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  Discussion on SWIMMING A HORSE FOR REHAB
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Member:
readjoe

Posted on Sunday, Jun 29, 2008 - 9:58 pm:



Has anyone used swimming as a form of rehab on a horse. My horse is 6 weeks out from tenotomy of tibial insertion for fibrotic myopathy. he feels great..is still short striding about a half of hoof print. would swimming be helpful for helping his range of motion, with out the constraints of weight?
dr. O, do you know anything of this form of therapy? There is a place near me that odes this..and he would be swam everyday for 7 days...

Thank you,

readjoe
Member:
rtrotter

Posted on Monday, Jun 30, 2008 - 1:09 pm:

readjoe,

I have swum many racehorses in my 35 years experience. Here are my observations:

1. At the start of the swimming, you should still do what you are doing now because he will only be swimming for a very short amount of time ( should be no more than 3-5 minutes to start)
2. See if you can observe the way they put new swimmers into the pool and if they let them swim around or they tie their tails and make them swim in one position. Some horses take to the water right away and others not so much.
3. Make sure they have a mat that goes quite far down into the pool, some horses get very scared and it take more effort to get them in the pool and swimming the right way. You do not want to reinjure anything or have them hurt themselves somewhere else going in or out of the pool.

4. If your horse is wearing shoes, vet wrap them on so they do not get caught on anything, a horses swimming gait is much different than his riding gait.

5. Horses that swim have a tendency to get muscle sore over their backs because they are using different muscles when they swim.

6. Be on the lookout for colic after your horse swims, some horses blow themselves up with air and come out of the pool very gassy. I've found that these type of horses can only swim in limited amounts, no more than 6 or 7 minutes at a time and or have to be treated with Maalox before swimming just to keep the gassiness to a minimum.

If your horse is doing well in his rehab program as he is, I am not sure what extra benefit you might get out of swimming him especially if he is only going to swim for 7 days.

Of course, I am taking a racehorse perspective to this and probably would not swim this particular horse at this point in his rehab. But then again, I am a little strange in my thinking:-)
Member:
mrose

Posted on Monday, Jun 30, 2008 - 2:14 pm:

I know Alamo Pintado, the clinic where my mare was for a very long time, uses swimming as rehab for many, but not all,leg injuries. They told me they have had great success. They have a long, narrow pool, more like a narrow lap pool, with non-slip rubber on the bottom. It has a long, gentle slope going down at each end. Horses are walked into the water with a handler on each side of the head, and have two handlers the entire time they are in the water. There might be more info on the swimming and it's benefits on the Alamo Pintado web site, or the site of some of the other big clinics that use it.
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