Benefits of Heat Therapy for horses

It’s been a busy couple of days treating both new horses and regular clients 👏🏻

Something I have been applying in most of my treatments over the past 2 days is heat therapy 🔥

This is for both the benefit of the horse 🐴 and for myself ☺️ as adding heat to an area can then make it easier for me to work with my hands 🖐 on that area and therefore I can get better results for the horse from my treatment 👍🏻

I have spoken about heat therapy before but wanted to re-cap for those of you that missed it 🙃

What does heat therapy do? 🧐

🔴 Heat decreases pain by soothing the sensory nerve endings

🔴Heat causes dilation, resulting in improved circulation which then brings more oxygen and nutrients to tissues

🔴Heat loosens the fibres of muscles, tendons, and ligaments; dislodges toxins; and prepares the area for massage

🔴Heat brings a general feeling of relaxation to the muscle fibres, tendons, and ligaments

🔴Heat raises the body temperature, stimulates metabolism, and lowers blood pressure

🔴Heat can lessen the aches of old wounds, ease low-grade inflammations, and relieve stiffness in older animals

🔴Heat loosens muscle fibers and other fibrous tissues prior to the employment of friction massage moves

👉🏼I also regularly recommend that clients use heat therapy on their own horses between treatments (if I feel this is appropriate for the particular horse) and can recommend some safe ways for you to be able to apply heat without splashing out on specialist equipment 🙌

If you think your horse could benefit from heat therapy or you would like to find out more please do get in touch 📲