Cold has a local anesthetic effect that can significantly reduce pain and inhibit reflexive muscle spasms in your horse. Early use of cold therapy can reduce primary bleeding through its vasoconstrictive effects, and thus inhibit swelling. And perhaps most importantly, reducing tissue temperature can lower the metabolic rate of both the involved and uninjured cells, decreasing their demand for oxygen — helping to break the secondary hypoxic injury cycle and making the body’s repair job easier.