Preventative Medicine in Sport Horses

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In addition to regular dental and hoof care, spend time conditioning your horse. The area that is overlooked most is conditioning and strengthening tendons and ligaments. Long rides at the walk are highly effective for this, and the late winter months lend themselves well to this type of conditioning.

When your horse has been in some type of work for 4 to 6 weeks, it is a good idea to book a veterinary appointment to assess any gait abnormalities or lameness. If your vet is certified in spinal manipulation or acupuncture, now is the time for a pre-season assessment and treatment to ensure that body pain is not preventing your horse from performing his best. At our practice, we love using the Lameness Locator in the spring - it provides an objective assessment of any gait abnormalities via sensors that are placed on the croup, poll, and right front limb. It is a great baseline, and we can use it for reference if lameness issues develop during the season.

During the season, pay attention if your horse develops resistance to his training regime. It might be a gastric or hind gut ulcer, back pain, or muscle tightness or soreness. Dealing with those issues early can save everyone a lot of distress, but more importantly, gait restrictions that originate from spinal or muscular issues in the upper body can cause improper loading of the lower limbs and result in severe longterm injury such as a flexor tendon or suspensory strain. Acupuncture, spinal manipulation, shockwave or PEMF can be used to help restore function to painful areas depending on the condition.

L aser therapy deserves a special mention here because of the rapid developments in this field. Lasers have been around a long time now and it has been established that they can speed up the natural healing process. We have used our class IV laser for years for everything from open wounds to back pain to joint issues. In our practice, we now also have a new regenerative laser for equines that we can use for treating chronic injuries. It delivers the laser light in short, extremely powerful pulses that provides deeper penetration and allows regeneration of damaged tissues. This laser can also be used for pre-performance treatments before big events to prevent injury and maximize performance.

Sometimes lameness issues develop that require joint injections. There is getting to be more research supporting the use of regenerative medicine in arthritic joints and damaged soft tissue to reduce pain and restore function. The two most used regenerative therapies on horses are PRP (platelet rich plasma) therapy and stem cell therapy. PRP is probably the most common because it can be done during

By Dr. Britt Mills DVM

the appointment and is much lower in cost than stem cell therapy. When injected into a joint or region, it delivers healing factors that reduces inflammation and speeds up the healing process. This effect can last for up to a year. Stem cell therapy is often used for more severe injuries that have a poor prognosis.

We ask our horses to do a lot for us, and with technological advances integrated with holistic approaches, we have so many more tools to keep them comfortable and happy!