As the saying goes, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and I think that applies to how we care for our horses as well. As horse people, we all build off our experience to give our horses the best care and keep them fit, healthy, and performing as athletes and partners. One item that I believe we can all agree on as a standard tool is icing legs post work or to help with injury recovery. Traditionally, we have used Ice, Ice Boots, Cold Hosing, or Salt Water Spas, but what is the next generation of cold therapy?
Enter Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy can be a bit of a broad term, so to be clear I will be discussing Localized CO2 Cryotherapy with a device like the Subzero from America Cryo. There are a few advantages to using this technology, both biologically in the effect on the horses and in comparison to traditional cold therapies alternatives. Lets dive in!
What does Cryotherapy actually do to the body?
Along with the normal benefits of cold therapy, such as reducing inflammation, Cryotherapy has a few benefits I would like to highlight:
Circulatory Effects
Cryotherapy’s main operating principal is known as a “Thermal Shock”, as opposed to traditional cold therapy that primarily removes thermal energy from the body. The Thermal Shock response is produced by rapidly dropping the surface temperature of the treatment area. The initial response during treatment a vasoconstriction, essentially a constriction of the blood vessels in the area, which helps move blood from the tissues back into the core circulatory system. That blood can then be more effectively recycled by the body, becoming more oxygen and nutrient rich.
Roughly 2 minutes after treatment, the reverse happens. The blood vessels in the treatment area dilate, and in particular the capillary vessels responsible for final delivery of blood into the tissues expand. This effect allows blood, which has become more nutrient rich from the previous phase, to more efficiently penetrate the tissues and deliver the cells with what they need to heal. This effect is directly taking advantage of the Hunting Reflex, the body’s natural reaction to cold exposure. Neat, right?
Analgesic Effects
Have you ever been at the airport, waiting in line at security? Everything is moving along fine, until a group of passengers with TSA pre-check shows up and the normal lineup slows to a crawl. In a nutshell, this explains Gate Control Theory, the principal responsible for cryotherapy’s analgesic effects.
In this analogy; passengers are nerve signals, security is the spine, and the plane everyone is ultimately trying to reach is the brain. Agitated passengers in the line are analogous to painful nerve signals, and TSA Pre-check passengers are benign sensory signals. In the absence of pre-approved passengers (benign nerve signals), agitated passengers (painful nerve signals) make it through security (the spine) and onto the plane (signals are received by the brain and pain is perceived)! When a group of pre-approved passengers (benign nerve signals) arrive and are prioritized through security (the spine), fewer agitated passengers (painful nerve signals) make it through security, and ditching the analogy less pain is perceived by the brain!
Other Effects
Cryotherapy has a few other notable effects, and while they can be considered secondary to blood flow and analgesic effects, they are still worth mentioning.
-
Anti Inflammatory - There are two sides to this effect, Edema reduction and inflammation reduction. Edema reduction is an outcome of the circulatory effects mentioned above. Edema is essentially the collection of excess lymphatic fluid. The vasoconstriction phase of treatment helps slow the leakage of lymphatic fluid, while the vasodilation phase and increased circulation helps clear excess fluid that has already pooled. Cold exposure from Cryotherapy helps reduce pro-inflammatory cytokines and increases anti-inflammatory markers, helping reduce tissue swelling
-
Muscle Relaxation - Cryotherapy can trigger the Myotatic Reflex which helps release muscular spasms.
-
Antibacterial - An often overlooked use case of Cryotherapy is the treatment of surface bacterial or fungal infections (think scratches, thrush, or cellulitis). Because these types of infections harbor bacteria so close to the surface of the skin, the extreme temperature changes during treatment help disrupt the bacteria’s ability to replicate. Coupled with the increased post-treatment circulation, this often allows the body to clear the infection more efficiently than if left on its own. Though, in these cases it is important to consult your vet to ensure proper protocols are being followed.
Why Should I Care?
At the end of the day, theory alone cant justify investing time and money into something like cryotherapy if it doesn’t actually improve our ability to care for our horses. I can tell you from personal experience that incorporating Cryotherapy into my program has helped keep my horses happy, healthy, and performing at their best. But there are a few practical implications from my experience that I would like to highlight:
-
Cryotherapy treatments are fast. This is what really initially hooked me. I am a lover of efficiency, and the idea that I could take care of all 4 legs in 4 minutes rather than making my horses stand with ice boots for 20 minutes was a huge attractor. Not to mention, we have all had busy days where our ice boots dont freeze fast enough to keep up, we run out of ice, or we dont have access to cold water for cold hosing.
-
Cryotherapy gives access to the whole body. have you ever tried to ice a stifle, a hock, the neck or the back? Jerry rigging up ice boots and hoping they stay in place or trying to cold hose can be seriously difficult and often times not productive. With Cryotherapy, you have the same ease of access to essentially the whole horse!
-
Cryotherapy is dry. Especially when dealing with the feet, moisture is the enemy. Historically, if you have to ice a horses feet the best options have been standing them in ice water and dealing with the secondary effects of getting the feet wet, or risking your life trying to wrap the feet in plastic bags before standing them in ice water. With Cryotherapy, you can treat the feet as if not more effectively with no moisture whatsoever!
Conclusion
Cryotherapy has become an integral part of my program, helping ensure that my furry teammates always feel and perform at their best. I hope this article has inspired you to consider how Cryotherapy could benefit your own horses. If you want to know more, I would love to hear from you!