This article is a guest post brought to you by Liz Newman, CEO of Horse Homes.
Hydrotherapy is the blanket term used to describe all types of therapy involving water for humans as well as horses. This can be rather confusing for horse owners unfamiliar with the various types of hydrotherapy and their purpose. This can include everything from simply cold hosing a horse’s legs after work, standing in a cold water spa to reduce swelling and pain or treat specific conditions of the horse’s lower leg or hoof, walking on a treadmill submerged in water or doing laps in a pool. Here I intend to focus on the water treadmill and the pool and the advantages of both depending on the individual horse and what you are trying to achieve. I will also try to explode some of the myths in respect of equine pools.
Both the water treadmill and the pool improve muscle aerobic capacity and strength, reduce stress on limbs and joints, reduce pain and inflammation and increase cardiovascular endurance. The buoyancy and resistance of the water reduces the level of weight bearing on joints, tendons and ligaments. Immersing a horse in water increases extra-vascular pressure through compression which improves circulation and reduces oedema.
Water Treadmill
The water treadmill is an extremely useful tool for improving general fitness and rehabilitation following injury or surgery. Horses suffering from conditions such as pelvic fractures, back injuries or post-op kissing spine surgery should not swim but the water treadmill will help them tremendously.
The buoyancy of the horse is relative to the water level, which can be increased or decreased as appropriate. Horses should be encouraged to walk in a long low outline which will improve topline and hind muscles. The treadmill increases the horse’s stride length while reducing stride frequency and the water resistance encourages respiratory, muscular and tendon improvement.
Dr Svend Kold, orthopaedic surgeon and leading expert on kissing spine surgery, having performed more than 400 surgeries, advocates rehabilitation with the water treadmill post op with the goal being to get the horse back into ridden work within three months of surgery or sooner. A common condition that Svend also rehabilitates successfully using the water treadmill is joint disease. A large part of lameness diagnosis and treatment concerns joint disease.
Svend believes that the key to successful management of joint disease, whether traumatic or degenerative, is early and aggressive interference.
“If treatment is not instigated early and effectively, a traumatised joint unfortunately often remains inflamed and the inflammatory cascade soon spirals like a snowball down a mountain. Many people would have heard me talk about the ‘slippery slope’ of joint degeneration towards osteoarthritis where we still have no options of treatment and certainly have lost the horse from competitive sports.”
Svend accordingly believes that this vicious cycle must be broken before being firmly established and that the joint can often help itself regenerate if treated aggressively early enough and managed correctly.
In respect of rehabilitation following joint disease treatment Svend has equally strong views on rehabilitation of joints following either surgery or joint injections. He strongly believes that training of athletes should never be stopped but altered and targeted to the rehabilitation needs of the injured structure(s).
Turn-out in paddocks does not figure in this regime, because it is non-controllable and non-quantifiable. Alternatively, controlled exercise (hand walking, horse walker, water treadmill etc.) are used to “tease” the injured structure(s) back to work as soon as possible and under the same loading pattern as will be required when in full training.
Swimming
The pool gives horses virtually 100% buoyancy, reducing limb stress, improving the range of movement in joints, increasing cardiovascular and respiratory endurance and reducing distal limb swelling and oedema. A high level of physiological condition is vital if you want to achieve peak performance from your horse.
A fit horse has less chance of injury and more chance of success. To achieve fitness you must address all physical components of the horse including respiratory, cardiovascular, muscular as well as tendons, ligaments and bones. Because swimming allows a horse to be conditioned in an almost completely buoyant environment, therefore without weight bearing, it is excellent for conditioning all of the above except bone.
For fitness training swimming does not replace ridden work which is needed to strengthen bone but for peak fitness swimming is superb.
Recent research shows that a horse swimming for 5 – 8 minutes can increase a horse’s heart rate from 34 to 175 beats per minute. This is close to the 200 beats per minute experienced by a horse breezing over 4 furlongs on the track. Swimming a horse for 15 minutes is the same as galloping a horse, unencumbered by a rider, for 5 miles, from a conditioning perspective.
Swimming is also excellent for rehabilitating horses following an injury, especially for tendon and ligament injuries where buoyancy dramatically reduces the chance of re-injury. When a horse is injured it has a huge impact on his or her daily routine. No paddock time, endless stall time and hand walking becomes boring very fast. Swimming is a great way for the horse to exercise, let off steam and mentally as well as physically relax and, in some cases, remain sane !
As I mentioned above, in some situations, swimming should be avoided. Any horse that has had surgical intervention should not be swum until the injury site has fully healed. Horses who have pelvic and back injuries, including those that have had surgery for kissing spine should also not swim.
Swimming for fun is great for horses. It sweetens up those bored with the repetition of the daily training regime and gives them the opportunity to move freely in a buoyant environment.
Exploring Myths About Swimming
- ‘Horses are not natural swimmers’
Well, no, they are not fish but they can all swim, even though they do not know it. We do not need to teach them how to swim but when they swim for the first time they rarely swim with the style needed to make swimming beneficial for them. This they gain with practice and careful management in the pool.
- ‘Swimming is bad for a horse’s back’
If a horse has a back injury swimming will do more harm than good. Novice swimmers tend to arch their back due to being apprehensive about being in the water but after two or three sessions settle into a smooth rhythm and become relaxed through their backs and start to enjoy themselves.
- ‘Never swim an eventer because when you jump into water in the cross country he will try to swim’
Horses are all about self-preservation and are very perceptive about their environment. They know the difference between walking down a slope and gently swimming through water in a pool from being under tack leaping over a large obstacle into a shallow pond!
Do swim your eventer as part of your training regime, it is tremendous fun and a great way to achieve optimum fitness.
I would enjoy hearing about your experiences with hydrotherapy and I am always happy to answer any questions you may have [email protected]
This article is a guest post brought to you by Liz Newman, CEO of Horse Homes.
Liz has been working with horses, in one way or another, for 40 years. She has used swimming and other forms of hydrotherapy with her own horses and those of her clients for more than 20 years. Horse Home design and plan equestrian facilities including equine pools and hydrotherapy centres.
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