Immobilization or stall rest is sometimes necessary for a horse's injury to heal, especially in cases of severe tissue damage (such as tendon or ligament damage and fractures), but other times keeping horses moving is actually a better approach. The key is choosing the right exercise for the type and location of the injury. We cannot just tell horses, for example, to engage their core. We have to design exercises that achieve the desired result.

Hydrotherapy, the use of water to treat medical conditions, was first practiced by ancient Egyptians, and pools, saunas, baths, and tanks have historically been used to treat health concerns from arthritis to inulcers. Muscles have to work harder to move in water than on land, while the buoyancy of water reduces weight-bearing on bones, joints, and soft tissues, and the pressure exerted by water reduces swelling and inflammation.

One day in the 1980s, Lindsey Serafini’s grandfather was watching his Standardbred horses getting shod.
“The farrier was shoeing with hoof pads and my grandfather said, ‘I could make those,’” says Serafini, who is a fifth-generation owner of Castle Plastics.

Electrotherapy, directing small currents of electricity through the skin for medical treatment, has been widely used in human sports medicine and rehabilitation to treat injuries and optimize performance. Various modalities have made their way into sport horse medicine and rehabilitation. Electrotherapies are built around energy sources that range from acoustics to vibrations.

Equine sports medicine and rehabilitation is a comparatively new veterinary specialty. Sarah le Jeune, DVM, DACVS, DECVS, DACVSMR, certified equine acupuncturist, and Jessica Morgan, DVM, PhD, DACVSMR, both specialty clinicians at the UC Davis veterinary hospital, provided some insights into this topic.