A Visit from the Chiropractor

When Jetta first presented lame a little over 2 weeks ago, I panicked and called the vet and chiro.  The vet has been and gone, and now so has the chiro.  He came in and immediately identified her right hind, just watching her walk in!  He had me put my hand on her back as he pressed on her hip, and it literally felt like firecrackers going off all the way up her spine!  She has had chiro work (with the same person) for the past 7 years, and never has acted up in any way.  Even during her shoulder catastrophe a couple of years ago, she was her pleasant self the entire way through.  Not this time, though.  Jetta constantly swung her hips/hind end away from Gregg, flattening her ears and glaring at us all, and even trying to blow through me!  What a witch!  To be fair, he commented that he thinks this was effecting her entire body, and that much more was sore than to be seen by naked eye.  Normally her adjustments take about 10 - 15 minutes to do...this time he spent about 30 - 40, a good three times as long.  By the end, though, Jetta was standing quietly, head low, dozing.  Gregg is sure she slipped, he says he sees this type of injury when their hind leg goes up and under their body, rather than out and back.  After he was done, the swelling in her hock was completely gone.

So, it seems to have done wonders with her.  Our barn owners are on a cruise, left Thursday (lucky dogs!) for about a week, so I am covering evening chores (and this weekend) while they are gone.  I've not ridden Jetta, because I want to continue to give her body time to recover, and because I've been very sick myself.  But, I've seen her every day, and she seems to be completely back to normal in her movements.  I am not planning to ride until this coming Saturday at the earliest, so we'll see what that bring. 

On a funny note, we had our first "big" snow this weekend, about 3 inches or so accumulated while the horses were out for the day Saturday.  As I was working the weekend, I went Sunday to turn them out in the morning, and 7 of the 10 were blowing and snorting as they walked out of the barn into the snow.  The same snow that came down all day while they were out in it the day before.  Good Lord.  And no...Jetta was NOT one of the idiots, err horses, that had a problem with it.  :)