Tell me about pin firing/freeze firing

[Amwrider]

I agree with Crowndragon’s first post, the horses are rested afterwards which is what they needed to heal anyways.

The “idea” is that the healing process from pin firing and blistering brings increased blood flow to the area to help in the healing. Not sure if I believe it. Magnets are supposed to do the same thing and I don’t believe that either.

Long term I don’t think it causes any issues, but my whole bucket of experience is from a total of one…a standardbred named Caramel Chewey who was apparently pinfired for a curb injury.

[michaleenflynn]

[QUOTE=Amwrider;7120617]
I agree with Crowndragon, the horses are rested afterwards which is what they needed to heal anyways.

The “idea” is that the healing process from pin firing and blistering brings increased blood flow to the area to help in the healing. Not sure if I believe it. Magnets are supposed to do the same thing and I don’t believe that either.

Long term I don’t think it causes any issues, but my whole bucket of experience is from a total of one…a standardbred named Caramel Chewey who was apparently pinfired for a curb injury.[/QUOTE]

Looking for info on freeze firing and legality of pin firing, not pin firing itself

[Amwrider]

I guess the best answer would be to ask a track vet. They would know if it is legal.

[moore4sure]

Pin Firing is illegal state to state. I am on Va and Wva line and it is legal in Wva but not in Va. So to answer I believe it is state to state. I am more familiar with pin firing vs freeze firing but we had a stallion and a couple mares that have had the procedure done prior to us owning them. I think the main objective of both is to get the blood flow to the area to promote healing. With pin firing being less common the procedures now they do are “scraping” or drilling shins but they are done by surgical vs a vet with a pin firing machine.

[gumtree]

Pin Firing and Freeze Firing are the same thing. One uses heat and the other liquid nitrogen. Just like “hot” branding, freeze branding has replaced the Hollywood Texas hot poker”. I have never done either personally but it was common practice when I was a kid for bows and bucked shins. I know freeze branding leaves a “cleaner” mark with far less repercussions. Pin Firing has been banned in England and Ireland. It is still practiced in this country but it has been quite some time since I have seen a horse with the “marks”.
I just text one of the head surgeons at New Bolton asking if it is still taught, “ as history not still as a current treatment”, “folks still do it plenty maybe handed down in practice or taught at other schools”.
The premise behind it was good in theory, as others said to increase blood flow but when I became in position to do things “my way” I went with a MILD blister and then a year more of less turn out. The end result was the same if not better and no scaring. Any vet that suggested it was never used again. IMO it is amazing that it was used for so long.
Side note, IMO I have also found that an “internal blister” for bucked shins is wasted money. IMO no horse should ever buck if prepared and trained correctly. If any 2 year old bucks after leaving our farm for the track I am embarrassed and have not done my job correctly.

[Texarkana]

I’ve been out of professionally handling TB layups for about 7 years now, but it was still very much common 7 years ago in the Mid-Atlantic area. If it’s illegal anywhere in the US, it’s a recent thing.

Like gumtree said, pin-firing and freeze-firing are the same thing, just a different medium to cause the burn. Neither is superior in my experience.

Not that anyone asked, but if the decision was mine for one of my own horses, I’d bypass firing for more modern techniques. I would have told you the same thing 10 years ago, too.

[bluebuckets]

Now, I’m just commenting, OP, so don’t get all jumpy

The idea could work, but I feel as though the same results could be achieved with a DMSO/Furazone/? cocktail under a plastic wrap under a standing. Doesn’t require an expert vet, doesn’t require the extremely laborious and tedious aftercare, same result.

[jetsmom]

[QUOTE=CrowneDragon;7120573]
I don’t know if either is illegal, but both are useless for their intended purpose. The only benefit is seen because the horse has to be rested after firing, and that is what the horse needed in the first place.
Serves zero purpose other than painful scarring of the skin.[/QUOTE]

This^^^^^

[poltroon]

You’ll note it’s not done to human athletes for tendon injuries.

We have better options now.

