No, for sure you wouldn’t want to
use ice water on a horse’s rump, and it doesn’t take much cold
water on that big hot muscle to cause a cramp, especially if there is any wind.
Just last week I sponged a little bit on the shoulders, neck & had just
started the girth area of the horse I was riding, then noticed he was starting
to shiver. Now it felt warm to me, we were in the sun and I don’t recall
any breeze. But he was just cooling too quickly with the cold water. I stopped
right away & walked him around to keep him warm. Luckily, we were getting
ready to go out again and didn’t have to stand around. Riders use rump
rugs on their horses behinds to keep the muscles from
cooling too quickly. No ice water needed there…
Kathy
I've wondered about people using ice
water, mostly with regards to the hindquarters. I don't have any
real personal experience endurance wise as I'm fairly new to the
sport. However, back a few years ago, the use of ice was one of
the nasty little tricks in 4H market lamb competitions. People would ice
the hindquarters of the lambs to tighten up the muscles and make them feel more
massive/compact/etc for when the judges manuely
assessed the lambs. The practice has mostly been suspended and any lambs
that feel cold are disqualified. I'd assume that you'd have to have
pretty darn cold water with tons of ice to cause a real problem but it still
make me a bit nervous.
