Leg protection for dressage horse who brushes behind

[007Equestrian]

My dressage horse brushes behind slightly and causes her hind bandages to slip down with some of the bandage below the fetlock. She also causes traditional fetlock boots to spin. I currently ride her in open fronted tendon fetlock showjumping boots behind but would like to give her some more support as she progresses towards Advanced level and beyond. Any recommendations?

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I spent a whole winter building the inner thigh muscles with steady uphill work, this worked.
Also farrier may help, if he is really good.
Would tubiflex help at all?

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

And I am not convinced about "bandaging for support" , contrary to conventional dressage practice in vogue, I would strengthen with road work and gridwork.
When I tore my ligaments I bought a knee brace, but my physio advised exercises to build muscular support and not artificial support.

 

[Dizzydancer]

Is there a reason you can not use normal brushing boots?
I'm pretty sure I read that bandages don't give any support. Or I guess you could look at piaffe boots which won't move and will give more protection than bandages

 

[j1ffy]

Call me old fashioned but...brushing boots?

 

[Pigeon]

Sorry to hijack - mine has started brushing behind after being on box rest. Is it likely to improve with conditioning etc?

 

[xgemmax]

Would a sausage boot help?

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

Call me old fashioned but...brushing boots?

What is old fashioned about brushing boots, we use them when horses are racing over fences, to protect from cuts.
I think bandaging a healthy leg is going to warm the tendons and ligaments and prevent the horse using same.
So for me, routine bandaging of dressage horses is a complete no no, not to mention that people often bandage with no training, and can damage the tendon easily. Very few training sessions are going to push the work to GP level, as one dressage international said, "we would soon have no sound horses if we did that [overtraining] every day".
For the same reason, I would not want to use open fronted boots, I have seen horses dripping with sweat on the fetlocks when these boots are removed after a schooling session of 40 minutes.

 

[j1ffy]

What is old fashioned about brushing boots, we use them when horses are racing over fences, to protect from cuts.
I think bandaging a healthy leg is going to warm the tendons and ligaments and prevent the horse using same.
So for me, routine bandaging of dressage horses is a complete no no, not to mention that people often bandage with no training, and can damage the tendon easily. Very few training sessions are going to push the work to GP level, as one dressage international said, "we would soon have no sound horses if we did that [overtraining] every day".
For the same reason, I would not want to use open fronted boots, I have seen horses dripping with sweat on the fetlocks when these boots are removed after a schooling session of 40 minutes.

Precisely this. I was being a bit sarcastic with my post as I would have thought that brushing boots are the obvious answer over bandages (which provide little protection and also overheat the tendons, as per your comment) and fancy schooling wraps!

 

[007Equestrian]

I spent a whole winter building the inner thigh muscles with steady uphill work, this worked.
Also farrier may help, if he is really good.
Would tubiflex help at all?

I've never heard of tubiflex, what is it?

 

[007Equestrian]

Precisely this. I was being a bit sarcastic with my post as I would have thought that brushing boots are the obvious answer over bandages (which provide little protection and also overheat the tendons, as per your comment) and fancy schooling wraps!

This is strange to me as in dressage circles I'm considered a complete freak for using tendon and fetlock boots on my mare as opposed to bandages all-round! I was worried that brushing boots might spin around the way the traditional fetlock boots did?

 

[Dizzydancer]

Correctly fitted brushing boots shouldn't be spinning round- if your horse is that close behind (conformationally) to be worried about that then I would be very careful about pushing this Horse up the levels in dressage as it's likely to break easily- if it's not conformation then you really need to try and strengthen horses upper thigh etc and see if you can widen the lower legs

 

[Exploding Chestnuts]

I've never heard of tubiflex, what is it?

I may have the name wrong, they are a tube of elasticated cotton, they are sold by pharmacist, for light support to a limb, not as warm as bandaging, you can pop boots on top.

 

[eggs]

I may have the name wrong, they are a tube of elasticated cotton, they are sold by pharmacist, for light support to a limb, not as warm as bandaging, you can pop boots on top.

I know it as tubigrip

 

[rachk89]

I use the lemieux prosport boots on my horse as they also cover down over the fetlocks. He can brush not often but it's more when he is being lazy. He stopped pretty much once he got stronger but my instructor said to get boots again to protect his leg incase he has a dumb moment as he usually does.*

 

[McFluff]

I used to use the le mieux schooling boots on my TB when learning and practicing lateral work. They have really good strike protection. They'd help for brushing too. Or, as others have said, good old brushing boots.

 

[Chocy]

Brushing boots & large rubber sausage boots/fetlock ring on both legs?