What Horse Owners Asked Us at the Dublin Horse Show

Last week we packed up our stand at the RDS after five days of the Dublin Horse Show. Five days of horse people, dog people, riders, grooms, physios, and a fair few sore shoulders leaning on the counter. Thank you to everyone who stopped to talk to us. The questions were sharp, and the horse stories were even better.

The same questions kept coming back, so here are the honest answers we gave at the stand.

Does it work through the coat?

The device goes on a clean, dry coat with the head flat against the skin. Red light at around 633 nanometres and near-infrared at around 850 nanometres penetrate tissue to different depths, which is why the Photizo Vetcare uses both. You do not need to clip the horse.

How long does a session take?

One press is one dose: about 31 seconds, then the device stops itself. You treat one spot, move about one treatment-head width along, overlap slightly, and work across the whole area. A hindquarter is typically 8 to 12 presses per side. There are no settings to get wrong, which is the point of a fixed-dose device.

Can I not just do longer sessions and get there faster?

No, and this surprised almost everyone at the stand. With light therapy, more is not necessarily better. The research on light dosing shows a bell-shaped dose-response: too little may not do enough, while beyond an optimal range, increasing the dose does not necessarily increase the benefit. That is why the dose is fixed, and why the routine matters more than the session length: daily in the first week for something acute, then tapering off as the horse improves.

My horse has a diagnosed problem. Will this fix it?

The honest answer we gave at the stand every time: red light therapy is a support, not a cure, and it works alongside your vet, never instead of one. For a diagnosed condition, the vet leads. What the device can do is support comfort and recovery in the area you treat, and there is published research behind photobiomodulation. We keep the studies we rely on, with links to the original papers, in one place: the research library. If your vet wants the papers, send them there. We link to the original sources and explain clearly what each study actually looked at.

The show price, held for one more week

A lot of you asked for time to think it over. So the show price is staying where it is until Thursday 20 August, 23:59. Use code DHS26 at checkout. After that, prices go back to normal.

Thank you again for a brilliant week. If you met us at the stand and have a question you did not get to ask, message us on Instagram or reply to any of our emails. A real conversation is still the best part of this job.

Vitalight is the official distributor of Photizo red light therapy devices in Ireland. This article is educational and is not veterinary advice. Photizo devices may support wellbeing, comfort and recovery and are not a treatment or cure for any condition. Always consult your vet.