Odds On Racing - Harness Racing

Treating Racehorses with Hot & Cold Therapies
By Kimberly A. Rinker

Most racehorses, just like human athletes, will incur some type of injury during the period of their career. Bruises, tendonitis, bursitis and other soft tissue disorders can result from overuse wear and tear as well as a sudden trauma to an area. When symptoms are allowed to persist over a long period of time, or are left untreated, these minor injuries can often become acute and chronic. Injuries to Standardbreds are treated by their trainers and veterinarians according to the location, type of injury and diagnosis for recovery.

Many times trainers will treat chronic injuries with some type of heat or alternative between hot and cold therapies, while an acute injury is best served with ice or cold water. The Standardbred racehorse presents a challenge to his trainer and veterinarian because of his ability to adapt and compensate for his aches and pains. Often times, a horse faced with pain in one area, for example a right front knee, will shift his weight away from that area, and thus puts strain elsewhere, which could ultimately cause structural damage in an opposing area. What often happens if the original area is left untreated is that eventually the compensatory changes become exhausted and lameness results, now in several structures instead of just the original.

One of the most common chronic injuries is arthritis, which begins as an inflammatory process in the joints and progresses as the degenerative process due to wear and tear and metabolic influences increases. There is a progressive loss of cartilage followed by a bone against bone reaction, and the soft tissue around the joint becomes weak. Pain then enters the picture, inhibiting muscle contractions and support in the area. The degenerative cycle of this kind of chronic injury is not easy to break and thus it is imperative that the trainer assesses a horse's problem as early as possible.

This is where the veterinarian steps in. Working side by side with a trainer, a strong diagnostician can help the horse's conditioner to begin treatment, which will benefit the horse in the most positive fashion. The veterinarian may incorporate such diagnostic tools as thermography or ultrasound, which can identify the inflamed structures within the equine limbs. Chances of successful treatment are quite high if the injury is addressed immediately during the acute stage.

If the situation has become chronic, then the treatment of an injury can change radically. Heat and cold therapies can both be utilized. Obviously heat would not be applied to an acute swollen area. However, often heat can play a vital role in the rehabilitation of a chronic injury.

Heat Therapies

Because heat is a form of energy, it is extremely therapeutic, increasing metabolic activity in cells, which thus increases a demand for oxygen in an area, thus resulting in the amount of blood, which brings oxygen and nutrients to an area.

Standardbred racehorses who have arthritic joints respond favorably to therapeutic heat in damaged areas. Because of heat therapy, joint stiffness is reduced and thus mobility is greatly increased. Ultrasound is often a treatment of choice, but harness horse trainers have also been known to utilize heating pads, hot water bottles, instant chemical heat packs, heating lamps, hot water whirlpools, hot towels and counter-irritating liniments.

Only the ultrasound machine has the ability to penetrate through the skin to the deeper areas, such as the joints, tendons and muscles. The other heat sources, for the most part, penetrate only through the skin and subcutaneous tissues, which are areas not normally involved in most racing injuries.

Another common plan of treatment is the use of single leg whirlpools, which are specifically designed for horses. They consist of a large rubber boot that slips over the horse's leg and allows the flow of water throughout. These single leg whirlpools provide the effects of a gentle, warm massage and horses often seem to enjoy the relaxing feeling, which is both calming and rehabilitating.

Over the years, before ultrasound, magnets and whirlpools, horsemen used hot towel treatments on their horses. Using just a bucket of warm water and Epsom salts, a trainer or caretaker would soak a towel in the bucket, wring it out and then apply it to the effected area of the horse. The magnesium in the Epsom salts has been proven to be an excellent muscle relaxant and sedative for the nervous system. The magnesium is thus absorbed through the skin of the horse (usually horsemen use this treatment on horses with sore backs), and has a relaxing effect on the muscles. This treatment is still quite popular with many horsemen.

