panic in certain situations.
The Paddock Paradise system provides horses with a more natural lifestyle.
WILD HORSES
Does your horse paw, kick, or thrash around while he’s in the trailer? This destructive behavior can be reshaped with a little time, effort and understanding.
56 RETRAINING THE 30 PRESERVING AMERICA’S TRAILER-TRASHING HORSE Elisa Wallace demonstrates how one person can have a big impact in the effort to bring awareness to the challenges facing our wild horses.
36 PILATES FOR RIDERS 17 SELECTING A SADDLE PAD – POSTURAL AWARENESS Your saddle pad is meant to give the horse’s back comfort and protection. But with so many choices out there, how do you know which one is best?
22 HOLIDAY HORSE TREATS These apple butter crunch treats are easy to bake – they’ll be a holiday hit for your horses and are a great gift idea too!
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Equine Wellness
AND SUPPORT
Good posture is essential to good riding, and it prolongs the health of your back! Pilates can help you achieve and maintain correct posture in the saddle.
46 HEART DISEASE IN HORSES
Cardiac disease may not occur in horses as often as other health conditions, but the effects can be devastating when it does. Take a look at several common heart conditions and what to watch out for.
nts 22 DEPARTMENTS COLUMNS
6 Editorial 25 Holiday gift guide
8 Neighborhood news 20 A cupressure at a glance
33 Product picks
34 M inute horsemanship
44 Equine Wellness resource guide
42 Green acres
49 Heads up
54 Herb blurb
59 Social media corner
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FOR
CHIROPRACTIC CARE
NEUROLOGIC
By
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issues IN HORSES
scary
“Neurologic” doesn’t have to be . Everything has its roots in the nervous system. Take a look at how chiropractic care can help with nervous system interference in horses.
When I first graduated from veterinary school, I would get chills down my spine if someone asked me if her horse might have a neurologic condition. Answering “yes” to this question usually meant signing a death certificate for the horse, because it involved diagnoses like wobbler’s, EPM, West Nile, brain tumors, and traumatic injuries to the spinal cord. There was little in my truck that could be used to cure these problems. Anti-inflammatories and stall rest were often used to mask the symptoms and to see if the animal would get better.
that is now your horse is the same power that controls every reaction that occurs in his body. Chiropractic care is not about curing your horse’s disease; it is about helping restore normal communication between his brain and every part of his body. Restoring this communication allows the brain to resume appropriate control and guide the organs to function at optimal levels.
A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE After practicing veterinary medicine for 28 years, and animal chiropractic for 18, this question still sends chills down my spine, but for a different reason. Over time, I have learned that everything is neurologic, and that chiropractic care can help these horses. The nervous system is the first bodily system that forms after two cells come together to eventually develop into the majestic being known as your horse. This is because the nervous system is needed to control every other organ and tissue in the body. The power that turned those two cells into the mass of cells 10
Equine Wellness
Everything has its roots in the nervous system. Your horse’s chiropractor can work to help restore the body’s ability to heal itself.
The root cause
Many different issues can be rooted in nervous system interference. • The Harvard School of Medicine recently released a study that recognized chiropractic care as a viable treatment for pain. When your horse is consumed with pain, it is difficult for him to relax and allow the sympathetic nervous system to do things like digest food, heal damaged tissue and eliminate toxins. It is a neurologic issue. • A horse with a subluxated rib will experience an inability to breathe deeply. This inability to control oxygen and carbon dioxide levels will alter the pH of his blood. An altered blood pH will change the way his brain controls some bodily functions, leading to conditions like gastric ulcers, kidney problems and muscle fatigue. Again, it’s neurologic. • Chiropractic care helps the body resume normal motion. When one area of your horse’s body can’t move properly, compensations must be made in other areas. This abnormal motion leads to altered function of the limb. If left uncorrected, this altered motion can lead to tendon and ligament injuries and chronic joint changes. Evidence-based medicine proves that chiropractic care helps restore a more normal movement in the horse prior to these careerending problems. Altered motion is neurologic.
EVERYTHING BEGINS IN THE NERVOUS SYSTEM A horse with a subluxation will experience improper nerve flow to and from his bodily organs. Without this power, cellular dysfunction begins to occur. Cellular nutrition requires glucose and insulin levels to be in balance. For example, diabetes occurs when cells and hormones are not working together to control and provide appropriate nutrition to the cells of the body. Inappropriate responses cause the cells to be resistant to insulin, which causes glucose and cortisol levels to be elevated all the time. What we call Cushing’s, meanwhile, arises from an inappropriate level of cortisol. Metabolic disease syndrome occurs and causes severe debilitating problems for your horse. It is, essentially, neurologic.
CHIROPRACTIC IMPROVES IMMUNE COMPETENCE Chiropractic care has been proven by Dr. Ron Pero to improve immune competence in adjusted individuals by 200% when compared to non-adjusted individuals, and 400% when compared to individuals who were known to be sick. Studies Equine Wellness
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