Does it work or no?
I can’t seem to find any hard evidence that it serves any purpose, and one study claims that it is harmful to joints. On the other hand there are many people who belive it worked miracles on their horse.
Thing is I used it on my retired horse who managed to tear his suspensory playing in the pasture. 5 days a week for 6 weeks. Horse is better. Hole almost completely filled in. Horse jogs sound better than pre injury. But we also put him on stall rest/small grass paddock, and 40 minutes hand walk/ride walk per vet instructions. Mentally horse is very happy to have a “job”
Use of theraplate is not cheap. Certainly don’t mind spending money on the old guy but want to spend it wisely.
Looking for COTH wisdom, theraplate or no theraplate???
Waste of my money IMO. I just don’t see how it can actually do a damn thing. Funny thing is that there used to be several in my general area and there were lots of posts on FB about availability and come on over and use it. None currently so either they have no time for outside user’s (unlikely) or it is rusting in the garage because they figured out it did nothing.
Looked into this before starting my horse on theraplate.
Found the equine research a bit limited but was impressed by results of similar therapy in people. One study I saw showed an improvement in diabetics with neuropathy. Also, human research showed 2 levels of patient reported improvement- one level of improvement that lasted a few hrs post-treatment & another, lower level, that was still present immediately before next treatment.
There were some caveats specific to the vibration levels- too high could cause specific back & joint problems in people. I wouldn’t generalize that to horses given the obvious differences in physical structure.
Based on my info, started him on theraplate but don’t use it a few hours before riding or a vet appointment to avoid the possibility of masking anything.
I was kidding with a friend the other day while we were trailering the horses somewhere “Why spend money on Theraplate? Just drive the horses around in the trailer with the wheels on the rumble strips.”
Okay that doesn’t answer your question but your question made me think of the conversation.
