You might have seen a pic similar to this in the local press. Well it turns out they’re not actually wetsuits. We found out a little bit more about them, so that your friends will find you more interesting. Read on..

The ‘recovery suits’ are being used for the first time in South Africa by Snaith Racing, who have trained more winners than you’ve had hot baths. Retailing at AU$599 (about R5,800, depending on what Zuma says next) the suits can be ordered online here. We couldn’t find much info in our regular read, ‘Horse & Hound,’ but luckily our second favourite horsey read, Equestrian news, had some info for us:

It looks like a scuba outfit, but it has nothing to do with water. The Hidez Travel and Recovery Suit is designed to help high-performance horses more quickly recover from physical exertion. Top human athletes have been using the garments for some time, explains Australia’s Matthew Spice, who developed the concept for the equine use and is officially rolling it out in the U.S. this summer.

“Olympic athletes, NFL footballers, Tour de France riders, they’re all using it,” Spice says, explaining that the suit offers “graduated compression.” “Basically, the heart pumps blood down the limbs, but the limbs don’t return the blood. The suit applies pressure at the extremities and then the pressure reduces off as the blood travels back up the body.”

It’s like, he says, “getting a constant massage. It promotes good blood flow when they’re traveling or standing still for a long time and boosts oxygen availability into the muscles.”

The technology made its U.S. debut at the Rolex Kentucky Three Star Event in April, with Boyd Martin and Phillip Dutton giving it a go. It is also being used in the stables of Thoroughbred trainer Graham Motion at the Kentucky Derby, and is also being used by race horses in Australia.

[more here]

Nice one.

We caught up with Snaith Racing’s Jono Snaith who says they have used the suits on Ebony Flyer with good results. He says that horses eventually love it and almost get excited when you put them on, especially in winter.

Cute.

The two horses pictured above are their two Durban July entries named Run for It and Jet Explorer. Jono says, “We’ll see if they work, come July 6!”

You can read up more about the science behind Hidez here, while we focus on the burning question on everyone’s mind.

How the hell do you get that thing on the horse?

Don’t panic – here’s a video..

The internet is so clever..