Little Old Me Vs A 500kg Beast
Quite a few people have asked: How can you possibly make any difference to my horse? Surely you're not strong enough? The truth is horses are a lot easier to adjust than you may think and this is because of the horse's biomechanical design. There are a couple of reasons for this:
Suspension Bridge Structure
The horses biomechanical structure is similar to that of a suspension bridge. This allows half a tonne of horse to stand on top of four comparatively small legs and feet. The topline of the horses back is the main suspension cable. This cable includes the supraspinatus ligament, thoracic vertebrae and dura mater of the spinal cord. The remainder of the horses barrel 'hangs' off this cable via the ribs and barrel muscles. Therefore the majority of the horse's weight is transferred, via the topline (suspension cable), over to the legs (vertical support pillars). Because the weight is transferred from topline to legs it means that no muscles are needed to support the horse's standing weight. Only one muscle is used when the horse is standing- the triceps muscle, located above the elbow. Because the majority of the muscles are relaxed there are no muscles to 'work against' a chiropractic adjustment.
Therefore it takes much less effort to adjust a horse in comparison to a human. Any tight muscles in the standing horse can be an indication that there is a problem somewhere.
It also takes no muscular effort to hold up the head and neck as the nuchal ligament, in the top half of the neck, is connected to the main 'suspension cable' of the back. The horse requires muscular effort to puts his head down to graze whereas when standing they are able to 'hang' from the suspension cable.
Horizontal Vertebrae
Unlike humans who's vertebrae are stacked vertically, horses vertebrae are lined up horizontally. In people gravity acts on the vertebrae pulling them down, creating compressive forces between each vertebrae. When people are adjusted, the compressive force is released. In the horse there is minimal compressive force acting on the vertebrae. There are primarily shear (sliding) forces between horse vertebrae. These shear forces are much less powerful than compressive forces. So even though a horse may weigh 10 times as much as a human it doesn't take 10 times the force to adjust. It actually takes less.
To find out what a what a misalignment is and how an adjustment helps to realign the musculoskeletal system read How An Adjustment Works.