Equine Chiropractor: Front, Back Side to Side

Matt Kenna is a fully qualified veterinary and sports chiropractor working with elite athletes and their horses. He is currently working providing consultancy to premiership football teams, high goal players and treats horses across all levels of polo from low goal to high goal. Based between Guards and Cowdray, he travels all over the south of England. This is the second in a series of articles by Matt on equine chiropractic topics, following on from his article in our April issue

Front, Back & Side to Side

Importance of working both sides of your horse

It’s a well known fact that humans are right or left handed, ambidexterity is really quite rare, but what is lesser known is that horses are much the same. They have a dominant hemisphere in their brain, as we often talk about in regards to horsemanship, but they are also made naturally one sided, developing what is known as sidedness. I would bet that if you thought about it, you could tell me which of your horses favour the right leg and which are more natural on their left lead. Studies show, like humans, the majority of performance horses, around 85%, are right “handed”.

It is usually evident which is the dominant side in the horses I treat, and other therapists will tell you the same. How? Because they are effectively working out one side harder than the other. Naturally this leads to increased muscle mass, increased muscle tension, joint restrictions and stiffness, muscle imbalances both side to side and from one muscle group to another, and more often than not, in fact almost always, other pains and injuries on relative parts of the rest of the body. In fact, as riders, we often compound the issue by working them on their “easier” side. I even regularly see more inexperienced riders sitting unevenly in the saddle or gripping a lot more with one leg which conveys the issues even further.

These functional overloads caused by muscle imbalances, over time, will cause excessive tendon loads and joint pressure leading to quicker degeneration of these structures one side as opposed to the other. This is why recognising which side your horse prefers is so crucial.

Oh, and then there is the nervous system. The part of the brain that controls balance, the cerebellum, is highly important in the function of the nervous system, and it needs training as well. Ever noticed that your horse trips one side more compared to the other? That’s not just because it’s weak or being lazy. Recognising side preferences and training our horses both sides trains that balance and co-ordination and leads to a more stable horse. This is not only important in schooling, but checking up, turning for a play and even getting over the boards.

These problems can be easily addressed, by working our horses on their less favourable side, which strengthens and conditions their weaker diagonal and loosens up and takes strain off of the dominant one.

If these issues are left to manifest, the problems will escalate until a point whereby the horse will not perform the task which it is being asked and may even become clinically significant enough for the vet or farrier to be called.

If our colleagues cannot resolve the issue with traditional methods, additional therapies such as chiropractic, osteopathy or physiotherapy can help steer the horse back on track by addressing these biomechanical overloads and inherent stiffnesses that develop.

If you’re into more traditional ball sports, such as rugby or football, you may well have noticed that the greatest players work equally both sides so that their less preferential side becomes as good as their dominant, preferential one (think Jonny Wilkinson in the 2003 Rugby World Cup). To support their training, athletes make treatment a regular part of their regimes to make this easier, it is time that we start taking the same approach to training and treating our horses.

Web: www.mkchiro.co.uk @theequinechiro @theequinechiro

Photography by Matt Kenna These images show performance horses with issues that I treat. The green lines depict straight and level (where the spine and pelvis should be), the red lines show where the pelvis is and muscle imbalances