The Benefits of Equine Rehab at a Facility vs. Rehab at Home

Horses injure themselves frequently. Minor injuries can be cared for easily, but some of the more significant injuries require intensive rehab. A rehabilitation program can be complex with the use of multiple different modalities, but at the base of EVERY rehab program is hard work and time commitment! There is no way around it. For a rehab program to be successful, the horse needs to spend time rehabbing. One of the most common reasons for a poor outcome after an injury is the inability to devote the proper time and attention to rehabilitation.

In the past, veterinarians thought they should put an injured horse in a stall and try not to look at them too closely for the next few months. Now we know that to optimize healing of most tissues and to maintain body condition to prevent further injury, the horse needs to perform controlled exercise multiple times per day every day, at minimum.   Most also require icing, bandage changes, and anti-inflammatories. This may add up to 2-3 hours of rehab per day, and at least 2-3 trips to the barn every day. And again, this is only the minimum program.

But what if we want to give the horse every chance of success?  What else is there to rehab? How can a specialty rehab facility take rehab further?

1. Providing a fluid rehab plan. At our facility, an initial evaluation is performed on each individual horse and a plan is developed based on the type injury, the stage of injury, the recommendations of the diagnosing veterinarian, and the goals of the owner. The horse is re-assessed by our veterinarians and licensed veterinary technicians daily and the plan is changed accordingly to meet the needs of the individual case. This type of daily evaluation is unique to a rehab facility. We can assess the response to the rehab program and we can recognize early if a horse is not healing as expected. 

2. Paying close attention to mental health. This is incredibly important to the success of a rehab program. Horses do not do well mentally when they are locked in a stall for extended periods of time and it is easy to get to the end of a horse’s tolerance.  At a rehab facility, we combat this by working with each horse multiple times per day. Spreading the rehab into multiple session per day is not only key to tissue healing, it is also key to mental health. A typical day for a tendon injury at our rehab facility may look something like this:

• Hand walk 20 minutes in the Equicore, hand graze 10 minutes - early morning

• Groom, standing core exercises and stretches, balance pads, laser therapy - mid morning

• Underwater treadmill work 30 minutes - early afternoon

• Hand walk 20 minutes over poles, hand graze 10 minutes - late afternoon

• Vibration plate therapy 10 minutes - end of day

In addition to this hands-on approach, we also go to great effort to keep horses happy during the time they do spend in their stalls. We pay close attention to picking the right stall location and the right neighbors for each horse. We use nibble nets and stall toys to keep them entertained. Sometimes we even move them to different stalls throughout the day to change the view! It is rare that we need to use calming medications for the horses at our facility. 

3. Paying close attention to gastrointestinal health.  Horses on rest with a major change in exercise and turnout need their diet to be adjusted. A typical horse on confinement will not need the same calories it needed while in heavy work and may also need different types of calories. Rehab horses can be prone to gastric ulcers and special attention needs to be paid to the prevention of ulcers - potentially including management changes, diet changes, and preventative medications if necessary.  

4. Providing the treatment modalities. One of the major and most obvious benefits of a rehab facility is the specialty therapies and tools available. At VRSVA, we have an underwater treadmill, a Class IV laser, a vibration plate, an Equicore system, a Game Ready system, and balance pads. We also have veterinarians trained in chiropractic and acupuncture and staff trained in stretching, standing strength exercises, and frictional massage. 

We firmly believe in the power of rehab and put all of our efforts into helping horses heal as quickly and strongly as possible.  We’re happy to talk to you about how rehab at our facility can help your horse!