While many would shy away from grabbing a horse’s leg to extend and rotate it, Dr. Kinal Patel, a chiropractor of humans, horses, dogs and cats, was in her element as she did so to the 21-year-old steed, Mariah, at Northfield Stables in Heber City. 

For many boarders and their horses, Northfield Stables is their happy place away from the hustle and bustle of downtown. The 20 acres are surrounded on all sides with the serene emptiness of the North Fields, a freshwater wetland area, with towering Mt. Timpanogos on the horizon.

Patel has spent as much time as possible in that environment since moving to Heber City last year, not just for the views, but to help her animal friends, too.

As Patel adjusted Mariah, the horse lifted one of her right legs, not to kick her doctor, but as her way of saying, “Help me out, here!” She has an uneven trot thanks to soreness on the right side of her body.

Patel gives Mariah adjustments once a week. The horse has arthritis in her hock and stifle joints in her hind legs, in no small part because her previous owner neglected her. Mariah’s current owner, Amy Hartquist, bought her nine years ago from a boarding barn in Washington. 

“She had at least two incidents where she reared up and flipped over with a saddle on, before I found her,” Hartquist said. “And she grew a whole baby without any nutritional support. They just threw her out in the field, and they were like, ‘Have a baby!’”

Patel said that, in her experience, saddles are the number one reason horses become lame. If a saddle is too tight, pinching the scapula while a human sits directly on the horse’s spine, it can create long-term health problems that can be worsened by running and jumping in high-octane events.

“It’s like an extra small bra, when you can’t fit into it. … You need space for their vertebrae to move around,” Patel explained. “But they try their hardest to please the owner and move.”

The goal of Mariah’s treatment is to make her healthy enough to be ridden. 

Patel’s treatment began with rubbing essential oils onto Mariah’s body to soothe her. Then, she performed a series of adjustments across Mariah’s body, extending her legs, pushing down on the spine and massaging the temporomandibular joint in the jaw.

As Patel performed the latter adjustment, Mariah involuntarily stuck her tongue out and flatulated. While stinky, that indicates the horse is relaxed and signals the treatment is working, Patel explained. Yawning and nuzzling up are also positive indicators.

By the time Patel wrapped up the treatment by enveloping Mariah in a pulsed electromagnetic field blanket, which massages the horse with vibrations and uses magnetic fields to stimulate cellular repair, the horse was falling asleep on her hooves. Hartquist’s anxious girl was completely relaxed.

Usually, it’s the horses that are in the most pain that have negative reactions, nipping, kicking or bucking if Patel tries to touch them. 

“You just have to keep calm and give the horse some space, and go back to see why it bucked back or reared up. It’s obviously pain or discomfort,” Patel said. “You don’t come in like you own them. It’s a kind of respect.”

Dogs can also be dangerous, but they’re typically easier to handle. 

For example, 13-year-old border collie poodle mix Beau didn’t resist when Patel picked him up and adjusted his legs. 

Beau suffered a neck injury last year. His owner, Ashley Peatross, didn’t see it happen, but he assumes Beau tripped on the stairs.

“I was upstairs, and he came up, and he was pretty much crawling,” Peatross said. 

After a month of trying to manage the injury, administering anti-inflammatory medications and carrying Beau outside for every bathroom trip, Peatross scheduled an appointment with Patel.

“She came over and did one adjustment, and after that, he went from barely being able to move to being able to move around and take care of himself,” Peatross said. “After two or three treatments, his quality of life was way better.” 

Patel entered chiropractic medicine because of the positive effects it had on her own life.

Patel was born prematurely, which resulted in lifelong health issues, particularly asthma and constipation. She didn’t discover chiropractic care until she was a pharmacy student at Western Illinois University. A friend recommended it to Patel, who had injured her knee while playing soccer. Patel was surprised to find that adjustments lessened the severity of her other health conditions. 

“I was literally hospitalized all the time for those two things. So, I was like, ‘If medicine didn’t help, and this is helping?’ So, I switched careers,” Patel said.

She earned her doctorate at the Logan University College of Chiropractic in Missouri in 2012, later opening a practice in Illinois with her former husband, where, among their many patients, the pair treated professional athletes from the National Football League and Major League Baseball.

Patel became interested in animal chiropractic after an experience she’d had with her dog. Then, Patel acquired a certification in animal chiropractic at the Options For Animals College of Animal Chiropractic in Kansas in 2018. 

“He got a nerve nicked by a veterinary procedure,” she explained. “When he came back, his right hind (leg) wasn’t working, and he was peeing himself. Gabapentin would make him absolutely neurotic and crazy, like, teeth out at patients, because he’d come to work with me. My girlfriend, who does show dogs and show horses in Florida and Pennsylvania … came and adjusted him, and it was magic.” 

