"It's amazing anyone rode him at all."

Every equine professional who works with Ace tells me that, and it never ceases to reinforce just how amazing Ace really is.

Dr. Redman, the fantastic DVM and equine chiropractor that I found, used to practice in Kentucky and I found an excellent (short) article that he wrote about subluxation and equine chiropractic work in The Work Horse Newsletter. (Article is on page 3) https://www.horseswork.com/pdf/2006/keepnwsletter(9-06).pdf

Ace had subluxation of his left hip, right sternum, lower neck, right shoulder, and multiple vertebrae.

Dr. Redman said that this would have caused him chronic pain, and from how bad it was he guessed that it had been going on for a lengthy amount of time.
My guess is that one little thing in Ace’s body got “out of whack” and it caused a “chain reaction” that lead to so many other things being out of alignment. He could have been holding his neck funny because the wolf tooth hurt, being ridden in an ill-fitting saddle, slipped and twisted a hip in the pasture- who knows. But once one part was hurting, he tried to readjust because of the pain, and made a whole lot of parts end up hurting.

Dr. Redman also pointed out that chronic pain sufferers (people included) obviously have more anxiety because so many things can cause them pain- but their body is also releasing hormones and adrenaline to deal with the pain, which could very easily make a horse “seem crazy.” This explains why Ace gets so anxious when I start moving saddle around or go to mount him. His body is having a biological response to anticipated pain.

Like people however, everything can’t be fixed with one session, so he has another appointment mid-May. I was also taught how to give Ace a massage back by his hips to break up the knots in the muscles and soothe the muscles spasms that he was having.

My camera batteries died, so I’m a horrible blogger and didn’t get any pictures of Ace. But, for fun, here are all the places something was out of alignment on Ace’s body…

I’ve never been so happy to find out that something is wrong with a horse. This gives me so much hope for Ace. I know that if I can just find and fix all of his physical issues, Ace is going to be so amazing. I just have to get him there.