Forgive me for my silly questions but I’m very new at using liniment and I’ve never used poultice. I’ve been using liniment on a ligament injury and if I ever feel any touchy spots along the back. That’s the extent of my experience. Now in researching liniment I’m seeing that some provide cool relief and others provide warm relief. Also, the only liniment I’ve used is a gel type from OE which I got for free with my supplement purchase.
Questions: How do I know which liniment is cooling or warming? When do I use these two different liniments? I’m curious about using liniments on the legs and wrapping post workout (I know how to properly wrap a leg and currently I cold hose after hard workouts), any advice on which liniment to use and for how long to leave the wraps on? What is the difference between poultice and liniment and when do you use one versus the other?
I saw a video of slathering poultice all over the legs and waiting for it to dry, any wet areas after an hour is where there was inflammation, not sure how reliable that video was but I found it interesting. Thanks for any help!
A liniment that heats will cause a mild skin irritation, to bring blood into the skin. If you bandage over top of this, you will risk blistering the skin. A “blister” is a burn, and will take several weeks to recover from, will swell and leak fluid and get covered with scabs. No action on a ligament injury. If you are using a liniment with alcohol in it, it will cool as the alcohol evaporates. After that, it has no action. No action for a ligament injury. A poultice is something that “draws”, that is, it pulls fluid out of something, onto itself. This is usually something with salt or other hydrophyllic substance in it. This can be useful for fairly superficial infections in skin or hooves. A mud “poultice” like “Uptite” or any other mud type of poultice will cool as the moisture evaporates, heat is taken out of the leg to evaporate the moisture. It is applied to the leg, then wrapped with wet brown paper, then a stable bandage… but if there is an injury that is causing the heat, that will require “time” to heal, not mud. The wet brown paper layer slows the evaporation of the fluid in the mud, extends the usefulness of the treatment. If you truly have “heat” in a leg, this is the “tip off” that you are dealing with an injury, best to listen to that cue, and give the horse time to heal and recover if possible. Don’t try to just make the heat go away quickly, and think that the issue is solved… that is blindfolding yourself to your horse’s problem.
If your horse has a ligament injury, these are notoriously slow to heal, and difficult to recover from. Ligaments often to not heal well, and can not be brought back to previous strength. Tendons tend to heal far better, more fully, and faster. If you are not sure what you are dealing with, or how to treat it, it is best to ask your veterinarian for input to the problem. “Tincture of Time” is what is needed to heal both these problems, not liniments or poultices. One old time horseman once told me, “You might as well piss on it” as put liniment on these serious type of injuries. Correct preparation for required performances in terms of fitness and conditioning of the horse is the only way to avoid these injuries in the first place. If your horse has a sore back, this also may benefit from a veterinarians or professional horseman’s input, saddle fit, riding issues, compensation for other soreness and the horse’s incorrect carriage may be involved and causing this. Putting liniment on the back does not solve the source of the problem.
I feel like you dumbed down your answer to me and I really appreciate that! Seriously, you explained yourself very well, thank for the breakdown of each product. I feel like from your answer that I only need to use these products for a specific reason/condition, not for preventative or just extra horse care. I’ve heard of others applying liniment and then wrapping the legs after a workout, they do this with all their horses. My horses are sound and I cool them down well plus cold hose their legs if we did hard arena work (usually we only work for about 15 minutes then pasture ride). So maybe I don’t need to worry about doing anything else.
I should have specified with the ligament injury it was in the neck not in the leg. My OP was misleading as far as that goes. Her injury is doing well and the vet feels good about where we are at with the work I’m having the horse do. My homework with my horse in the beginning was to do stretches, light massage, apply liniment and hand walking. The soreness in the back has gone away but came up every now and then during the healing of the ligament in the neck. We are assuming she was compensating as the soreness changed in spots and I was not riding her at that time.
So in short, maybe I don’t need to dive into the liniment/poultice care. In the barrel racing world I hear/see people using these products all the time. However, I know us barrel racers are a bit on the crazy side, I try not to drink the kool-aid. Also, our horses are ranch horses first, I just get to play barrel racer on the weekends when I’m free. It would make sense then why my horse care would be different than those running their horses 4+ times a week.
I did find that the brand of liniment I have on hand is a cooling one. Thanks again for the information you provided!
