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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 725
  
| I Cold Hose, Chiro, and liniment, and do fine! I won all the BOT products this summer, but haven't used them yet because it's been so dang hot and I don't feel right putting hot therapy on anything when it's 100 degrees. I would like some cold therapy stuff. When I get sore myself, I use Ice and it helps a ton, and horses are really no different there. | |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
 
| imturnin3 - 2015-09-18 1:40 PM
I have a bot sheet I can tell the difference in my horse, he is recovering from a multitude of issues, bad farrier, sacrum issues. He is much more limber and relaxed after use. I'm also a believer in not keeping heat in the legs so instead of BOT post race. I do Ice and poltice. I believe they are helpful in keeping large muscle soreness at bay. Just like we use heating pads for muscle spams and soreness. But I wouldn't use them on the legs because there is not alot of muscle there.i know arthritic conditions could benefit from heat but I'm currently checking into pht. But yes I currently have an 11 yr old mare we just purchased. She's just on feed and hay, no supplements, no maintenance . Never been injected. And she vet checked clean as a whistle! It's all in what your are willing to do. And what your preference is. We will put the mare on 7 dose series of adequan for joints. But nothing else.
Legs are actually very important to warm up.
You have the deep digital flexor tendon, the extensor tendon, the superficial flexor tendon.
If any of these get damaged it is harder to heal, my vet told me the superficial actually doesn't heal if a chunk is missing, and a graft has to be done.
If the tendons are cool, or iced and the horse is supposed to perform there is an increased chance of the tendon shearing off.
I have used my bot boots in 35 degree Celsius weather, and honestly it doesn't heat up the legs much.
What people are forgetting is blood is continually flowing, the bot reflects heat back into the body which causes vasodilation of the area so more blood can come in, less pressure in the area, and the cellular activity is faster. This means the body can repair itself faster, the white blood cells can remove the dead tissues/proteins etc, and the kidney will flush it out of the system.
Since the blood is continually flowing, the body regulates the temp, the legs temp in my experience (used infrared heat thermometer) think the covered leg was 0.5 Celsius warmer.
I have noticed with bot and thermotex, if there is damage in the covered area, there will be sweat marks in the affected area, if there is no damage, no sweating.
Treated a mare with thermotex the first few treatments she was dripping sweat everywhere, the third treatment, only her shoulders were sweaty, and she was moving much better. The temp outside was the same.
Rule of thumb is for acute injuries ice and compression to prevent inflammation.
For chronic injuries heat, this is where bot comes in especially for suspensory issues. I use it as prevention as well. | |
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 Expert
Posts: 1612
Location: Cocoa, Florida | I use my chiropractor religiously, I have also learned a lot of ways to stretch and adjust small areas on my own horses. I massage and use old school Biegle oil baths after workouts or shows. (I use it in a spray bottle mixed with water). Also poltice sometimes
I don't own any magnetics. Not saying I'm against them I just spend money on other things like others said great fitting saddles, saddle pads, splint boots etc.
I'm not sure how effective all those things really are?
(Just read Cheryl's response, great to know!).
Edited by RnRJack 2015-09-18 4:49 PM
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 I Prefer to Live in Fantasy Land
Posts: 64864
Location: In the Hills of Texas | Kind of funny when you talk about not having the expensive stuff but spend all kinds of money on liniments, injections etc. I use PHT bell boots on my horse all the time. I have one pair that is now $100.00 for them so they ended up costing $16.66 per year or $.55 per month. I had one horse that was hard on them and they lasted just a year so that would come down to $8.33 per month.
I have yet to wear out a blanket but I do take very good care of them and keep them clean etc. So in the long run, they give me the most for my dollar.
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 Balance Beam and more...
Posts: 11511
Location: 31 lengths farms | I'm sure if I had the paycheck to afford the bells and whistles I'd probably have the bells and whistles. However I do not so I have more of the old school things, cold hose, massage, stretching, Epsom salt, etc, and they do get hauled in Old Macs. Though I did get my gelding a pair of magnetic boots after he injured his suspensory years ago and I still use them on him during warm up and again after I've cold hose and cooled him out. I do have them Chiro'd or Acupunctured when needed as well as BioScanned. The biggest favor I think we can do them is watching their nutrition and the farrier work ...those two things outweigh the others by a long shot in my mind. Or maybe that is what I tell myself to make myself feel better about the fact they all dont' own their own MagnCu blankets and Soft Rides, LOL!!! | |
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 I Chore in Chucks
Posts: 2882
Location: MD | I don't have anything really cool except the massager which I love. | |
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