There were no musculoskeletal differences between treatment and control horses, but there were behavioral differences. | Photo: Pam Mackenzie

Take vibrating platforms, for instance. Equestrians across a variety of disciplines report improved performance and injury healing when their horses stand on them regularly. Still, research on the topic is in its infancy, and scientists haven’t confirmed whether time spent on a vibrating plate has any impact—positive or negative—on horses.

So, a team from Michigan State University (MSU), in East Lansing, recently set out to find answers. At the 2017 Equine Science Society Symposium, held May 30-June2, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Chelsea Nowlin, a veterinary student at MSU presented the results of her undergraduate research. She worked under the direction of Brian Nielsen, PhD, PAS, Dipl. ACAN, professor of exercise physiology in MSU’s Department of Animal Science.

Nowlin and colleagues hypothesized that horses that underwent vibration platform treatment would have different physiologic parameters than those that did not