I have used poultice after jumping for years. However, I made sure I always applied evenly, provided a good wrap job and took off the wraps 12 hrs later. I let the poultice dry the curried it off.
I still use the Back on Track liniment after my rides. I think NancyM’s response is the most accurate- time is the best healer and also the best preventative from a conditioning stand point…
Can I ask, why do you use it after jumping? The reason I ask is say I head to a 2 or 3 day barrel race, would this be at all beneficial for me to use the day after I get home? Again, we have no leg issues so I’m just thinking of doing this as preventative or additional horse care if you will. Thanks for your response!
Out of curiousity, having read of such practice on COTH, just this week I asked, in one of my local tack shops, when anyone had lasted used either linament or a poultice on legs. The answers ranged from “Never” to “What are they?”. Just not part of British horse care.
It sounds delightfully 19th century: wet brown paper and wraps.
NancyM did a good job. Neither Liniment nor poultice really does much of anything, other than make the owner feel better. That being said, they should always be considered “hot” and while they may make your skin feel cool, the feeling not the same as actual cooling. They dilate blood vessels, increasing bloodflow, while cold compresses and cold hosing are designed to constrict blood vessels and reduce bloodflow, (and associated swelling) to an area. If you are going to use them on an injury, they should never be used the first few days. It doesn’t do much good to spend an hour cold hosing an injury to reduce the bloodflow and swelling only to slather something on it that is going to increase the bloodflow to the area, even if only superficially at the skin level.
I only use liniment, Vetrolin, after a trail ride when I am sponging at the trailer. I find it helps cut the sweat better than plain water. Plus I like how it smells.
Wow, surprised that no one likes liniment. I used it on my shoulder for myself and it made me comfortable for hours on end, I had some sort of pinched thing going on. So while not going to HEAL anything. I suspect it helps in immediate relief on soreness.
You can not “prevent” injuries from happening in advance. All you can do is make sure your horse is fit for the work you are going to ask him to do for you, and have enough training to be able to interpret your cues and desires so that you have good two way communication, and he knows what is expected of him in terms of performance. If he is clear on this, and enjoys his work, he will do the best he can for you. He should remain sound if he is well prepared, well shod, well ridden and well conditioned, unless there is an accident, a slip, a fall, something that you can’t avoid. The trick to keeping horses sound in heavy or fast work disciplines is to do these things, and watch for any slight changes or filling somewhere in the legs, joints, tendons, every day. You run your hands over your horse’s legs. If you have bandaged those legs, or sweated them, or poulticed them, sometimes that first bit of swelling may not show up for you to see, and you go on and compete thinking that your horse is in good shape, having missed the first, very minor signs that you otherwise could have caught. The key is to find the first signs of issues, before they become bigger issues, and SCRATCH from competition, go home, and rest and rehabilitate, and bring back to competitive readiness in time, and fitting the horse up all over again.
Bandaging legs may be useful if you have a horse who has long term windpuffs, and you are going into a class where his conformation is going to be judged. The pressure of a bandage can temporarily reduce the size of permanent swellings for the judge to perhaps not notice them so much. Bandaging legs can protect your horse when he is being an idiot in a strange stall overnight, and injuring himself leaping around and whacking himself in the process. Bandaging can hold dressings in place, after a scrape, cut or other injury has happened. Bandaging can be for warmth, and can increase circulation because of that. But if you bandage constantly, you run the risk of bandage bowing a horse (applying the bandage too tight, and causing damage to the leg as a result). You also run the risk of the circulation in the leg becoming dependent on that support of the blood vessels to not swell, and the blood vessel walls become weaker as a result. Only bandage if you MUST, for a specific reason, not because “everyone else” is doing it, or for “looks”. And know that if you do bandage a leg, you are applying a blindfold to yourself about the actual condition of the leg the next day… because it may look better than it actually is.
You can not “prevent” injuries from happening in advance. All you can do is make sure your horse is fit for the work you are going to ask him to do for you, and have enough training to be able to interpret your cues and desires so that you have good two way communication, and he knows what is expected of him in terms of performance. If he is clear on this, and enjoys his work, he will do the best he can for you. He should remain sound if he is well prepared, well shod, well ridden and well conditioned, unless there is an accident, a slip, a fall, something that you can’t avoid. The trick to keeping horses sound in heavy or fast work disciplines is to do these things, and watch for any slight changes or filling somewhere in the legs, joints, tendons, every day. You run your hands over your horse’s legs. If you have bandaged those legs, or sweated them, or poulticed them, sometimes that first bit of swelling may not show up for you to see, and you go on and compete thinking that your horse is in good shape, having missed the first, very minor signs that you otherwise could have caught. The key is to find the first signs of issues, before they become bigger issues, and SCRATCH from competition, go home, and rest and rehabilitate, and bring back to competitive readiness in time, and fitting the horse up all over again.
