Page 44 - 2020 Stallion Register

get back to the desired performance levels quick- er,” says Seabaugh.
“Another study looked at delayed-onset mus- cle soreness in humans—which is the stiffness/ soreness you tend to get two days after the event. Cold water immersion also reduced this delayed- onset muscle soreness after exercise,” she says.
“I think the cold salt-water spa is the closest we can come for horses regarding whole body immersion (the limbs can be totally immersed, up to elbows and stifles) but if a horse has a known soreness on the upper body (like a sore back) after an event, applying some sort of cold therapy to that specific area can be helpful. There is some other data that shows you get the best cooling just under the contact area; cold therapy is effective to a depth of about 1 to 4 centimeters below the skin surface, depending on how much fat is there, under the skin,” she says.
“In the lower limbs (which are simply bone and tendon covered with skin, with no muscle or fat) we get a lot more effective cooling than we would along the back, but application of cold over a sore back may still have some benefit. Ice packs can be used over the back, as well as cold massage. In human athletes they often take a fro- zen ice cup and keep running that over an area.
I don’t know how deeply the cold can penetrate with this method; it is certainly useful in humans but may be more difficult to obtain results in horses with their thicker muscles. Ice packs over a certain area that gets sore after performance might be useful, however,” says Seabaugh.
“The various methods being used for cold therapy in equine athletes are not new to trainers and riders. Our role as veterinarians is relatively new however, in helping educate horsemen regard- ing when to use these methods and when not to.”
REHABILITATION
“One of the other uses of cold therapy, which many people tend to forget, is during rehab; after the injury is healing, it is helpful to incorporate cold therapy into a rehabilita- tion plan. If the horse has been off work for a long time during recovery (perhaps from
a tendon injury) and just starting exercise again, it is beneficial to reapply some cold therapy when that injured area is put back into work,” she says.
“If it’s the first day you’ve done trot work after a leg injury, it is reasonable to use something as simple as cold hosing or applying an ice-pack to those areas after we start to get them back into work.” This can help minimize possible stress and inflam- mation as you get the newly healed tissues working again.
Several products and modalities are being used for equine athletes, such as the cold salt-water spas in which the horse stands in a tub of circulating cold salt-water up past the knees and hocks.
42 New Mexico Horse Breeder