In recent years, magnetic therapy has been incorporated into the racing world, after having been found to be highly successful on human athletes. Magnets placed intermittently either in a body blanket or in various types of leg, hock or foot boots stimulate blood flow through the interaction of energies created between an opposing magnet. Horses with arthritic hock joints and overall body soreness often respond well to treatment of this nature. However, the trainer/caretaker needs to monitor the amount of time that either a blanket or boots are used, as often the magnets will produce too much heat and can actually burn the skin of the horse.

Cold Therapies

Cold therapy (Cryotherapy) for racehorse injuries comes in variety of forms, such as commercial ice packs, ice cubes, and cold-water bandages. Many old time horsemen can relate stories of standing horses in a creek to treat a bowed tendon, or of turning a horse out in a three-foot deep snow paddock to treat a lower leg problem.

Cold therapy such as ice or cold water causes vasoconstriction, thus reducing inflammation and helping to remove pain from an injured area. The cold also decreases fluid that may leak from the local capillaries, thereby limiting edema in the traumatized tissues. Additionally, it also decreases tissue metabolism, resulting in blood being driven away from the effected area.

Ice is one of the cheapest and most effective forms of treating injuries in race horses, as well as in human athletes. The use of ice massage or ice packs results in a decreased need for injected or oral medications, and is quite effective during the first 48 hours after an injury has occurred. Trainers sometimes soak bandages in a bucket of ice water to provide an form of cold therapy after routine exercise to prevent inflammation and swelling. Often times they will also have their horses stand in a bucket of ice water to help take the pain out of stinging, tired feet.

The most common injuries that respond well to cold therapy are splints, hematomas and tendonitis in the Standardbred and bucked shins, which are much more common with thoroughbred race horses. As with any injury, however, a thorough evaluation by a veterinarian is necessary to insure the proper therapy, either hot or cold, be appropriate.

Over the years studies have shown that a "wet" therapy is more effective than a "dry" cold therapy. Thus, many horsemen will use cold-water bandages on their horse to reduce skin temperature and aid in the healing process. The benefits of the cold water can be achieved without freezing the tissues, and prolonged exposure to cold in an area can be just as harmful as it can be therapeutic. Most veterinarians will recommend that ice applications longer than 30 minutes should be avoided. Hours of continuous ice application does not increase the effectiveness of tissue cooling and in fact, when a horse is exposed to a cold therapy that is too long or too cold, it can produce intense pain to the area. With cold therapy, more is not always necessarily better.

Veterinarians will often instead ask trainers to use a cold therapy to an acute injury several times a day for 30 minutes at a time, which reduces the risk of damage to the skin and external tissues.

Caretakers will often "do their horses up" in a cold poultice, which helps to draw heat out of an effected area. Most of the time these poultices are left on overnight, and then washed off the next morning. Often times, you can see horses being led into the paddock areas with a white covering that peaks out underneath their bandages, covers their knees and hocks and in some cases their stifles. Many trainers will poultice a horse both before and after they race, to reduce heat as much as possible.

Poultice either comes pre-mixed or can be made up by a caretaker, and has the consistency of smooth mud. Often the caretaker will cover the horse's legs and feet with the poultice, then apply a piece of paper, which has been soaked in water over the poulticed area. A bandage is placed over the paper, and then fixed with a traditional leg wrap. Many racehorses respond well to poultice treatment, which is part of their daily routine.

Horsemen can also use cold water as therapy. For instance, a horse with heat-filled hocks or knees can be placed in a bath stall and have small, plastic tubes with tiny holes in them which are attached to a normal garden hose fitted around the effected areas. The caretaker will then attach the hose to the water spicket and the cold water flows out of the small holes in the tubes over the inflamed hocks or knees, reducing swelling and helping to eliminate pain. The practice is what's known in racetrack jargon as "putting a horse on the hose," and is very commonplace in the barn area.

Trainers will also apply the same practice by putting a horse in the "tub." A horse's front legs (usually) will be placed in a large tub or muck bucket and a hose is placed inside and cold water is then circulated throughout and around the horse's legs as a daily course of treatment.

As with human athletes, fitness is the key to a successful performance on the racetrack, and the trainers and caretaker will routinely perform what tasks are necessary to keep their charges in tact, using whatever therapy is applicable to their individual equine athletes.