  We investigate the thermal and magnetic properties of the integrable su(4)
ladder model by means of the quantum transfer matrix method. The magnetic
susceptibility, specific heat, magnetic entropy and high field magnetization
are evaluated from the free energy derived via the recently proposed method of
high temperature expansion for exactly solved models. We show that the
integrable model can be used to describe the physics of the strong coupling
ladder compounds. Excellent agreement is seen between the theoretical results
and the experimental data for the known ladder compounds
(5IAP)$_2$CuBr$_4$$\cdot$2H$_2$O, Cu$_{2}$(C$_5$H$_{12}$N$_2$)$_2$Cl$_4$ etc.
