Neurorehabilitation

Chiropractic treatment based on functional neurological examination and neuro-rehabilitation

Chiropractic treatment combined with neuro-rehabilitation (neurological retraining) focuses on rehabilitating the nervous system and everything the nervous system controls. Neuro-rehabilitation differs from conventional rehabilitation both in the initial treatment and in the following stages in several ways:

• Patient care and treatment aim to address the whole patient — not just a single diagnosis.
• Neuro-rehabilitation is relevant for patients who have not regained full functionality after traditional chiropractic care and/or for those where the owner feels that the animal is still not performing optimally or has not returned to its previous level. For most of these patients, there is an underlying neurological dysfunction that goes unnoticed unless specifically examined for.

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A chiropractic treatment based on functional neurological assessment is not only about finding fixed or restricted joints and restoring their mobility. The main goal is to identify the reason why the body has developed a compensation pattern and why certain joints repeatedly become restricted. Having “a locked back” is, in most cases, not a diagnosis in itself — it is a symptom of an underlying dysfunction elsewhere in the body.

​Other muscles are involved in essential bodily functions and sensory input — such as the eye muscles that move the eyes, muscles in the throat and digestive tract that allow swallowing and food processing, and the heart muscle that pumps blood and oxygen throughout the body.

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Everything that happens in the body is perceived by receptors located in all tissues. These receptors inform the brain about what is happening. The information travels through nerves to the spinal cord and on to the brain, where sensory input is processed.

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Examples of Receptors

• Photoreceptors – located in the retina; detect light, dark, and color (vision).
• Hair cells – located in the inner ear; detect sound (hearing).
• Olfactory cells – located in the nose; detect smells (sense of smell).
• Nociceptors – distributed throughout the body; detect pain (pain receptors).
• Muscle spindle cells – located within muscles; detect tone and contraction.
• Joint mechanoreceptors – located in joint capsules; inform the brain of joint position.
• Golgi tendon organs – located where tendons attach; detect the degree of stretch.

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Interaction Between the Brain and Movement

All sensory activation in the brain results in a motor response. Some familiar examples include:

• When you burn yourself, pain receptors stimulate the brain, which sends a motor output causing the muscles to react and pull the affected area away.
• When you stumble, joint receptors signal the brain about the incorrect limb position, and the brain immediately activates muscles to correct it.

Neuro-Rehabilitation in Practice

This is where it becomes complex. It requires exceptionally deep neurological knowledge and understanding to evaluate a horse’s neurological function — and, crucially, to interpret the horse’s neurological response to treatment and stimuli. This ongoing assessment is essential to adapt and fine-tune the treatment and retraining techniques throughout the rehabilitation process.

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No two individuals are alike, and no two respond in the same way.

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For example, a horse that has always been sound, supple, and easy to ride but suddenly slips and develops an acute back fixation (“locked back”) will often respond well to treatment. In contrast, a horse with a long history of symptoms, repeated injuries, and previous treatments will rarely recover fully without neuro-rehabilitation. Neuro-rehabilitation is therefore vital for breaking long-term compensation patterns and rebuilding the horse’s strength and function.