Do so many horses REALLY need boots and bandages?

Its a mental thing I think when I stopped using boots it was a hard thing to get my head around but if you really think about you don't need them apart from knock protection.

Its safer to hunt without boots and if my horse can go jumping and at speed for 3 hours in all types of country then they really don't need boots.

Good balanced hooves are a key tho and some of the feet out there are shocking its no wonder riders have issues with horses injuring themself.

Think the risk of over heating far outweights any percieved benefits.

I would like someone to explain how a bandage is going to stop a horse doing a tendon / ligiment injury? How many sports players run round with bandages on? Strapping is different however you need to know what you are doing and a horses leg has a lot of stress put on it so doubt it would offer much help.

Racehorses gallop at young ages with no protection and the majority are fine, there will always be the odd one in any sport.

The key to strong legs is conditioning - the long slow slog to gradually build up the legs that is the only way to offer your horse the best protection, sadly too many people are in too much of a ruah to do it correctly.
 
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The only time I had boots on one of mine, I forgot to take them before doing my dressage test :p and got disqualified. :rolleyes:
No more boots for me.
 
My friend always used knee boots on the road. One day she was out and one fell down so she got off to sort it. As she was doing it a pheasant flew out and startled the horse and it got away from her, galloped up the lane and skidded over on a bend. So much for avoiding injury.:(
 
I don't boot for schooling, but I wouldn't dream of hacking without knee boots. The damage that can be done by a minor slip or trip on the road is not worth it.
 
What Josie said

Sorry can't quote as on phone.

Basically I would rather prevent an injury in the first place so always use brushing boots. My girl does sometimes overreach so use those too. Front brushing boots are replaced by tendon boots for jumping
 
I have no idea about everyone else's horses . . . but I do what I think is necessary to protect Kal's legs and keep him sound - so . . . no boots at all in the field, brushing behind/overreach in front for hacking (because he has been known to brush behind/overreach out on hacks), no boots/bandages/wraps for flatwork (because he doesn't need them), brushing behind/overreach in front for jumping at home (because he has knocked himself/overreached when jumping at home), tendon/fetlock boots for jumping at competition (to be safe), brushing all round/overreach in front for XC (to protect his legs) . . . oh, and bandages behind when stabled because he can stock up.

Simple really. Nothing at all to do with fashion - or in any way influenced by fashion/what others do . . . simply dictated by what I feel is best to keep his legs protected.

P
 
Dizzy was often booted as she would be silly and legs would fly everywhere :rolleyes:

LC only jumping.

GM only jumping.

LL never for ridden.

Tigs never.

Titch - a yearling so ridden n/a.

Travelling - various depending on the horse.

It's horses for courses ;) :D
 
I boot always as a tendon strike isnt worth the risk to me. I always put travel boots behind unless travelling a young horse that wont tollerate them. I sold a horse who travelled bootless (travelled loads with me always booted behind). Skinned its hinds to the tendons and was PTS. I would rather try and prevent personally than have to treat something which didnt have to happen
 
Only boots I use religiously are knee boots, simply because a fall onto the knees may have triggered my girls EVH-1 through stress and I am not going through losing another horse.

Do use tendon boots for jumping but very rarely jump
 
don't use them generally - horse doesn't wear shoes so strike injuries are not all that likely and he's not jumping at the moment and even if he does it won't be any great height so I can't see why he'd need tendon boots although I may re-evaluate that if necessary.

Wearing boots can cause plenty of damage, catch on things, rub, slip etc. and worse of all they just make the legs too hot, tendons get damaged easily when too hot so this is the real reason I avoid boots if at all possible
 
NaeNae87 said:
Read Black Beauty, times back then were hard. Horses either did the job they needed to do or they were killed or sold. There was no such thing as rehab, huge vet bills for surgery or retirement homes for horses.
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I have already said I have used boots on a horse who needed them because of her action. That was one. Out of quite a number. What I find sad - inexcusable really - is all this keeping horses booted constantly "just in case", including when turned out. Having to hose legs down when they overheat.... along with separate paddocks, etc, etc. I mean, seriously?

