I was wondering if I could ice my horses legs and then wrap them. The ice boots are, ice vibe boots. And the wraps are the back on track therapeutic no bow wraps and the back on track quick wraps. They draw out the body heat of the horse and put it back on the leg. And I was wondering if I could ice and then wrap without hurting my horse cause it goes from ice to heat. Any opinions??
What is your purpose in adding heat to the legs?
When my horse has a big jump school or gallops, I ice and also wrap my horses legs with lineament or poultice under the wraps.
as for icing and then not wrapping, ive never heard of it hurting a horse’s legs. I’ve done it where I may have a light gallop and ice and may only wrap front legs and lineament or no wraps and lineament .
It’s just the wraps that add heat (but it is the horses body heat) and I want his legs to be wrapped at night for extra protection. So maybe if after I ice I won’t use these wraps and instead I will use normal wraps that don’t put heat back onto the leg.
Pretty standard protocol for most big jumpers (some in BOT, some in regular wraps). Just do make sure the legs are totally dry before you wrap! The ice vibes don’t dampen the leg much but many styles of ice boots do.
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What Pally said. Ice then wrapping is standard for show horses of any kind. We did it to our eventers after XC when I did that over a decade ago. Just make sure the leg is dry, and I’d give them some time between it for the skin to rest and breathe.
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Wrapping with normal wraps after ice is something a lot of people do. I was taught to always wrap after big schools, but over time I’ve come to feel less is more. I don’t think a plain wrap does much positive for a leg after all. I might wrap with a cooling poultice. I don’t do routine wrapping any more.
Your horse’s legs below the knees and hocks are bone, tendon, and ligaments. There’s no muscle. Heat is great for soothing some kinds of muscle soreness. Heat is generally not so great for tendons and ligaments. It can be helpful for pain relief in areas of arthritis, but we’re rarely dealing with arthritis pain in the fetlock that would be responsive to heat, and heat is not useful for preventing progression of the arthritis.
Ice on the other hand does stop inflammation and is thought to help slow arthritis. Ice also is thought to be useful for helping to heal tendons and ligaments.
It seems to me deliberately adding heat after your ice treatment might be counterproductive, unless you have a specific reason to alternate the therapies. (There are some specific reasons people do this for some kinds of injuries, especially older ones.)
Human ankles have muscle in them and heat is much more beneficial on human legs for that reason.
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