Hay is for Horses and so is Louisville Pure Tap®!

On the heels of the Kentucky Derby and Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, horseracing continues to captivate fans at Churchill Downs where the spring meet runs through late June.

If you happen to be at the stables on the track’s Backside, you’re likely to see Palmer Pedigo. The Louisville native owns Equizone Hydrotherapy, a spa treatment for horses.

“This started 12 years ago here at Churchill. I wanted to work in the horse business. I wanted to start my own business, and kind of came into this being able to lease one of the machines and that’s how I started running it. Then I ended up buying it.”

Caring for horses is a passion for Pedigo. The equine spa can be used for rehabilitation purposes but also to help prevent injuries.

“The plan is to keep this at 35 (degrees) and in six minutes, their bones are cold. We do it for 10 minutes at the highest level there and for about 20 minutes total. It’s actually not good to go too long because it’s too cold and too compressing, “ Palmer explained. “When they come out of here, it induces a rush of fresh blood flow. It helps by reducing inflammation and increases circulation. Anything that does that is beneficial to the horses.”

As you can imagine, the spa tubs use quite a bit of water.

“There’s 530 gallons of water and 250 pounds of salt. It’s half Epsom salt and half pool salt. The pool salt helps us get the water down to 35 degrees and the Epsom salt has the therapeutic effects.”

Pedigo and her team are mindful of not wasting water.

“This is the cleanest water that we use. It’s nice to start out with clean, fresh water and we try to be very conscientious,” Pedigo said. “We are reusing the water each time, maybe for three months, and then we’ll exchange it. There’s four different filters like a pool. It goes through the filters, and it goes over to the tank, and it’s constantly working through the chiller.”

The entire spa experience is tailored to each individual horse’s preferences.

“It’s called horsemanship. You listen to the horses. They tell you if they’re happy, if they’re not happy.”

You know what else makes the horses happy? Louisville Pure Tap®! Horses drink an average of five to 10 gallons of water every day.

Pedigo told Louisville Water, “The horses like the water here (at Churchill Downs). They drink it well. In other places, they won’t drink the water very well and they have to bring in bottled water because it smells bad and they don’t want to drink it. We don’t have that problem here in Kentucky.”

Pure Tap is award-winning, and we’re thrilled to hear that even the horses recognize good taste!