Boots and bandages will not do much other than give strike protection. Fair enough x country and so on but in the field? Stable? Rehab wise their use is limited as well. It's nothing like taping human athletes. Rather like shoeing, but that's a whole other can of worms....
 
It does depend what your poison is though.

We mostly hunt, and sometimes out hunting you can cause a lot more damage with than without, I personally would not boot any of ours for 5-6hours of muddy wet ground, just to have them kicking out of frustration of mud stuck in their boots. I also won't wear OR boots out hunting for fear of them standing on one at canter and wiping us both out.

I did used to bandage for schooling for absolutely no reason other than it was an excuse to buy bright coloured polo bandages :D If I ever went into dressage I would use that excuse to have every colour bandage under the sun and I would wear them ALL!
 
Nudibranch said:
What I find sad - inexcusable really - is all this keeping horses booted constantly "just in case", including when turned out. Having to hose legs down when they overheat.... along with separate paddocks, etc, etc. I mean, seriously?
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Maybe you don't know the background story?

PS's horse is a bully and mine is a bit annoying - I'm fed up of buying new rugs and headcollars, and mine has given hers a kick to the head, knee and shoulder previously.

Not sure group turnout would be worth the potential cost, whichever way you look at it.

Our retired boy is muzzled and high lami risk so grazed on his own paddock that we keep mown to the ground. Livery pony is a, shod b, a rug thug and c, strip grazed, so kept on his own at owners request.

Horses for courses :)

RE: the whole boot thing... I would rather 'just in case' than 'if only'... Plus ours only wear OR boots for turnout (unless new horse/field) so chance of over heating is minimal.
 
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The only time my old pony wore boots were for XC and that was it.

She was a straight mover with decent legs so didn't really need boots for anything else.
 
I also only boot if it's really, really needed.

I think that it's a great shame that people were worried by the anatomy/dissection programme. The tendon on the severed leg was cut (while the leg was under pressure) with a scalpel. IIRC, the leg was also skinned, so the scalpel went straight into the tendon as there was no protection from the absent skin. This is different to a strike on a live leg with a hoof. Even a shod horse wont have a sharp edge on it's shoe that's comparable with a scalpel.

However, if an owner decides that boots are needed, then they should use them. I do agree that some boots are better than others (the article is interesting), so light, breathable boots with some 'give' in them seem to be a good choice.
 
Agree with Faracat - only if really needed, and with the programme - a scalpel into tendon under pressure is always going to produce different results than a hoof ( even if shod ) against a moving leg, at different angles and pressures.

My older lad is incredibly "high mileage" given his history of racing, endurance and now trek, but has never worn leg boots. he wore over-reaches while on some of his endurance stuff ( but he is an arab, and short coupled ) and I continue this with trek ( he is barefoot, but can get a little "poncy" when excited, so they are a good idea ) but I still don't put leg boots on. His legs are immaculate for a 20+ year old lad given his history, and I have often wondered if this is conformation related, rather than anything else.
 
Billy wears Brushing boots all round if schooling flat, fronts only for hacking and nothing when jumping.
Xc he is booted properly all round plus over reach boots but these are just rubber cheap ones.

For jumping the only reason he dosent wear boots is he dosent need a reason to be "casual" :p

I don't have time to bandage before every ride, maybe for a demo or something.
 
Also with over heating a boot will not cause a leg to heat to 42 degrees under normal conditions. If your horse was running the grand national in bandages then maybe!

Tendons start to struggle above 42 degrees and break down at 47 degrees. Boots do not cause legs to heat to these temperatures unless like I said above your horse runs the national wrapped up to its eye balls!

I get very annoyed with the whole over heating thing :P Unless you event very high level or race NH you really dont need to worry!
 
Did you read the article post above?

Tendons are elastic structures and as they are repeatedly loaded/stretched (when the limb is on the ground) and unloaded (when the limb is in the air), they generate heat. Some work at the University of Bristol showed that the temperature inside the tendons of horses galloping without boots on could reach 45°C, second only in the body to muscle temperatures. The tendon temperatures are very high, not only because of heat production within the tendons, but because tendons have a relatively poor blood supply, which in any other tissue would help remove heat.

