Easing Localised Pain with Equestrian Ice Boots

Many horse riders will ice their horse’s legs in the event of an injury, or during the rehabilitation process. Applying ice and compression is understood to aid recovery and it can also help to ease pain. This blog article looks into how our equestrian ice boots may help to ease localised pain after an injury. 

Cooling and Pain Reduction

Applying our equestrian ice boots to an equine tendon or ligament injury is akin to applying an ice pack to a human injury, which is known to:

1. Reduce pain by raising the pain threshold
2. Decrease the rate of metabolism and reduce the inflammatory response
3. Decrease nerve transmission and cause endorphin release
4. Help minimise swelling (when compression is also applied)

Local analgesic benefits are believed to result when tissues are cooled to between 10°C and 15°C or when skin temperature decreases to < 13.6°C. When using Cryochaps ice boots, external skin temperatures reach < 13.6°C. Therefore, using Cryochaps could also ease any localised pain in a horse’s legs.

Find out more about the analgesic effects of ice: The cooling, analgesic, and rewarming effects of ice massage on localized skin, Roman Bugaj, Published in Physical therapy 1975. DOI:10.1093/ptj/55.1.11

Cryochaps Equestrian Ice Boots

Cryochaps Absolute Wraps are a handy addition to your horse first aid kit. Simply store them in the freezer, and have them ready for the next time your horse comes in from the field with a puffy leg! Once your horse has been seen by your vet and is on the mend, Cryochaps ice wraps can come in handy as part of your horse’s rehabilitation. With the malleability and cooling effectiveness of our original ice boots, the Cryochaps Absolute Wrap is ideal for knees, hocks and pasterns. Our ice wraps for horses are available to order as a pair.