[moore4sure]

I completely forgot b4 about having a experience with freeze firing I guess I was just thinking shins but Freeze Firing can be done to a very small area … We had a horse where we freeze fired a side splint you can barely see it and its a tiny area maybe 1 inch wide and long. And the recovery time is shorter probably not on shins but different for this. He didnt have any swelling or weeping or really anything at all afterward. Again may be different with shins… I am about 99.5% positive you can not either own or operate a pin firing machine in Virginia, this was about 2 years ago. At that time you could in West Virginia but I have no idea how many other states it is or isn’t legal in.

[moore4sure]

Also just from a couple comments. I have nerver heard of pin or freeze firing done to a tendon on a horse…ever…is that something that has ever been done???

[Texarkana]

[QUOTE=moore4sure;7125226]
Also just from a couple comments. I have nerver heard of pin or freeze firing done to a tendon on a horse…ever…is that something that has ever been done???[/QUOTE]

It’s been done probably about a million and a half times. It used to be one of the common treatments for tendon injuries.

[QUOTE=bluebuckets;7125199]Now, I’m just commenting, OP, so don’t get all jumpy

The idea could work, but I feel as though the same results could be achieved with a DMSO/Furazone/? cocktail under a plastic wrap under a standing. Doesn’t require an expert vet, doesn’t require the extremely laborious and tedious aftercare, same result. ;)[/QUOTE]

No, the same result isn’t achieved because it’s two different mechanisms of “healing.” While a DMSO sweat can be topically irritating to the skin, it’s not anywhere near the strength of a blister (which is more similar to firing). Although if it were me, I’d be more inclined to treat my horse with a DMSO sweat and time over firing.

[CFFarm]

Like Bluey said it was pretty standard practice when I was at the track too. I watched it being done once. Pretty nasty. The theory as explained to me was it turned a “chronic” condition into an “acute” condition with made it easier to treat.

I didn’t think anyone did it anymore.

moore4sure. I’ve only seen it done on tendon injuries.

[jetsmom]

With the technology of shockwave, stem cell treatment, etc, I can’t believe anyone would even consider pin firing anymore.
The article the OP linked from The Horse was 13 yrs old. We’ve developed a lot of newer more effective treatments in 13 yrs.

[LauraKY]

[QUOTE=michaleenflynn;7120595]
Thanx Bluey. Yes, the way I understand it, the aftercare is tricky, but I never heard that it was intolerable or even very painful and bothersome to the horse, interesting (and off-putting), but I have to wonder if it is because it wasn’t tended to properly. Wonder what the aftercare of freeze firing is like.

BTW, Bluey - I have read that some polo folks blister their horses at the end of every season - whether they need it or not. What is that about?[/QUOTE]

I know no polo people who blister their horses legs.

[LauraKY]

Austrailia Animal Welfare seems to disagree that it works. Vets are as resistant to change and new ideas as the rest of us.

http://www.gungahlinvet.com.au/petcare-info/publications/the-firing-of-horses.pdf

ETA: The article includes study information as well.

[moore4sure]

Thanks I haven seen numerous pinfired shins but have never seen a pinfired tendon. I guess tendons obviously went out first.

[animaldoc]

The real problem with pin firing and freeze firing is that they are done to treat bucked shins - the treatment is done to the skin and the problem is microfractures from the remodelling bone. The dorsal cannon bone has to remodel in racehorses since it is not strong enough for the stresses put on it in racing.

There is some evidence (from Penn, I think) that exercises at high speed over short distances (in small doses) protects against bucked shins while long gallops promote them (in young racehorses). I think the recommendation was to work up from short breezes every 7-10 days to three times weekly.

Treatment for bucked shins would be rest, analgesics, +/- shock wave. Sometimes you can have the bone drilled (with appropriate analgesia/anesthesia) to promote the proper remodelling.

[Lady_Eboshi]

I’ve heard the whole firing thing is a smoke screen that forces them to rest the horse; which is what really cures the condition.

Pretty archaic, now; that said, there are at least 3 in my retiree herd who show the marks. So someone’s still doing it somewhere . . . :no:

[Brooke]

I really thought it was a practice of the past, but this last week I went to look at a 3 yr old fresh off the track (California) and I was surprised to see that it had been pin fired on both shins. I went home and did some reading up on it, and the recent articles have said that it’s the enforced rest after the firing that heals - not the firing itself.