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Dr. Daniel King/King Equine Chiropractic and Village Pet Doctor

I could write pages on all Doctor King has done for Crosswinds, but instead I'd like to just highlight a few key points and tell a few stories. Besides being an exceptional "traditional medicine" vet, Dr. King is also a chiropractic practitioner. I'd like to share a few stories of some of what that talent has done for Crosswinds' horses.

1) Zee: Catch Sum Zees was a 3-year old off the track fully recovered from a bone chip in her knee, but with tons of classic "thoroughbred personality" as well as some slightly odd ways of going and a distinct difficulty in bending manuevers, particularly to the left. She was a nice ride, but nothing exceptional...then Doctor King offered to do a chiropractic checkup on her followed by a few weeks of regular treatments. The Zee that resulted is currently competing in 2nd level dressage and her new mom recently turned down an offer of $12,000 to sell her!

2) Magicman: Magic was an owner surrender -- dangerous, nasty, vicious were a few of the words used to describe the big saddlebred gelding. He was being ridden in a quarterhorse-tree-western saddle on his classic huge, high saddlebred withers and a harsh bit and was described as unhandlable. Doctor King came and met the big boy shortly after he arrived, and Magicman was given regular chiropractic adjustments to resolve his wither and rib pain as well as time off to regain some weight, and then we began to ride him in a thoroughbred-tree-english saddle and a rubber mouth snaffle bit. Magicman is now happy in his new home at a huge saddleseat training facility doing lessons and showing very competitively, primarily with young teens and pre-teens.

3) Miata: Miata came to us rather like a train wreck -- nearly everything that could be wrong with the big fellow was. He'd been in a car wreck, and then severely neglected after, with a huge scar on his back and the worst stiffness and pain in his spine and most of his joints Doc had ever seen. Over the past year, Miata has grown back all his hair, healed nearly every wound, put on several hundred pounds, and thanks almost 100% to Doc's efforts, has regained nearly full and normal motion in every joint in his body, including the shoulder he used to partially dislocate and the region of his spine under his scar, and even his atlas joint (where his skull meets his neck) -- the site of the most severe pain this big fellow suffered. Thanks to Doc's amazing work, Miata is rapidly progressing toward returning to a normal life, like the other horses we've cared for and placed here.

4) Dollie: Dollie's story is perhaps more dramatic even than Miata's. Anyone could look at Miata and see his pain, and any good vet would've referred him to chiropractic if they didn't have that specialty in their own bag of tricks. Dollie, on the other hand, is a classic rescue horse in that her problem would typically have simply been chalked up to "behavioral problems" and discarded. Sadly, I have to admit, we nearly made that decision for Dollie ourselves. But Doc wouldn't give up. When Dollie had unexplained bucking fits obviously driven by pain that classical medicine couldn't pin down (tests for ulcers, among other things, came up clean), and that a mainstream chiro exam couldn't explain either, Doc called his teachers from his chiro training and went looking for more answers. And answers he found -- Dollie had a rib out of place at her sternum -- under her belly -- a place where maybe a dozen vets ever would've looked for a problem. Doc pinpointed that if she was saddled just slightly behind the normal position, it would've pressured this point and explained the sudden panic when she had been doing so very well under saddle every other time!  As of this writing, Dollie is on a rest period after her adjustment for this problem, and hopefully the 2nd week of June (2004) we will re-start her riding training again.

I could tell a dozen more stories for a dozen more horses here...and more than that. Doc's classical medical skills -- specifically surgical -- saved the life of the rescue's first dog, Barney, after being struck by a car and then receiving substandard care at another facility; his skills in equine dentistry have returned more than one "unridable" horse that was screaming in oral pain to a normal life as a productive horse; his interest in holistic medicine has resulted in healing of numerous injuries that would otherwise have hideous scars and more.....

We could not do nearly what we do here without Doctor King's help, and the help of his fine staff. And, to top it all off, Dr. King donates much of the time and materials he spends on Crosswinds. We cannot say thank you loud enough or often enough; nor can we recommend him highly enough to anyone looking for the finest in care for their canine, feline or equine friend -- be it an athlete who is off his mark, a severe injury, or just routine care, Dr. King is who we recommend, unconditionally.

Dr King's canine/feline practice is Village Pet Doctor in Tolono; his chiropractic and dental practice are also housed there and can be reached at 217-485-PETS.