In 1997, the same group published the results of a scientific study in which they showed that tendon cells in a test tube were sensitive to heating. When the tendon cells were heated for 10 minutes at 45°C, around 10 per cent died, but when they were heated to 48°C for 10 minutes, around 80 per cent died. These results were also confirmed by a more recent study of equine tendon cells in Japan. This study also showed that the higher the temperature, the more tendon cells died and also discovered that inflammatory mediators were released after heating. (Inflammatory mediators are chemicals and hormones within the body that cause inflammation — heat, swelling, pain — and tissue damage.)

If tendon core (central) temperatures can reach 45°C during a few minutes of galloping without boots, it is almost certain that they will get even hotter when boots are being worn. It would therefore seem important to make sure boots are used only during the period of actual exercise and not left on for long periods when the horse is not active, especially after exercise. Removing boots soon after exercise and cooling the legs would also seem to be advisable.

I find it odd that so many people have had falls on roads? I have been on roads for 20 years all ages of horses and never had one stumble on a road, no one over here that I know rides with knee boots. Both shod and now barefoot.

What were the feet like at the time? Were they correctly balanced?
 
Yes my youngsters wear front tendon boots and over reaches when in the school. I have put too much blood, sweat and tears into them to risk a stupid and potentially career threatening injury, when excited or learning to jump/lunge/loose school etc.
 
The only boots I use are overreach ones, because he had an old overreach injury when I bought him, because this was picked up in the vetting, they are excluded form my insurance....so he wears them in the field too!!!
 
i have very basic (WW) brushing boots for all four legs but only use them for xc. this is because the fences are solid and could cause injury as can the brush fences cause scratches along the legs. i never used to but now i'm jumping round 3ft/3ft3 i'd rather be safe than sorry. i cannot wear the sj because pony the ploughs through the jumps.

i always travel mine in boots because of the injuries i've seen that could of been prevented or less severe if boots were worn
 
My old horse did, so wore brushing boots and O/R boots for turn out & either boots or bandages with O/R boots for exercise.

Current rufty, tufty New Forest doesn't need them so doesn't wear them. Simples!
 
Yes, a shod horse really does.

Mine has fallen over out hacking, thank god he was booted properly.
 
maccachic said:
I find it odd that so many people have had falls on roads? I have been on roads for 20 years all ages of horses and never had one stumble on a road, no one over here that I know rides with knee boots. Both shod and now barefoot.
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Neither had I, until I did. I have to admit the tb looses his footing occasionally, the other two (ISH) are much more sure-footed.
 
I bought some lemeiux pro support boots for our ex-polo pony a couple of weeks back - she was swelling mildly on her hinds after hacking - and they have really helped. £25 very well spent!

I am looking at the moment to get some front tendon boots for my ex-racer. having just started working her she is getting some swelling - hopefully its just because the ground is so hard :confused:

I'm not usually a 'boot' person - but the above are fully justified IMO.

To go off on a slight tangent - stay with me folks ! - When I was younger horses of 15 were no longer insurable - or worth very much at all. A horse of 19 was a pensioner coffin dodger. These days horses of 16 + are competing at high level events - I know very little but others I'm sure could site a whole lot of 'older' horses who still regularly compete.

Mine are 15 & 19 and have worked hard during their lives. They now need a little support - hence the booties. I could be wildly off track here but maybe a lot of the horses you see with the boots on are in the same boat. Older and need a little extra?

I can also blow my own theory out of the water with a girl who was at our old yard. She had different sets of brushing boots to go with whatever numnah she was using. The pony didn't need them she just liked them. It did no harm I guess so why not?

Hmm...
 
I use brushing boots on my mare as she has quite a close movement, and the number of strike marks on the boots tells me that they're a good idea! I use travel boots on her fronts but just use bandages with shortish gamgee underneath as she seems to be irritated by bulky hind boots and wraps and travels better with less on.

I've also started using pastern wraps as they seems to cover more than overreach boots without flapping about.
 
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