Do you suspect your horse has trouble seeing things or does it get startled by things you think it has seen many times? If the horse's vertebrae or axis are out of alignment it can put pressure on the optic nerve which can affect its vision.
I did a little video to show how to test the menace response, which is simply chopping your hand towards the eye making sure it isn't the air flow he or she is responding to, start from a position back towards the neck and move up to the corner of the eye to see where they perceive the motion. The horse will blink when it perceives the "menace".
A chiropractic adjustment will usually fix the problem unless there is an underlying disease.
I used Coulee for this demo, and you can see that she has excellent vision with both eyes, as she should since I have had the chiro work done on her.
5 comments:
So, this is a normal response. The optic nerve is attached to the base of the eyeball - or the back of the eye and leads into their brain. How would a chiropractic adjustment affect the optic nerve?
Wow. I can't wait to get home and try it on Leah!
That's very good to point out. The other thing that can affect this is neurological diseases like EPM and/or Lyme, both of which are fairly common in my part of the world. Unusual sensitivity to sound/sight and/or unusual spookiness can be signs of either.
The brain stem runs through the atlas and the optic nerves are connected to the brain stem (I think!) Any pressure on the brain stem can be relieved by adjusting the poll (atlas.)
Leah seemed to have a good menace response. I did find that rubbing her right side neck while I rode, got her to make the right turn--finally. So, I'm thinking muscle soreness, which we've already been targeting with massage and stretching. I'm going to continue with the teeth and Chiro. The Chiro is a Vet who specializes in soundness issues.
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