Bandaging legs may be useful if you have a horse who has long term windpuffs, and you are going into a class where his conformation is going to be judged. The pressure of a bandage can temporarily reduce the size of permanent swellings for the judge to perhaps not notice them so much. Bandaging legs can protect your horse when he is being an idiot in a strange stall overnight, and injuring himself leaping around and whacking himself in the process. Bandaging can hold dressings in place, after a scrape, cut or other injury has happened. Bandaging can be for warmth, and can increase circulation because of that. But if you bandage constantly, you run the risk of bandage bowing a horse (applying the bandage too tight, and causing damage to the leg as a result). You also run the risk of the circulation in the leg becoming dependent on that support of the blood vessels to not swell, and the blood vessel walls become weaker as a result. Only bandage if you MUST, for a specific reason, not because “everyone else” is doing it, or for “looks”. And know that if you do bandage a leg, you are applying a blindfold to yourself about the actual condition of the leg the next day… because it may look better than it actually is.
LOL, you’re right, it does sound 19th century. I hear people using these products in my area but I never get any real answers, just fluff fluff answers.
Thanks for the reply! This all makes perfect sense. My barrel horse is a very sound, athletic, and well trained horse. I have no concerns for any issues, just thinking about preventative. I like your point that if bandaged, sweated or poulticed then could delay signs of swelling. So I could be hiding issues if I do start using these products. Thanks for noting that! From everything I’ve read above, I just don’t think I need to use any of these products. They probably are more for the owner than the horse, or like you mentioned to help for confirmation. Our horses can be rode pretty hard, they are ranch horses first so working cattle for hours is not uncommon. I’ve never had any lameness or swelling, nor have I after a competition. I guess I should be lucky and just stick with what I know. We practice basics here, if the basics are met then we don’t stray too far with other things.
I actually use liniment and Uptite poultice on myself as I am trying rehab a chronic ligament problem in my ankle. Working with a physio, I tape my ankle to run and then if I am feeling any discomfort at all, I will poultice it overnight and the next day I feel great. Sounds crazy but I am having the most success with this approach after a few years of on-again-off-again attempts to recover this ankle. Occasionally I will use some Absorbine for quick relief of minor discomfort. Maybe all this is a placebo but if it’s working, I’m not going to question it. I also used the Back on Track brace for awhile but found poultice to be more effective.
I generally use a cooling liniment but I once used a warming liniment on my ankle and it was tremendously painful. I felt like needles were being jammed through my leg. Never again for me.
You’re welcome. Many things in the horse world are “marketed” to horse owners as something they MUST have MUST do, “just purchase this item” and all your problems will be solved. Don’t be sucked in. Horsemanship is always your best bet on keeping your horse sound and happy, not the newest concoction for sale at the tack shop. The newest bit, the newest liniment, the newest method of training is not the answer. Good horsemanship is the answer.
Interesting, guess you know how a horse would feel with these products. And I agree, if it’s just a placebo, who cares if it works. Glad you are finally getting some improvement!
I do a Vetrolin bath after hard rides. For using under wraps, I use something like Sore No More liniment which has Arnica in it. It doesn’t blister my horse’s legs. I use poultice on legs to draw out fluids/swelling or as a hoof packing if the horse has been worked on hard footing and has a history of being uncomfortable in these situations. I have a new horse that I took to a show last weekend. A couple of hours after our first day of showing he had some filling in one front fetlock. There was no heat and he jogged sound. I used the Sore No More poultice on his legs and kept him wrapped overnight. By morning the swelling was gone and did not return throughout the weekend. I continued to poultice each night. This horse is a little older (16) and the footing is different from what I ride on at home.
Also, our horses are ranch horses first, I just get to play barrel racer on the weekends when I’m free. It would make sense then why my horse care would be different than those running their horses 4+ times a week.