Bandages....bad for the tendons?

^^ Good point. I don't worry about heating up his legs normally, but when we get a rare heatwave I prefer to keep the bandages off, or use my open fronted, ventilated tendon boots instead...
 
To put things into perspective, i bandage my horses for work, but thats for 35/45mins 3/4 times a week, not excessive amounts of time in the scheme of things. If you look at a horses boots (as the picture earlier in the thread illustrates) its very rare to see an unscuffed boot, which shows how much the horse can knock itself. I ride big moving warmbloods and i dont want them to loose confidence and limit their movement because they are worried about knocking themselves, for example working on lateral work with youngsters, they can easily catch themselves if they loose balance etc. Or in the piaffe they may sit too much and get their legs in a bit of a knot and move too close and knock themselves. So for me, its worth the short amount of time in the horses week to have that protection, and i do instant cold straight afterwards everytime.
 
daffy44 said:
To put things into perspective, i bandage my horses for work, but thats for 35/45mins 3/4 times a week, not excessive amounts of time in the scheme of things. If you look at a horses boots (as the picture earlier in the thread illustrates) its very rare to see an unscuffed boot, which shows how much the horse can knock itself. I ride big moving warmbloods and i dont want them to loose confidence and limit their movement because they are worried about knocking themselves, for example working on lateral work with youngsters, they can easily catch themselves if they loose balance etc. Or in the piaffe they may sit too much and get their legs in a bit of a knot and move too close and knock themselves. So for me, its worth the short amount of time in the horses week to have that protection, and i do instant cold straight afterwards everytime.
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this.exactly.
 
TBH I doubt using bandages for schooling sessions does much harm or much good for that matter provided, of course, that they are put on correctly. In cold weather I actually think they might do a bit of good as they warm the legs up a bit and as I have an achilles tendon injury i know in cold weather it feels tighter, so I always make sure it's warm before I do any exercise. However, using bandages and boots for that matter, does ensure that we clean the legs and I find that I get to know my horses legs very well as a result ie what's normal for them and what's not. I do use over reach boots though for all ridden work and for turnout partly to protect the legs but mainly to protect the shoes on the front.
 
I have several pairs of sports boots that I bought and have used maybe once in the school - his legs were sweating under them so I didn't use them again. I didn't use anything on his legs, and then one day when cantering on a circle - not even pushing him - he stepped on the back of his hind leg, took a good chunk out of the leg and went hopping lame. I felt awful for not covering his legs, as with boots or bandages I think he would have been ok, it would've been just a knock. When I'm working him now if I think I'm going to push him a bit or ask for some lateral work I will always bandage or put boots on, same if I do pole work. He's a thin skinned tb and doesn't take much to break his skin! Regarding heating, his legs haven't sweated much under bandages, I don't use pads though as I'm not using then to support the leg, just to protect from scrapes.
 
I've been trying to find some research on the subject but there doesn't seem to be much out there. The best I've seen so far is this one

http://www.equilibriumproducts.com/news.asp?Action=Detail&NewsID=159

They tested a few boots and bandages and found that most didn't offer the level of protection expected. The point about overheating the tendons was also mentioned, but everyone seems to be quoting the same small study on galloping horses. I'm not sure how well the results could be extrapolated to dressage horses, as they aren't moving at the same speed but are being exercised for much longer

I'd love to see more research if anyone can find any :-)
 
Faracat said:
Interesting link AN.



Scary. I wonder which makes and models of boots were worse than no boots?
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possibly hard shell tendon boots, my boss kept buying ones that don't fit, too tight and or too short so they leave an indentation in the tendon, they were all finally binned when said horse ended up with a tendon injury
 
I wouldn't use them for high "stress" exercise such as gallloping across country etc but for lungeing and standard flatwork ie. walk trot canter with basic lateral work I wouldn't see it as a problem. However, I do tend to use boots as time is precious when balancing horses and A leveles, especially in the limited ight of winter. In hot weather I probably wouldn't use bandages. I suppose it depends on how hard the horse has to work, which affects how much cellular respiration is required which would affect the levels of heat. I suppose you could go on and on debaing it, but I don't think bandages should be scrapped completely.
 
Amicus said:
This is what I always wonder.
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My horses aren't shod, and don't usually wear boots or bandages. Even in muddy conditions, they don't show any signs of contact between the hoof and opposite leg.

