Horses are best known for their unique running abilities, and when horses are not used for racing purposes in entertainment and sports, they are used as means of transportation in moving heavy carts and by the police in large cities as a means of crowd control.
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Ice boots are great for horses’ legs, as they help horses recover quickly from injuries and prevent their legs from getting stiff and sore after strenuous activities.
I have tested different ice boots for horses on the market, and today in this article I will help you find the best ice boots for horses, choosing ice boots for your horses doesn’t have to be tricky.
Contents
- 1 The Best Ice Boots for Horses
- 2 How to Use Ice Boots for your Horses
- 3 Here Are The 12 Best Ice Boots for Horses on the Market
- 3.1 Finn-Tack Ice Wrap
- 3.2 Equine Nine Pocket Ice Boot
- 3.3 Intrepid International Horse Ice Boots
- 3.4 Cooling Gel Ice Boot for Horses
- 3.5 Horseware Ice-Vibe Boot Cold Pack
- 3.6 Nine pocket Ice Boot (Neoprene)
- 3.7 Knee to Ankle Wraps for Equine Therapy
- 3.8 Roma Heavy Duty Full Leg Zippered Ice Boots
- 3.9 Jack’s Ice Boots
- 3.10 Tough 1 Ice Boot
- 3.11 Standard Ice Boots
- 3.12 Ice Boots Cordura Pair
- 4 Conclusion
The Best Ice Boots for Horses
Horses are best known for their unique running abilities, not only are horses used for racing purposes in entertainment and sports; they are used as means of transportation in moving heavy carts and as well as by the police in large cities as a means of crowd control.
Ice boots are not only just good for horses, in fact, speedy recovery from strenuous activities also starts with good ice therapy, and the right ice boot comes handy when it comes to making your horses’ muscles recover from an activity.
Moreover, giving your horse an ice treatment with ice boots after activities aids its muscle recovery and prevents injuries.
Even if your horse picks up a severe injury, it is best to use functional ice boots because they will aid the recovery process for your horse.
The things I look out for when buying ice boots are the materials that they are made up of, and what kind of padding they offer the legs of my horse. I also look out for how easy I can wear them on my horse’s legs
There are a variety of ice boots brands on the market that cater to different needs, and ice boots vary in price and quality.
It is essential that you get the best ice boot available for your budget, there are various ice boots with different features, and when choosing an ice boot, you need to consider how easily you can wear the ice boot on the horse and how easily you can take it off.
Some ice boots have spaces for ice to be placed in them while others require that you store them in the freezer. I prefer ice boots that can be stored in the freezer prior use as they have gel packs that cool horse legs and they are effortless to use, but whatever type of ice boots you decide to buy should be a matter of your personal preference.
How to Use Ice Boots for your Horses
Ice boots can be filled with ice or kept in the freezer until they are frozen (depending on the kind of Ice Boots) you choose, then the ice boots are wrapped around the legs of the horses to provide cold treatment.
Regardless of the type of ice boot you choose, you need to make sure you use it on your horse’s legs for the period suggested by the maker of the boot.
It is also vital to ensure the boots are clean before and after you use them because they are always in touch with moisture and used on several horses over time, it is possible they spread germs.
Keeping ice boots clean at all times ensures that all your horses are free from bacteria, as well as other kinds of germs.
Here Are The 12 Best Ice Boots for Horses on the Market
Finn-Tack Ice Wrap
The Finn-Tack Ice Wrap worked well in treating my horse’s joints, soft tissues, ligaments, and tendons, and it provided a rapid solution to swelling on my horse’s left leg when I used it.
I used the Finn-Tack ice wraps and I discovered that they could stay cold for at least an hour of icing, an hour is plenty of time because it takes only 20-30 minutes to treat just a single horse, so these boots can be used on two horses without returning to the freezer for icing after every single use.
This wrap has four quick-grip hook-and-loop Velcro fasteners, which allowed me to control how much compression I applied to each of the legs.
These ice boots are sold in pairs and are very easy to use. The Velcro fasteners make it easy to wrap around your horse’s legs and to remove after use.
I recommend that you store them in a plastic bag to prevent the frost from getting on them and keep in the freezer after use, don’t forget to leave them out of the freezer minutes before use.
Equine Nine Pocket Ice Boot
The Equine Nine Pocket Ice Boots made by Professional’s Choice is another excellent choice for ice treatment therapy; it is a versatile boot that measures up to 23 inches in height. This boot provided ice therapy for my horse from above the knee down to the pastern.
It is sold in pairs and can be used to prevent injury and as well as promote healing in injured legs. The Equine Nine Pocket Ice Boots was designed for use with regular ice cubes with its nine individual pockets, and it has six hook fasteners to provide my horse with the perfect fit.
I’d recommend these versatile boots as they can work for preventing and healing injuries in your horse knee joint down to the lower limb.
The Equine Nine Pocket Ice Boots comes in pairs.
Intrepid International Horse Ice Boots
The Intrepid International Ice Boots easily fits around my horse’s leg, and it does a great job as it remained cold for up to an hour. These blue-colored ice boots are comfortable to adjust, wear, and remove.
Quality neoprene material was used to make these boots; thus, it puts a limit on the amount of water that gets onto my horse’s legs.
However, the pocket size of these boots are small, so I had to break the ice cubes into little pieces before I could fit them into the pockets, and they come in single pieces, this meant that I could only treat just one horse leg at a time.
