Choosing the Best Horse Therapy Products

If you’ve been around horses for long, you know it’s just a matter of time before you must treat an injury or soreness with your horse. Knowing how to choose the best horse therapy products for your horse to promote faster healing and get them feeling their best can make those periods of downtime less stressful. Using horse therapy products such as red light therapy, laser therapy, massage therapy, copper or ceramic therapy, magnetic therapy, and ice or cold therapy for horses can not only help speed up recovery time but be used after exercise or competition to prevent soreness and reduce the risk of injuries.

Red Light Therapy for Horses

Red light therapy, also called laser light therapy, has been used for many years to help horses heal injuries faster. Red light therapy products can be used at home, without the need for being in a veterinary clinic setting, allowing horse owners to treat a wide range of ailments from mild soreness to tendon or ligament strains or tears, right there in the barn on a schedule that works for them. Everything from joint pain such as arthritis, wounds, muscle soreness, sensitive backs, to hoof pain.

Does red light therapy work on horses?

Red light therapy works well on horses by utilizing two types of red light wavelengths using LED bulbs that work together to penetrate the various levels of tissue, benefitting tendons, ligaments, muscles, and joints to increase blood flow and oxygen throughout the body. You can use red light therapy to help heal or offer pain relief in target areas or the entire body from arthritis, navicular pain, soft tissue injuries, muscle soreness, or laminitis. Using red light therapy wraps and boots such as the EquiCare™ Led Therapy - Equine Kit And Pairs allows you to use wearable red light LED therapy for your horse’s legs or hooves. You can use a product like the Equine Light Therapy® Small Kit which can be used on any area that you can lay the pad flat against the horse, such as on their back, shoulders, neck, or jaw.

Massage Therapy for Horses

If you’ve ever had a massage, you know just how great it feels to have those knots and sore muscles worked out. Horses have approximately 700 different muscles in the body that control movement. Imagine how sore they must get, especially when in training or competing. While there are Equine Massage Therapists who can work wonders on a horse, using massage therapy products for horses can help relieve some of that soreness on a daily or weekly basis, yourself!

Is massage therapy good for horses?

Massage therapy is good for horses, just like it is for humans! It can be an effective treatment for relieving muscle soreness and tightness, such as sore backs, necks, and hindquarters.

Copper Therapy for Horses

Copper therapy has been used in humans for a long time and finally found its way to the equine world. Used in various wearable items for horses, copper therapy increases circulation where the copper strands of fabric come in contact with the body. For example, use a copper therapy hock wrap on your horse. You can increase the circulation to the hock, helping reduce inflammation, soreness or stiffness from arthritis or overuse. Unlike other copper garments, products like Equine Copper Lycra Sheet or Equine Copper Quick Wraps are designed with copper thread interwoven into the fabric, not infused, so the copper cannot be washed out over time. These copper therapy benefits keep working for you if you own the products.

What does copper do for horses?

Copper therapy can offer your horse many benefits while increasing circulation to the areas it comes in contact with. Fabrics blended with copper threads aid in recovery from injuries such as soft tissue like tendons or ligaments while relieving pain and soreness from muscle stiffness and strains.

Ceramic Therapy for Horses

Ceramic therapy for horses is another of the best horse therapy products for helping prevent or heal injuries or pain in horses. Ceramic therapy products utilize ceramic fibers woven into the fabric used in various products. Anywhere you can use this fabric, such as leg wraps or saddle pads, the ceramic fibers will use the horse’s own body heat to increase circulation and promote soothing warmth and healing in those areas. Lux® Ceramic Therapy Quick Wraps are popular for shipping, before and after riding, or in the stall to reduce swelling, inflammation, and speed healing of an injury. These wraps are great for horses suffering from cellulitis, wind puffs, stocking up, and stalled stiffness. Lux® Ceramic Therapy Hock Wraps are great for horses that have arthritis or stiffness in their hocks. At the same time, the Lux® Ceramic Therapy VTEK® Mesh Sheet can benefit your horse from ceramic therapy across their whole body, especially great for horses that can be cold-backed before riding or suffer from back soreness.

Does ceramic therapy work on horses?

Ceramic therapy is a popular choice among horse owners and comes in various options such as ceramic therapy blankets, wraps, boots, saddle pads, and leg bandages. Ceramic therapy uses ceramic fibers woven into the fabric that reflects body heat back to the horse as far infrared rays (FIR), which expands blood vessels and increases circulation so that the body can heal and repair inflammation faster.

Magnetic Therapy for Horses

Magnetic therapy for horses stimulates blood flow, recovery time, oxygen flow and an overall reduction in the stiffness, soreness, or pain a horse may suffer. Magnetic therapy products can accelerate the healing time for horses to recover from injuries, overworked muscles, tight or sore backs, and joint stiffness.

Do magnetic blankets work on horses?

Yes, magnetic blankets and sheets work well on horses as they have been found to speed up healing and recovery due to the increased blood flow that magnetic therapy can provide. Magnetic therapy can reduce soreness, inflammation, muscle tightness, and arthritic discomfort, helping your horse feel better. Magnetic sheets like the Dura-Tech® Magnetic Sheet or Dura-Tech® Magnetic Slicker Hood are great to use for short periods of therapeutic time, treating large areas of the horse’s body. Magnetic therapy should always start at short intervals, such as 30-minutes, slowly increasing the duration of use over time. You should not use magnetic therapy longer than 8-hour at a time. The Dura-Tech® Magnetic Hock Wrap is excellent for horses with arthritis or stiffness in their hocks, including bog spavins, capped hocks, OCDs and other joint issues.

Ice Therapy for Horses

At the first sign of lameness or injury, horse owners know ice or cold therapy is always a good starting point to reduce swelling, inflammation, and pain. Sometimes standing for long periods of time cold-hosing isn’t always practical or effective. There is a wide assortment of options when it comes to finding the best horse therapy products for icing or soaking a horse’s legs or feet. Wraps like the Dura-Tech® Cooling Gel Leg and Hoof Wrap are shaped for a snug fit, designed to cover your horse’s leg from just below the knee down overtop of the hoof. The Dura-Tech® Cooling Gel Wrap comes in different sizes and can be placed around the lower leg or even around the hock or knees.

What is cold therapy for horses?

Cold therapy for horses is when you use ice, cold water, or ice packs on a horse’s legs or body area to bring down the temperature of the tissue, reducing inflammation and heat in an area. Cold therapy is excellent for new injuries, strains, injured areas, or preventative measures after exercise or competitions. Cold therapy is most commonly utilized with ice boots for the horse’s legs, where ice or ice packs can be applied to joints, soaking boots that you can fill with cold water, or ice wraps that can be used to various areas of the horse’s body. Icing stifles can be one of the trickiest areas, but thanks to these Dura-Tech® Stifle Ice Wraps, you can ice stifles without getting creative about how to keep the area covered!

How long should you ice a horse's legs?

Knowing how long to ice your horse’s legs can depend on the injury and what you are treating. If your horse has a new soft tissue injury, it is recommended to use cold therapy such as ice boots, for 10-20 minutes. You can do this multiple times per day, but you do not want to leave ice or cold therapy on a horse’s skin for longer than 30-45 minutes at a time. The same rule applies if you are using ice and cold therapy post exercise as a preventative measure. However, suppose your horse is in the acute stage of laminitis or founder. In that case, continuous cold therapy on the hooves during the first 72 hours is critical in reducing the inflammation and permanent damage that can occur during a laminitis episode. You should use ice or cold therapy for at least 20 minutes, every hour, during the 72-hour window of acute laminitis.