But for XC I use trizone boots (because they are the coolest and lightest I could find, and I think they should have some protection from splinters /impacts etc) and they always come back with rub marks on them.
 
What about human athletes. I'm thinking skiers with big socks and ski boots. Runneis ts with socks and trainers (trainers make feet so sweaty yuk), and footballers with their socks and shin guards.
I know it's different but it's also kind of not different.. are human foot, ankle tendon injuries in elite athletes any more likely to be made worse by having hot feet and legs?
My comment earlier on horses worked in hot countries with or without boots in 40 plus degrees heat is the same....
I honestly don't think there is enough research to bin the bandages just yet. Why is the effects of heat different when its air temperature compared to a the temperature under a bandage. Temp is temp? You could certainly fry an egg on the car bonnet here in the summer yet eventing, dressage, jumping, polo competitions still run... should I not ride in 40 degrees because I'm worried about tendon injuries? I'm more concerned with dehydration and heat stroke tbh!!
 
I have a picture somewhere I will have to dig out of the damage one of my jumpers did to her tendon boot in the past whilst being schooled. Without the boot im 100% she would have cut through her tendons (which traveling at a later date with no travel boots on she did! I didn't own her at this point) I nkw never ride without boots. Having studied biomechanics the risk of over heating for showjumping is very low (only really an issue in racehorses/top level XC) therefore it's a no brainer for me. I sometimes use bandages but they are too much effort for me really!
 
Firewell - I suspect that the fact that horses have no muscles in their lower limbs makes quite a bit of difference. Interesting questions though and I agree, more research is needed.
 
daffy44 said:
To put things into perspective, i bandage my horses for work, but thats for 35/45mins 3/4 times a week, not excessive amounts of time in the scheme of things. If you look at a horses boots (as the picture earlier in the thread illustrates) its very rare to see an unscuffed boot, which shows how much the horse can knock itself. I ride big moving warmbloods and i dont want them to loose confidence and limit their movement because they are worried about knocking themselves, for example working on lateral work with youngsters, they can easily catch themselves if they loose balance etc. Or in the piaffe they may sit too much and get their legs in a bit of a knot and move too close and knock themselves. So for me, its worth the short amount of time in the horses week to have that protection, and i do instant cold straight afterwards everytime.
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Why bandage though rather than boot? You can get boots which have been proven to provide protection and are also vented so are cooler than bandages. Also having seen more than one horse with a tendon injury through poor bandaging, there is less risk using boots (so long as they fit, but once fitted you don't have to worry about who is putting them on). Also when removing, taking boots off is much quicker and less risky (particularly with a young horse in a busy warm up).

So why would you use bandages over boots if you are using them for protection? Obviously its personal preference, and if its purely because you like the look of bandages than that is fine (some people prefer top hat to crash hat)
 
Firewell said:
What about human athletes. I'm thinking skiers with big socks and ski boots. Runneis ts with socks and trainers (trainers make feet so sweaty yuk), and footballers with their socks and shin guards.
I know it's different but it's also kind of not different.. are human foot, ankle tendon injuries in elite athletes any more likely to be made worse by having hot feet and legs?
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Shin pads are further up the legs than the equivilent in a horse's leg. The human foot is more equivilent to the horse's leg. If you look at serious runners, you don't find many of them with two layers of fleece wrapped round their feet. You find them with lightweight specialist running socks and their runnings shoes are often well ventilated as well. However the way they weight their foot and the training they do is very different to the horse so its difficult to compare. They also don't tend to get strike injuries into their foot, and you can offer more support to the structure by putting a shoe round the whole lot - but even then they still get injuries - but more often they are heel and ankle related.
 
MiaBella said:
Why bandage though rather than boot? You can get boots which have been proven to provide protection and are also vented so are cooler than bandages. Also having seen more than one horse with a tendon injury through poor bandaging, there is less risk using boots (so long as they fit, but once fitted you don't have to worry about who is putting them on). Also when removing, taking boots off is much quicker and less risky (particularly with a young horse in a busy warm up).

So why would you use bandages over boots if you are using them for protection? Obviously its personal preference, and if its purely because you like the look of bandages than that is fine (some people prefer top hat to crash hat)
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Two reasons; in my experience i've often found my horses had sweaty legs when they have worn wrap round boots, and extremely rarely when they wear bandages. Also with different horses, different sized legs etc its easier to make bandages fit correctly than having a pair of boots for every horse.
 
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