One evening while veterinarian Kala Shaw was working in her office, she heard splashing in the indoor pool next to the 34-stall barn at her new therapeutic facility for horses in Aberdeen.
She stepped into the cavernous pool building and saw her partner, horse trainer and nurse Keith Hightower, standing chest-deep in the water with one of their four-legged patients on the ramp that leads into the 11-foot-deep pool.
Ms. Hightower was wearing chest-high waders and splashing as the horse pawed at the water. Soon the animal was relaxed and ready to begin swimming therapy.
"Horses are natural swimmers," Dr. Shaw said. "But they don't like the room and they don't like the pool. We tell people we want a week to get them comfortable. Otherwise, it's a big fight to get them in. And it doesn't do any good to stress an animal and treat it."
Since the Susquehanna Equine Rehab and Swim Center opened in November, the owners of 15 to 20 racehorses, hunter-jumpers and pleasure horses have paid $20 a day to give their horses extended stays and swimming therapy at the 10-acre facility. Additional horses have come in trailers several times each week for a $10 swim.
The center, on Carsins Run Road off Interstate 95, also offers therapeutic ultrasound, acupuncture, massage and electrical stimulation for horses with injuries and degenerative diseases.
"This is like sports medicine for horses," said Dr. Shaw, who also has swimming for dogs. "It's an alternative . . . that has been a part of human medicine for years."
Swimming has long been recognized as beneficial exercise and therapy for horses, Dr. Shaw said. It's impact-free, builds cardiovascular and muscular strength, increases joint mobility, and prevents muscle atrophy, loss of condition and boredom prompted by enforced rest.
It is generally used in conjunction with such conventional treatments as surgery, injections of anti-inflammatory medications and extended rest periods in a stall.
"Swimming will get a horse . . . through an acute injury situation faster," Dr. Shaw said. "It enhances healing. I'm not saying that stall rest doesn't work. It just takes much longer."
Combining swimming with ultrasound therapy also speeds healing, and reduces scarring and swelling, she said.
Sunny, a quarter-horse paint gelding who arrived at the center late last month, walked calmly down the steep ramp into the heated pool and began swimming at one of his first therapeutic sessions. With his head stretched high out of the water and his upper lip pulled back, Sunny blew hard through his nostrils as he thrashed his legs rhythmically.
A novice swimmer, he was guided by three handlers who hurried along at pool's edge holding safety lines. One used a pole attached to Sunny's halter to keep him from the wall. Another held a tail rope to keep his hind quarters in position. The third urged him forward with a lead line.
"Sunny came up lame 1 1/2 years ago," said owner Sue Caplan of Pikesville. "He's a wonderful horse, and he's taken care of me. I would never sell him. This was our last resort."
After two laps, Sunny was led out of the pool for a break and Dr. Shaw checked his heart rate. He swam one more lap and then was hosed down, scraped dry, blanketed and walked in the attached barn.
Eventually, Sunny probably will swim 10 to 12 laps in the pool per session, Dr. Shaw said. The 8-year-old horse has a disease called ringbone. He is expected to stay at the center for about a month while efforts are made to get him sound again so that he can be ridden.
"We can't change what he's got wrong with him," Dr. Shaw said. "But we can bring him back to condition, and we can strengthen the supporting structures around the area he has trouble with."
Soon after Sunny finished his swim, a trailer pulled in carrying Star Dancer, a gray horse with a tendon injury that belongs to a 13-year-old girl in New York.
"This horse is the best," said Judy Widger, the trainer who drove him to Maryland for several months of swimming, ultrasound and stretching exercises. "This horse will give you his heart and soul.
"His prognosis was not good," she said. "He was to stand in a stall for three months and then spend three to four months in a small paddock. When we got such a disappointing report . . . I thought that there's got to be another way."
Dorothy Pitcock of Darlington brings her chestnut quarter-horse, Doc Snake Eyes, to the center several times a week to keep him fit for shows and endurance riding.
"He has not been lame since he started swimming," Miss Pitcock said. "Before, I was losing 10 to 14 days a month due to lameness. I think the swimming has enabled him to develop muscles he was never able to develop before. And any damage has had a chance to heal."
"I highly recommend swimming," said Adrienne Fitzpatrick, also of Darlington, as Razz, her Welsh-Arab gelding, climbed out of the pool. "This is one way to keep him in condition without the concussion on his feet. And it's fun."