SPORTS MEDICINE
Shutterstock/Vovalis
What’s the Best Cool-Down After Exercise? The key to cooling down an overheated horse is a long cold shower. Researchers in Japan compared 5 methods for cooling horses after a workout in nearly 90° heat and high humidity—a potentially perilous combination for equids. The animals were exercised until their body temperature, as measured at the pulmonary artery, had climbed to 42° C (107.6° F). Using hot walking as the standard, they looked at other cool-down methods, including walking past B y 10
Issue 9/2020 | ModernEquineVet.com
A d a m
electric fans, walking with the periodic administration of cold water (10° C; 50° F)—with and without scraping—and a long shower in 26° C water (78.8° F). They found the cold shower was the most effective method and hot walking was the least efficient method of bringing the animals’ core temperature down to below 39° C (102.2° F). The use of fans, and occasionally water, were modestly faster, but didn’t differ significantly from each other, according to the researchers. Andrew Dart, BVSc, PhD, DACVS, DECVS, the
M a r c u s
