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Infrared Thermography for the High Performance Horse

Larry Nault – Certified IDI Analyst


High performance horses often represent a significant investment of both time and money and it often doesn’t take much for that investment to go bad. Down time due to injuries, vet costs due to undiscovered health issues at purchase, and delayed injury recovery times due to incorrect treatment can all have a significant impact on your bottom line. Infrared thermography is increasing becoming a key tool in avoiding these costs and improving both the financial and physical performance of high performance horses.

Start at the beginning.

Not every horse used for high performance events, whether it be thoroughbred racing, standardbred racing, rodeo, chuckwagon racing, or any of the multitude of high performance events; is raised from a foal on your own property.  More often then not a great deal of time and effort goes into identifying the specific horse you want and that research is often followed by a major cash investment.  A wise horse buyer not only researches the pedigree and performance of a horse they are purchasing, but also has a complete veterinary exam done, often including blood tests and x-rays.  This is where equine thermography becomes a very useful tool.
A good veterinarian will do a complete exam include flexion tests and often x-rays if they see a necessity. Unfortunately, not every horse seller is completely honest about what they are selling and all too often buyers discover problems that had been masked by painkillers or only healed enough to hide their outward physical evidence. Using infrared thermography you can often detect recent injection sites (up to two weeks after the injection depending on the substance injected)1. Equine thermography can also detect areas of inflammation in an animal, sometimes days or weeks before the inflammation reveals itself as clinical lameness2 in the horse’s movement or behaviour, and before the handlers can feel the problem on the horse. What this means for the horse buyer is that soft tissue damage which is easily missed through x-rays and physical manipulation can be discovered. Equine thermography does not only detect heat, but also the lack of heat, which makes it an excellent tool to locate nerve damage.
Equine thermography does not replace a veterinary exam, x-rays, or other investigative techniques. Infrared thermography does however, enable you to locate problem areas and narrow the focus of any investigations minimizing the number of x-rays or investigative procedures, often minimizing associated costs as well. It has the added benefit of being able to be conducted in a stress-free, non-clinical environment.

Before it is too late.

High performance horses are usually monitored closely for any signs of lameness or behavioral changes. Grooms, handlers, trainers, owners, and vets often have their hands all over an animal on a regular basis and they notice the slightest bit of heat or anything that doesn’t feel right. Generally, by the time a problem is discovered using these techniques, it means downtime for the horse. The fact is that by the time some injuries and illnesses reveal themselves in clinical symptoms they may have been present in the horse for days and even weeks.  This is where the use of equine infrared thermography excels.
Infrared thermography is completely non-invasive and non-radioactive and medical quality images can be taken in a non-clinical setting. This means that it can be used repeatedly on a horse, in the horses own environment, with no risk to the animal and less stress than a photo-shoot session.
Using equine thermography, a high performance horse can be scanned on a regular basis allowing you to catch injuries and problems before they reveal themselves clinically. This provides you with the opportunity to treat or change the horse’s routine, minimizing the chances of aggravating an injury, and possibly eliminating downtime. Back problems, subsolar and other abscesses, laminitis, arthritis, and tendonitis, stress fractures and injuries, are just some of the problems that can be detected in their very early stages using equine thermography.3

After the fact.

The ease of use and safety of equine infrared thermography has a role in the treatment of a horse as well. Not every horse reacts to the same treatment, whether it is a drug, a physical treatment, or simply a change in their routine, the same way. Infrared thermography can enable you to monitor a treatment on a daily basis, or even at smaller intervals, to determine if the treatment is effective or if it needs to be changed.4 Through monitoring of the progression of healing you can minimize the downtime of your horse.

Holding the horse back.

Fractions of a second count for high performance horses and little things such as saddle fit or shoes can contribute to the loss, or gain, of those fractions. A saddle that is placing excess pressure on one particular point can create just enough discomfort to affect a horse’s performance. Using infrared thermography you can easily evaluate a saddle fit, pinpointing pressure spots, and make the adjustments for a near perfect fit.
Different shoes and different shoeing techniques can also affect a horse’s performance. Equine thermography can quickly and easily evaluate the affect of those shoes on a horses limbs and because of its ease of use can be used to evaluate different shoeing scenarios on different surfaces allowing you to maximize the performance of your horse.

Putting it all together.

Equine infrared thermography is not the be all – end all of solutions for the high performance horse. It is though an excellent adjunct to clinical examination as well as being complementary to other imaging techniques such as radiology, ultrasonography, and scintigraphy.5 Thermography is also a tool that can provide you with that much-needed advantage.