Yes vet is involved. Horse is on meds. Not lame (yesterday was in turnout trotting, running, bucking, and playing). Swelling is improved. I prefer to ice due to living in California where we have a constant drought and it seems wasteful to run a hose for 20 minutes. Also in summer the water is not necessarily cold. On the other hand today the hose is frozen so couldn’t cold hose anyway!
And one thing to think about…does cold hosing for 15 minutes really does anything either way (reduce inflammation, inhibit healing) - and how many of us have the patience to stand there for much longer than that? And ice boots don’t stay cold for more than 20 min anyway. Maybe we’re just wasting time and not doing anything productive or detrimental?
