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The Benefits of Equine Hydrotherapy

by, Andrew Pana 2013

There has always been something mystical about the natural therapeutic properties of water. Ever since
the dawn of time, this life-supporting liquid has been used to promote natural healing, both in human beings and animals. Water has been a part of various therapeutic treatments for centuries. There are historical accounts of injured animals spending a good amount of time in shallow streams, mainly drawn by the cooling and healing properties of water for reducing pain, inflammation and recovering from injury.

Probably, the best example to support this fact is trainer Ginger McCain’s racehorse, Red Rum. Red Rum
is known for his historic treble that helped him win the Grand National three times. Ginger McCain trained his horse daily on the Southport beach. It was an essential part of his daily exercise schedule
back in the 1970s. The horse was suffering from an incurable bone disease in his foot in its early days, which was easily cured by the natural healing properties of water used in McCain’s training sessions.

With the passage of time and development of research and science, better and more helpful waterbased therapies came into existence. Equine hydrotherapy is one perfect example of using water’s
natural properties to keep horses fit and fine. Only hale and hearty horses perform better in thoroughbred racing events, and equine hydrotherapy is a treatment that makes horses worth wagering on sports betting platforms like http://www.Kentuckyderbybetting.com. With the availability of various equine hydrotherapy pools, horses are now increasingly being water-trained. One can assume that horses undergoing this type of therapy have higher Kentucky derby odds than others. In fact, it has become a standard drill procedure for the equestrian players. This form of natural healing and training program is a healthy alternative to treating horses with various drugs and medicines listed in the USEF website.

USEF - Target link  http://www.usef.org/_IFrames/Drugs/Default.aspx


Equine hydrotherapy benefits the
horses by:

• Improving the overall fitness level of muscles, tendons and ligaments
• Improving the function of the respiratory and blood circulation system
• Increasing the flexibility of muscles
• Enhancing the balance by making them swim in a straight line
• Toning the muscles of horses that have recovered from an injury or some illness
• Gradually increasing the overall fitness and keeping them healthy over time

Apart from treating injured and ill horses, regular use of water therapy can help a racing horse in relieving the day-to-day stress of an exhaustive racing competition or a hectic training schedule. It is also a much quicker and effective medium for treating their tired joints and legs after a whole day’s run. It must be remembered, though, that for equine hydrotherapy to be successful, it is essential to feed the
pony with proper equine diet while keeping a professional diet chart in mind. Supplementing fresh foods to the daily diet adds energy as well as beneficial healing properties to every cell in the body. This complements the Equine Hydrotherapy with added strength and overall health improvement.

Equine hydrotherapy is known for several other health benefits that include conditioning cardiovascular and muscular systems of horses, without putting any strain or subjecting their joints/legs to any harmful drugs. As helpful as it is in keeping the horses fit and fine, gentle swimming also helps them recover
from probable injuries.

A simple and unique method of equine hydrotherapy followed in stables and horse yards is cold water hosing. According to this method, the injured area of the horse or pony is cold-hosed for over 20 minutes for several times each day. This technique is extremely effective when water is maintained at
an effective temperature. If the water temperature is kept uncontrolled, cold hosing may not prove to be as helpful as the equine hydrotherapy spa treatment. The specially-developed equine hydrotherapy
spas control the water temperatures with the help of computer-based technology that helps in generating better results than cold-water hosing.

Therefore, specially-developed equine spas and swimming pools for horses that use computers for controlling water temperatures can churn out even better results when compared to manual cold hosing. Horses treated via cold water spas show signs of speedy recovery from chronic conditions like laminitis, navicular syndrome, and even austere skin lesions. It also proves to be useful in stimulating hoof growth in a natural manner. The equine spas, fitted with oxygen jets using mineralized water, can
be useful for healing a variety of chronic conditions like tendon injuries, sore shins, bruises, splints, fractures, arthritis, mud fever, and other kinds of ligament injuries.