Rehabilitation Services

Whether your horse is recovering from an injury or needs to maintain peak performance, physical rehabilitation improves comfort and promotes healing.

Along with traditional medical and surgical interventions, physiotherapy services are available at the Equine Medical Center. Physical rehabilitation accelerates recovery after injury, manages pain after surgery, and improves the well-being of your horse.

Rehabilitation therapies should be considered when you notice any performance change. Uneven gaits, refusal to perform usual tasks, or unusual anxiety and behavioral changes all signal that your horse may be physically uncomfortable.

Therapies available

Class IV laser therapy

Penetrating the skin with no heat or incision, therapeutic lasers use photo biostimulation to accelerate the body's natural healing process and reduce pain. This non-invasive, non-pharmacological, scientifically proven rehabilitation therapy can achieve the following:

Restore diseased or injured cells, assisting healing at a cellular level
Reduce post-surgical pain and inflammation, shorten recovery time, and reduce scar tissue formation
Treat muscle, tendon, and ligament injuries
Hasten wound healing
Reduce pain associated with degenerative joint disease or back pain
Stimulate acupuncture points prior to needling

Shock wave therapy

Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is a high-energy acoustic pressure technology, delivering pulses of energy via a fluid medium to stimulate healing and relieve pain. ESWT is used in the treatment of the following:

Muscle, tendon, and ligament injuries, decreasing inflammation, repairing tissues, and improving quality of healing
Alleviating pain associated with degenerative joint disease
Stimulating bone remodeling by increasing blood flow to bone-ligament junctions

Cold or warm compression therapy

Hot and cold therapy has long been considered the go-to remedy for orthopedic discomfort in the horse. Recent equipment advances combine massage, which improves vascular and lymphatic circulation.

Warm therapy improves blood flow and elasticity of tissues, which is beneficial in chronic conditions. Cold therapy decreases blood flow and inflammation, which is beneficial in acute injuries. Since there is no direct contact with water or other sources of moisture, there is no risk of skin or hoof complications.

Specialized thermotherapy units are designed to help reduce and prevent joint disease, muscle strains, and ligament and tendon injury:

Cold therapy in combination with rest and compression decreases tissue damage, swelling, muscle spasm, and pain, reducing the severity of acute injury and speeding recovery time
Warm therapy decreases stiffness in soft tissues, improving the suppleness of tendons, ligaments, and joints

Vibration floor

TheraPlate whole-body vibrational therapy is dynamic physiotherapy to treat the entire horse in a time-efficient and effective way. The horse stands on the floor which provides a subtle vortex-wave motion. Horses enjoy this powerful, but gentle treatment, which can accomplish the following:

Decrease inflammation and reduce pain
Improve healing time
Increase bone strength and density
Improve joint health
Increase hoof growth
Improve balance
Reduce stress

Tailored exercise and manual exercise planning

Horses with an underlying physiological issue will compensate by putting stress on another area of their body, resulting in further injury. Uneven weight distribution places stress on the muscular system and will lead to asymmetric movement, strains, and resulting trauma.

Once a physical anomaly or injury has been identified, exercises can be initiated to strengthen and balance the horse's movement. We can:

Identify appropriate exercises to rebalance and align your horse's movement
Warm-up and cool-down strategies
Carrot stretches
Longeing, working in-hand, and exercising under saddle

Emergencies and referrals:
703-771-6800

To schedule an appointment, refer a patient, or inquire about our rehabilitation therapies or other clinical services, please call 703-771-6800 or email emcinfo@vt.edu.