She moved to Heber City last year after her divorce and soon found a family of sorts at Northfield Stables, where she spends her Sundays providing adjustments to animals. 

While treating human patients is fulfilling, treating horses, cats and dogs provides Patel with her sense of purpose.

“My goal is to give back to the ones that can’t speak,” she said.

Patel’s practice, Heber Valley Chiropractic, is located at 2 S. Main St. She also expanded to Park City last month and is located within Park City Fit at 4108 N. Forestdale Dr. 

Appointments can be booked at hebervalleychiropractic.com.

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Lucille, a 2-year-old Cavalier King Charles Spaniel from Midway, was the coolest dog on the block during Heber City’s “Dogs Day in the Park” at Main Street Park on Saturday morning.

She got her name from “Arrested Development,” “I Love Lucy” and a heart-shaped patch of fur on her back. Wearing pink goggles and a little helmet, sitting cozily inside a custom backpack secured to an electric skateboard, Lucille won the doggie costume contest by a landslide. 

And when it comes to skating, this pup is no poser. Lucille rides about 40 miles a day with her owner, Rich Cizmas, who places his feet on either side of her. The pair have clocked around 6,000 miles in all.

Cizmas got into electric skateboarding because traditional skateboarding became harder on his body in his 50s. He said he loves losing himself in the high speeds of up to 45 mph. 

“I have people all the time, neighbors and friends from church or whatnot, and they’re like, ‘Hey, I saw you, I tried flagging you down.’ And I apologize because I’m like, ‘Yeah, hey, sorry, I’m just so in the zone,’” he said. 

Riding around the Heber Valley, Lucille’s become a bit of a celebrity. She gets her picture taken “half a dozen times a day” and gets much more loving on top of that.

“I’ll be at Ace Hardware. We’re looking at nuts and bolts to keep this (skateboard) running, And it’ll be the 350-pound construction guy that’s on his knees playing with her and (saying), ‘Thank you. I needed that,’” Cizmas said.

She’s even met Karl Malone, the former NBA player and owner of Karl Malone Powersports.

“Everybody knows little Lucille,” Cizmas said. 

He’s thinking about creating a social media account for her because “it’s kind of chill watching a dog on a skateboard, looking at the horses and the cows and the beautiful scenery we have out here.” That, and Lucille’s career as a watchdog didn’t pan out.

Lucille wasn’t the only dog to get her laurels during the day’s festivities. Our furry friends of the Heber Valley were given the opportunity to star in a parade, run on a treadmill, frolic in a foam pit and imitate their humans in a dog/owner lookalike contest.

The winner of the latter competition was Otis. Voting through their cheers, the crowd agreed that Otis’ bullish frame, round head and stuck-out tongue in some way resembled his owner, Michael Griego. 

Griego said they get it all the time. The only real difference is their tongues.

“I keep mine in,” Griego joked.

“Dogs Day in the Park” was not only for fun. It was also a test of local dogs and their owners to see whether lifting the citywide ban on dogs in public parks might be feasible.

That’s why the event also featured informative booths on pet ownership, health and adoption from organizations like Paws for Life, Rocky Mountain Therapy Dogs and Wasatch Animal Clinic.

Otis, for one, was a model citizen.

“He’s a good example of bringing a dog anywhere. He’s great. He can sit down outside a restaurant. He’ll sit down and watch kids play,” Griego said. “I’d love to take him more places. But he’s totally happy just going where he can.”

An ad hoc committee formed by the City Council is considering allowing dogs on-leash in Eagle, Mill Road Estates, Cove and Private Kay Pete Murdock Jones parks, as well as off-leash in Private Key Pete Murdock Jones and Jordan parks. The ad hoc committee will not consider lifting the ban on Main Street Park except for special events. No change to the citywide ban has been made yet.

Holly Argueta, animal services coordinator for Heber Valley Animal Services, said she hopes any change in restrictions wouldn’t place too much strain on the organization’s two animal control officers, who cover the entire county themselves.

“My biggest concern is people not obeying the rules around that, letting their dogs off leash, letting their dogs on the playground where the children are and not picking up after them,” she said. “But I think if we can get enough people to be accountable and hold others accountable, I don’t think that there will be a big issue with that. I think it’s going to be a pretty awesome way for people to bring their animals out and bond better with them.”

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Nearly 15″ of snow fell in Park City in 24 hours, leaving local homeowners out in their driveways, shoveling snow. (Tanzi Propst/Park Record)

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