Since the time of ancient mythology, the Rod of Asclepius – a serpent-entwined staff wielded by the Greek god Asclepius – has been an emblem of healing. The snake symbolizes the 'shedding' of illness like old skin while the staff offers protection from 'falling' ill.
More than fly control for horses
While Sox for Horses cannot heal a condition, they can help an owner provide clean, anti-microbial protection, allowing a horse's own healthy immune system to do the rest.
© 2013 by Sox for Horses
Intertwining two powerful forces into one is still a good idea.
Which is why more equine clothing manufacturers are catching up to hospitals and bringing antimicrobial fiber and silver-treated fabrics to the marketplace. Some of these fabrics are treated with wash-in silver treatments. Such products have one thing in common: Silver that eventually washes out.
But when silver is embedded – entwined so to speak -- into fiber, those healthy, antimicrobial benefits are there for the life of the garment.
Raymond Petterson, President of Sox For Horses, Inc. first introduced antimicrobial fiber to horse owners with Summer Whinnys, fly barrier socks for horses, and incorporated that same fiber into Whinny Warmers, providing added warmth and comfort during cold weather to circulation-impaired horses.
“I think I was not only one of the first to bring antimicrobial products to the equine world but was ahead of a lot of hospitals. The environments that a horses encounter support bacteria, dirt, disease, etc.
It is one thing to offer a fly barrier for horse legs, but once I knew this fiber was available and functional in such environments, it was common sense to make Sox For Horses yarn using this fiber.”
So what’s the science behind the copper and silver ions embedded in the fibers of Sox For Horses? An ion is an atom or molecule that has unequal numbers of electrons and protons, giving it a positive or negative charge.
Silver and copper ions have positive charges, and are attracted to the ion-charged surfaces of microbes. A microbe is a living organism (i.e., bacteria, fungi, mold or mildew), too small to be seen by the human eye.
“Even though you can’t see them,” says Petterson, “you've probably seen how microbes can wreak damage on legs. By combining silver and copper with the fiber, it is enhanced with permanently-embedded antimicrobial action.
Copper and silver ions can then naturally attack microbes that may be present on the fiber and disable them.”.
For horses, it means that Summer Whinnys and Whinny Warmers provide clean environments and are useful in the reduction of dirt, debris and bacteria near pre-existing wounds.
While they cannot heal a condition, they can help an owner provide clean, anti-microbial protection, allowing a horse's own healthy immune system to do the rest.
Learn more about Summer Whinnys and Whinny Warmers