Benefits of Microcurrent Therapy for Horses

What is microcurrent therapy?

Microcurrent therapy is a form of rehab and sports therapy for elite athletes. It’s now available and becoming common practice for treating our equine athletes!

Microcurrent therapy primarily utilizes subtle electrical currents to prevent and treat various injuries. These microcurrents restore balance to a horse’s cellular system. When cells are healthy, it allows for a pain-free internal environment. Pain relief is almost instantaneous.

How Does Microcurrent Therapy Work?

Microcurrent therapy delivers small electrical currents skin that mimic the body’s production directly through the horse’s skin. The microcurrents penetrate the injured and inflamed cells to re-establish normal cell activity and metabolism. When cellular activity is back to normal, circulation is restored, reducing inflammation, and increasing collagen-producing cells. 

Versatility of Microcurrent Therapy

Now, more than ever, there are many ways to utilize microcurrent therapy. Many of the devices are small, which makes them easily accessible for use and travel. You can find anything from topically applied disposable patches to larger machines to technologically advanced biofeedback devices that can find problems and track progress. You can choose which works best for you and your horse.

When To Use Microcurrent Therapy

Injury Recovery and Rehabilitation

Microcurrent therapy is most commonly used to help treat acute injuries and shorten recovery time. It provides safe and effective pain relief for muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints without NSAIDs and other drugs. Microcurrent therapy increases circulation, reduces inflammation, stimulates the horse’s natural healing processes, and speeds up recovery time.

Daily Injury Prevention

There are some preventive measures we take for our horses, such as the application of overnight standing bandages. This helps to increase circulation, reduce and prevent swelling, and prevent stress on the lower leg. Topical microcurrent patches can be applied to any structure of the horse’s lower leg under the standing bandage. While your horse rests, the microcurrents promote circulation and establish a healthy, pain-free internal environment.

Also, suppose your horse gets sports massage or chiropractic therapy. In that case, you can ask the practitioner to identify areas throughout the horse’s body where microcurrent therapy could help with soft tissue stress.

Preparing for Competition and Recovery

Incorporating microcurrent therapy into your equine athlete’s pre-competition routine can help ensure your horse feels his best. Microcurrent therapy can help prevent next-day inflammation, swelling, and lameness. It can help your horse recover faster between classes, especially for multi-day horse shows.

Using Microcurrent Therapy Safely

It’s important to know how to use microcurrents to use them safely. This therapy form isn’t suitable for use on all parts of the body. Don’t use microcurrent therapy on:

• Head, face, eyes, and mouth
• Ventral neck
• Poll
• Heart
• Abdominal midline
• Under the base of the tail 
• Sheath, testicles, or teats

Additionally, microcurrent therapy can pose a risk to horses that have any of the following conditions:

• Broken skin or open wounds
• Bleeding
• Skin condition
• Fever
• Infection
• Laminitis
• Pregnancy
• Any area that has been injected within the past seven days.
• Horses experiencing colic