What are remedial exercise and hydrotherapy?
Remedial exercise is the use of stretches, suppling and strengthening exercises to improve the horse’s condition. Hydrotherapy is the use of water in all of its states (ice, hot or cold water, steam) for therapeutic purposes. The body responds to cool by constricting nearby blood vessels and shunting blood and lymph away from the area that the cool has been applied (used in acute injury to reduce swelling). The body responds to heat by dialating blood vessels which allows an infusion of blood to the area, bringing with it nutrients, and the heat also causes the nervous system to relax the muscles (used in chronic conditions to relax and increase blood flow to an area). Both remedial exercise and hydrotherapy are often performed during a massage session, and instructions are often left with the horse’s care taker to perform some combination of them between REMT visits to continue to help the horse’s condition. It is important to perform these with caution to avoid injuring the horse or
