Booting, bandaging or not?

[Nakipa]

I have a 17.2hh ISH who has been out of work for 10 weeks due to lameness issues. Initially he had inflammation of the Lateral Collateral Ligament which made him lame in his foot and also he had problems in the shoulder on the same leg causing him to take a short stride on that leg. It could have been the shoulder problem that caused the foot lameness, we will never know for sure. I am pretty sure that this all stemmed from some crap shoeing which allowed his toes to get too long resulting in a change to his breakover point. He is now being shod by a brilliant remedial farrier and this has helped with him coming sound.

After field rest and several osteo visits he is sound and back in work. He is just being hacked out for now in walk and a bit of trot but he is very forward going and when he hits grass he is very strong wanting to canter. My farrier has said that if he wants to canter early in his work then to let him as canter is a more natural and easy pace for him and then when he gets the fizz out of him to go back to trot work to up his fitness.

My question is that I am obviously paranoid now about the LCL and preventing any re-occurance of the inflammation or damage.
Should I be bandaging or booting him to give him support when I am riding him? I never usually do except when we are jumping. there is a school of thought that bandaging just makes matters worse because the tendons and ligaments dont support themselves.

He is an allrounder and we do a lot of flat schooling, jumping, lunging and loads of hacking. He is 12 yrs old so I am cutting back his work load quite a lot as I used to ride or do something with him 6 days a week. Now we are only doing 2 or 3 as I want him to last.

Thanks

 

[ashlingm]

I would, personally, keep his legs bandaged while you are riding him to help build the strength back up into his LCL and they you can start to wear them less and less the fitter he gets (I would see this as being like wearing a brace for a sprained ankle and the stronger it gets the less it needs to be worn) In this case I think bandages may be better then boots as boots are used to protect the legs but bandages are used to support the leg

Although one thing that drives me mad is horses wearing boots in a field (I'll admit a few need them but the majority don't!) so if hes out at all I would leave him without as he *shouldn't* be doing anything to strenuous! But if you are worried that he will be a bit green the first few times being turned out it would be no harm to wear boots to stop him knocking himself!

Best of luck...hope he's back to his old self soon!

 

[whirlwind]

Exercise bandages, put on correctly will help to support, even if just whilst schooling

Personally i wouldn't be cutting his workload back that much, 12 is no age nowadays and as long as you arn't hammering will probably do a lot more good than harm!

 

[classicalfan]

No, I wouldn't boot or bandage him. Not only can they do damage if incorrectly applied but they heat the leg - best to keep the leg as cool as possible (otherwise we would all be spending our time warm hosing!)