{"id":797278,"date":"2026-08-01T11:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797278\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T11:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T11:15:13","slug":"farm-uses-water-workouts-to-help-racehorses-heal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/797278\/","title":{"rendered":"Farm uses water workouts to help racehorses heal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Racehorses get water workouts to protect joints, beat the heat at Reisterstown farm<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/a>REISTERSTOWN, Md. \u2014<\/p>\n

A private farm in Reisterstown has a unique approach to exercise steeplechase race horses.<\/p>\n

Two horses took a gallop Friday morning on the turf, on their way to see some friends for an unexpected form of exercise. But no saddle was necessary because the horses went for a swim in the farm’s pond.<\/p>\n

“We currently have five horses here that are regularly swimming, maybe not every day, but at least two or three times a week, and it offsets having to gallop every day,” said trainer Cyrill Murphy.<\/p>\n

Murphy told WBAL-TV 11 News that McTigue and Gold Charm are fresh from two big wins: McTigue at Saratoga and Gold Charm at Colonial Downs. Part of their recipe to help them win those races is their unconventional swimming routine.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know if it’s the secret recipe, but it certainly helps us, and the horses enjoy it,” Murphy told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n

Murphy said the pond exercise also becomes a mechanism to combat the drought, which can cause the ground to get too hard and negatively impact the horses’ joints.<\/p>\n

“It’s good for his cardio, gets his airway working, good for all his muscles without putting any stress on any bones or joints,” Murphy told WBAL-TV 11 News. “We do not have an artificial track. We literally train on the natural turf every day of the week.”<\/p>\n

Murphy said the water exercises also help with the cooling process.<\/p>\n

“You cannot make a horse fit, get a horse fit purely by swimming them, but you can help maintain their fitness once they reach a certain level,” Murphy told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n

He told WBAL-TV 11 News the results speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

“It’s a big advantage to us. Is it an overall advantage compared to everyone else? I don’t know, but our results say it’s working for us at the moment,” Murphy told WBAL-TV 11 News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Racehorses get water workouts to protect joints, beat the heat at Reisterstown farm REISTERSTOWN, Md. \u2014 A private…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":797279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[338349,15229,338354,20285,337,338348,97,338351,338356,338353,338350,338345,338355,28244,8640,338347,338352,338344,338342,338341,224947,338343,338346,330988],"class_list":["post-797278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-colonial-downs","tag-drought","tag-equine-exercise","tag-fields","tag-fitness","tag-gold-charm","tag-health","tag-heat-relief","tag-horse-cardio","tag-horse-fitness","tag-horse-joints","tag-horse-swimming","tag-horse-training","tag-horses","tag-maryland","tag-mctigue","tag-natural-turf","tag-pond-workouts","tag-race-horses","tag-reisterstown","tag-saratoga","tag-steeplechase-horses","tag-trainer-cyrill-murphy","tag-wbal-tv-11-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}