Getting Your Horse Back To Work
Despite our best efforts, our competition horses can find themselves injured and in need of recovery time. Be it recovering from a colic surgery to rehabbing from soft tissue injuries, we understand how difficult these situations can be when the future athletic performance of the horse is at stake. While many farms can manage this process, owners often elect to bring their horses to our facility during the recovery process.
At VetweRx Equine, we have dedicated veterinarians and staff to oversee the entire rehabilitation process. From monitoring incisions and daily bandage changes to getting horses back into full athletic work, we tailor a plan to each horse’s specific needs. We understand how important a comeback from an injury is to your equine partner and we have the knowledge, skills, and equipment to provide the best chance for a successful recovery. Continue scrolling to see the services we can offer for your horse’s rehabilitation or conditioning needs.
Rehabilitation at Our New Longmont Facility
The team at VetweRx North is thrilled to introduce our 40,000 sq ft rehabilitation facility. We have added multiple therapeutic modalities to help get your horse back to performing their best.
Rehabilitation Services We Offer
At our North location, we have a 40,000 square foot rehabilitation facility equipped with the following machinery to help your horse recover from many different injuries and procedures:
Horse Gym Water Treadmill
The Horse Gym Water Treadmill is the ultimate addition to our rehabilitation and conditioning program. The Water Treadmill provides resistance for the horse while moving through the water. It is an amazing way to rehabilitate and cross-train all disciplines of horses.
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Benefits of the Water Treadmill include:
- Recover From Injury Without Undue Strain
- Buoyancy Lessens the Weight on Limbs By Up to 60%
- Optimal Top-line Positioning When Compared to Swimming
- Reduces recovery time from some injuries by 50-60%
- Encourages soft tissue mobilization
- Improves muscle tone and strength
- Hydrostatic pressure assists circulation and reduces swelling
- Improves length of stride
- Reduces concussion on feet and limbs
- Develops core strength
- Improves fitness and stamina
- Accelerate Conditioning
- Improve Performance
- Enhance Muscle Development and Flexibility
- Higher Intensity workout
The Water Treadmill allows horses to be exercised in water up to shoulder height. It also allows us to easily manage a horse’s buoyancy and resistance on limbs by adjusting the depth of the water up to 44 inches. The Water Treadmill can also be used as a dry treadmill and has the ability to incline.
Features of Our Water Treadmill
- 3 phase filtration system to remove impurities from the water
- Adjustable photocell and sensor to ensure belt stops in the event of abnormal horse behavior
- Clear, shatterproof doors and sidewalls to allow for unobstructed viewing
- 2 emergency stop buttons
- Control box at the head of the horse, instead of on the side
Horse Gym Vibration & Solarium
The Horse Gym Relax & Sun is a unique machine with a vertical vibrating surface that utilizes three-dimensional movement to evenly distribute on all four limbs. It strengthens the muscles that stabilize a horse’s joints, providing great results for horses with back and SI issues.
The Horse Gym Relax comes combined with a solarium, the Sun, equipped with deep penetrating infrared lamps for loosening back muscles and increasing both blood circulation and healing rates.
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Benefits of Vibration and Solarium include:
- Increases blood circulation
- Increases healing of injuries
- Shortens recovery time, especial in tendon injuries
- Regenerates bone density
- Stimulates hoof growth
- Helps remove lactic acid from muscles
- Reduces risk of injury
- Trains and strengthens muscle
- Lowers cortisol levels for increased relaxation
- Helps with prevention and treatment of colic
- Regular use enhances absorption of food and increases digestion
Features:
- 10 programs for controlling time and vibrating intensity
- Customize up to 100 horses with their own program
- Oscillating vertical vibrating floor
- Floor sits on airbags which allows the floor to be tilted in order to customize treatments
Other Rehabilitation Services We Offer
Our Horse Gym Water Treadmill and Horse Gym Vibration and Solarium are just some of the services we offer to help condition and rehabilitate your horse. Our other services include:
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EuroXciser
A EuroXciser is different from a traditional horse walker; there are no tie in leads between the machine and horse. The partitions connected to the arms provide an open moving space for the horse to move naturally within. Horse exerciser machines are larger as well to reduce the turning stress on the horse. EuroXciser makes machines from 51’ diameter to 73’ diameter. The 51’ machine is ideal for walking. The 61' and larger machines are ideal for walk, trot and rehabilitation work. We configure the different models from 4 horse to 6 horse set ups.
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Regenerative Laser Therapy
The short, high-energy light pulses from RLT lasers penetrate deep into tissues, creating a photo-acoustic wave that spreads into deeper tissues. These waves interact with the cells in soft tissues and stimulate the release of growth factors that are not released naturally. This has been shown to regenerate tissue, realign fibers, reduce scar tissue, and provide comfort to horses.
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Game Ready
This system uses both compression therapy, which strategically applies compression to the legs, encouraging blood flow and helping to reduce swelling, and cold therapy without the need to soak a horse with water and ice.
Using dry cold therapy can reduce inflammation and help a horse recover from exercise, soreness, cellulitis, and other ailments.
Most of the horses in our rehabilitation program receive Game Ready treatments after their daily work routines, depending on the injury or area we are rehabbing. This is a service that is included in their rehabilitation, at no extra cost to the client.
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Sure Foot Pads
Sure Foot Pads vary in density from Hard to Soft, providing a wide range of pattern variation for the horse to experience.
The Sure Foot Pads challenge a horse’s balance, activate proprioception, work the small postural muscles, and creates awareness. The degree of difficulty depends on the pad density and number of hooves placed on pads.
Once the horse is familiar with Sure Foot, the pattern can be varied on any given day depending on the horse’s condition, medical history, and desired effect.
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Equicore Equiband System
Core musculature stabilizes the horse’s back in movement. Core strength helps to prevent the development of back pain and injuries. The Equiband system has been designed specifically to stimulate receptors in the horse’s skin and hair follicles.
In response to this stimulation, the abdominal, oblique, sublumbar and deep neck and back muscles are activated. These muscles stabilize the spine, and engage the hindquarters during movement.
Regular use of the Equiband system strengthens this core musculature, making it easier for the horse to work with an optimal posture, which reduces the risk of pain and injury due to hollowing or instability of the joints in the neck and the back.
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Conditioning
Physical conditioning helps your horse's body adapt to exercise over time. The goal of conditioning is to increase your horse's ability to perform specific tasks, while reducing the risk of injury and related health issues. Your horse's capacity to exercise will also increase.
Even if your horse is not recovering from an injury, they can benefit from conditioning with our team at VetweRx Equine North. We can help you set specific performance goals based on your horse's current abilities and needs.
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Haul-In Services by Appointment
Unsuitable environments or uneven footings can pose a hazard to injured horses, owners, and veterinarians coming out to a farm. In addition, some farms do not have the facilities to provide proper shelter against inclement weather or infectious bacteria, which make health maintenance tedious and expensive.
This is why we offer haul-in services at each of our two locations. Contact us to book an appointment to deliver your horse to a comfortable workspace, where we can safely examine them, and diagnose and treat health issues.