Cooling Gel Ice Boot for Horses
The cooling gel ice boot for horses by Rural365 is a blue colored Ice Boot that helps to reduce the stress and pain of your horse(s). It is easy to wear as it comes with an elastic four hook and loop fasteners, which allow you to determine the amount of compression you apply to your horse’s foot. The cooling gel freezes quickly and can stay cold for hours.
The cooling gel ice boot is easy to use, place the cold ankle wrap in an ice chest or cooler until frozen; Remove from freezer and wrap around the leg that needs attention using the elastic fasteners.
This cooling gel ice boots for horses are designed to help with inflammation and swelling, especially after hard workouts and competitive racing with your horse. They also speed up the healing process as cold therapy, which, according to research, is one of the effective ways to hasten recovery from injury.
The cooling gel is re-usable and sold individually.
Horseware Ice-Vibe Boot Cold Pack
Are you looking for ice horse boots with a touch of technology and some other cool features?
The Ice-Vibe boots offer an excellent cold therapy system. They come in pairs in a storage case along with two cold packs and a charger, and the ice pack inserts for the boots are ready to use after they have spent a least of two hours in the freezer.
The cold packs are easy to put around my horse’s legs as they have Velcro fasteners that make them stay on, and after that, I put the horse boots around my horse’s leg, the boots come with a massage panel and Velcro straps again for fastening.
The boots started to work once I held down the power button for three seconds. There are three settings for the duration of time the massage panel works, setting one turns off after 10 minutes and settings two turns off automatically after 20 minutes.
Horses have sensitive legs after strenuous exercise, and the reason why I love Ice-Vibe boots is that they are very effective and easy to use. Ice-Vibe boots are ideal for preventing and rehabilitating a leg injury, they can be used to promote circulation in your horse’s legs both before rides (without the cold packs) and after rides (with the cold packs).
Nine pocket Ice Boot (Neoprene)
Made from quality neoprene material, the nine pocket Ice Boot measures up to 24.5 inches in height, and it features elastic ice pockets which can hold crushed ice, it also uses Velcro fasteners.
The nine-pocket Ice Boot is a great choice as it helped to give my horse the proper cold therapy from its knee to its entire lower legs.
The nine-pocket Ice Boot is a durable product and will last a lifetime if taken care of properly; it is an excellent product that comes at an excellent price. They are sold in pairs.
Knee to Ankle Wraps for Equine Therapy
These ice boots come in a air of left and the right knee to ankle wraps with 12 ice inserts; they were designed to cover my horse’s knee down to the pastern completely.
These Ice Boots also featured an adjustable suspender that hangs over the withers to support both wraps.
These re-usable Ice Boots made with Quadrispan anti migration fabric has Velcro fasteners which allow for a tight fit and easy removal. They can stay cold for up to two hours.
Roma Heavy Duty Full Leg Zippered Ice Boots
These ice boots are adjustable for different horse leg sizes; they are about 26 inches long, and they are waterproof and effortless to use.
The design of these boots allows it to surround the ligaments, tendons, and bones of my horse throughout an ice therapy session.
The boots can be fastened around the fetlock, and they zip up with a full-length zipper, they came with two reinforced eyelets that can be hooked to the horse’s withers to prevent the boots from slouching as I added ice to them. This allows for thorough icing of your horse’s legs, and they are great for cold therapy, especially after a strenuous workout.
Jack’s Ice Boots
Jack’s Ice Boots is a Dover Saddlery product, a US-based leader in equestrian products that has been offering quality products for horses and horse riders for the past 40 years.
The Jack’s ice boots came in convenient zip style, they are made of heavy-duty 600 denier nylon, and they have adjustable suspenders to hold the boots upright, and side zippers that allow for easy putting on and off around my horse’s legs.
There were also foam cuffs at the bottom that fit around the pastern and buckled straps that help to hold the ice well during treatment.
Tough 1 Ice Boot
The Tough-1 Cooling Ice Boot features a heavy denier nylon shell that conformed to my horse’s legs with its four quick grip straps that allowed me to determine how much I compressed.
These boots are very efficient and easy to use; they stayed soft as I kept them in the freezer.
Standard Ice Boots
All that I needed to activate these standard ice boots from professionals’ choice was to place them in a freezer until they were frozen
The exterior of these boots has Neoprene materials which I think helps to keep the frozen gel colder for long.
The interior of these boots is also protected with a smooth nylon lining that helped to protect my horse’s skin from direct ice exposure.
They are effortless to use as they have an extended hook and loop straps
They come in a mesh-carrying bag and they come in pairs.
Ice Boots Cordura Pair
The Ice Boots Cordura Boots is made of heavy-duty 600 Denier Nylon, and they have zippers by the side and foam at the bottom and suspender straps to hold them up.
They are great for preventing laminitis and icing inflammation on the limbs, and as long as the horse isn’t bothered by the zipping sound, but I’d label them as injury preventing boots.
The Cordura ice boots come in pairs.
Conclusion
For preventing injuries in horses, Ice boots are best used after exercise or activity. This will help lessen stress on the joints, ligaments, muscles, and tendons. It is recommended to keep ice boots on horses for about 20 minutes at a time.
In the case of serious injuries, ice boots can help to reduce swelling and pain. It is, however, not recommended to wear ice boots on open wounds; a local veterinarian should be consulted.
Ice boots are great for horses’ legs, using ice boots for your horses help them recover quickly from injuries and will prevent their legs from getting stiff and sore after a strenuous ride.
Finding the best ice boots for your horse doesn’t need to be tricky; you need to consider your budget and the kind of ice boot you prefer.
Good luck!