Cold Therapy

The variety of therapies available for horses with minor to catastrophic injuries can make anyone’s head spin: electronic, magnetic, pharmaceutical, procedural/surgical, vibrational, cold, hot, etc., etc., etc. … At least some cold therapy is pretty easy and accessible to most equestrians. Or rather, their horses.

Hydrotherapy from patentlybay on Vimeo.

Guess who dinged his left hind at some point on Sunday? Small nick, localized swelling … I can’t really tell if there’s much heat or not because everything in Texas is hot right now. I have cold-hosed and iced Eli’s left hind. Cold hosing is boring, but icing is easy enough — I just threw an ice boot on and took him out for a graze.

Depending on how the leg looks tonight, I will use Eli’s BoT polos behind and take him for a long walk under saddle. I haven’t checked whether he’s sound, but he does this often enough that my guess is that he is. And now that I’ve said that, watch him be three-legged lame this evening … After walking, I’ll trot him a bit both ways to see if I can feel anything off. If no, great. If yes, I’ll have to make some phone calls.