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For many riders, rehabilitation starts after something goes wrong. Dr. Julie Vargas, founder of Limestone Equine Performance Medicine in Lexington, Kentucky, would like riders to think about that timeline differently.
“Any horse that’s in competition should be in some phase of prehab,” Vargas said on The Plaidchat. After spending six and a half years overseeing Spy Coast Farm’s rehab and fitness center, Vargas has built much of her work around a simple idea: the tools we use to bring horses back from injury can also help prepare them for the demands of competition before an injury occurs.
Prehab Starts Before There’s a Problem
Sport horses are asked to do a tremendous amount. They train consistently, travel frequently, compete on different surfaces, and may move from one show directly to the next. Vargas pointed out that many horses never experience a true season of rest. “The good ones can do that for a little while, but that catches up with everyone,” she said.
Vargas said many of the problems she treats develop through repeated, low-level stress over time. That stress may affect bone, joints, tendons, ligaments, or other soft tissue. Those cases can be especially challenging because the horse may also have developed compensatory or maladaptive movement patterns along the way.
Prehab is one way to think earlier. Rather than waiting for a lesion to appear and then beginning physical therapy, riders can incorporate appropriate movement, conditioning, and body-awareness exercises into a horse’s regular program.
Rehab Is Really About Prescribing Movement
“The unique aspect about rehab is that we’re prescribing movement,” Vargas explains.
There are injuries that require significant stall rest, but Vargas emphasized that confinement itself is not neutral. She explained that horses begin losing bone density when they are confined, which becomes important when considering how they will eventually return to work.
That means the goal is to determine what movement is appropriate, when to introduce it, and how to increase it as the horse progresses. The same principle can apply before an injury. A horse can use different types of exercise to prepare the body for the challenges it may encounter later.
Small Exercises Can Become Part of the Routine
Prehab does not necessarily mean adding an elaborate rehabilitation program to every horse’s schedule.
Vargas repeatedly returned to simple, accessible tools. Carrot stretches can be incorporated several times per week. Ground poles can provide proprioceptive work. Different surfaces can challenge the horse in different ways. Some barns may use water treadmills as a form of cross-training.
The important part is consistency. “For rehab, for prehab, for all of it, it’s a daily task,” Vargas said. Veterinary medicine offers many valuable therapies once an injury occurs, she said, but there is also value in doing what can be done before reaching that point.
Prehab Can Also Prepare Horses for Rehab
Sometimes prehab has a very literal purpose. Vargas described horses at Spy Coast Farm that were scheduled for major procedures and learned how to use the water treadmill before surgery.
That way, when the horse was ready to begin using it during recovery, the equipment itself was not new or stressful. “They knew what was the expectation and what was gonna happen,” she said. That preparation can make the transition into rehabilitation easier.
Vargas also sees value in training the body in different ways. She gave the example of using a water treadmill once a week in place of a harder schooling session. The purpose is to introduce another type of exercise. That variety can help prepare the athlete for the reality of competition, where conditions will not always be perfect.
The footing may be different from what the horse trains on at home. A turn may not happen exactly as planned. The horse may have to respond to a situation that feels unfamiliar.
Fitness Still Matters
For all of the tools available in modern rehabilitation medicine, Vargas repeatedly returned to the importance of appropriate fitness. A horse needs to be physically prepared for what is being asked of it. That means making sure the work matches the horse’s current condition and future demands.
It also means allowing breaks. Vargas emphasized that horses, like human athletes, cannot continue indefinitely without rest.
“Maybe we should consider the fact that horses and people, that we always should be at a state of rehab,” she said. That does not mean treating every horse as injured, but recognizing that maintaining an athlete is an ongoing process.
Strength, posture, proprioception, fitness, recovery, and movement do not suddenly become important after a diagnosis. They are part of keeping the horse prepared for the work ahead.
For competition horses especially, prehab can be less about adding one more task to the schedule and more about changing how riders think about the schedule itself.
The best time to think about rehabilitation may be long before your horse needs it.
To hear the full conversation with Dr. Julie Vargas, listen to The Plaidchat. Subscribe and follow The Plaidcast on your favorite podcast platform for more conversations that support horse health, performance, and longevity.
