Chiropractory and spooky horse

[YorksG]

Amber is having chiropcatory (sp) and accupuncture from the vet as my instructor suggested that she is very stiff down the right hand side (I knew something wasn't right but thought it was my riding). The vet thinks she has a misalignment of her atlas joint she has had one session and is moving more freely. The question is has anyone had experience of a horse with a bad/stiff neck who got very spooky and then became less so following treatment? Any theories as to why?
Thanks

 

[kerilli]

they're spookier when they're not right physically because they feel more vulnerable... as a flight animal, if their body doesn't feel good, they know they'll be slower if they have to make a run for it, and therefore more likely to be dinner for a predator. that's my understanding of it, anyway.

 

[YorksG]

Could be it kerilli, but wondered if there was any other possible cause that any one knew of.

 

[TarrSteps]

Well, think about it, if you're hurting you're tense too. If you're then asked to move your body in ways you either can't or that hurt you, the tension mounts, along with the anticpation of pain. Imagine you're sitting in a chair with a very sore neck. So long as you stay still and relaxed it's bearable but now imagine there's a loud noise or movement off to the side. You can't help but look (imagine what it's like for a flight animal!) but when you do it feels like you're being stabbed and you flinch /cry out and tense up even more. Then for a fair time after you're actively hurting, more tense and even more worried. And then the whole cycle starts again.

Neck issues and spookiness often go hand in hand, I suspect at least in part because range of motion/field of vision is limited by the lack of flexibility so things happening at the edges of the horse's vision seem not only more of a threat (the comment above) but also harbringers of more pain. Add to that that riders often feel the need to further restrict movement in such cases - either intentionally or because they themselves are tense - and it can really spiral out of control.

Horses are basically compliant. They are WELL capable of killing us at any time and if a horse REALLY wants to hurt you it simply will. (I've met a very few like that and I'll tell you they are a whole different type of animal than most people EVER meet.) So when they're doing something disagreeable/uncomfortable/apparently unwarrented it's usually because they have a reason. (The reason may very well be they don't want to, by the way, but there are usually very specific actions that go with that and spooking is not USUALLY one of them. Of the thousands of horses I've worked with only a handful spooked for fun/gain and it was very obvious what they were up to.)

So short answer (not my forte), I've seen MANY spooky horses become significantly calmer and less spooky with therapy/veterinary intervention. Sometimes the cause and effect isn't even that clear - I've seen horses treated for ulcers get less spooky, one horse spooked when he was allergic - but it is certainly worth investigating.