Tendon/boots musings...

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Scribbles

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Ok, I have made all this up in my own head, so I could be completely wrong, but...

When I broke my wrist, the pain when I had to take the cast off after however long it was was worse than when I broke it in the first place. Equally, when I have sprained wrists etc before, I find that after wearing wrist supports the joint hurts a lot more.

I am guessing this is due to the tendons and muscles weakening as a result of the 'support', which is needed whilst injured, but long term use can cause a LOT of damage. I asked a (human) physiotherapist this, and she agreed.

In that case, surely making horses wear 'support' bandages and boots causes weakening of the muscles, leading to greater risk of breakdown?

Then, none of the horses at my riding school (I am a livery) wear boots. They often work for 4 hours a day, flat, jumping, cross country, hacks and galloping. I can't think of one that has tendon problems.

A new livery has brought her big posh hunters up. They are segregated into small seperate paddocks (where they have to reach over the electric fencing to groom each other) and are fully booted up in the day, bandages at night and booted up for riding. Surely these horses stand a greater risk of damaging themselves?

I removed my neddies brushing boots after noticing that he was getting very hot under them, and so surely heat is a significant factor in tendon breakdown? I understand if your horse brushes severely, but mine only does it when is is spazzing out (sorry for the un-PC there!) and so giving himself a knock snaps some sense into him (in much the same reason as why showjumpers wear open fronted boots).

So, yeah.
 
Heehee I love musing about these things.

I would say that bandages and boots don't support the tendons at all. If you wrapped a little bit of cotton wool round your wrist it would be the equivalent of what bandages do to a 500 kilo horse joints and tendons...very little.

As for over heating I'm not convinced that it damages the tendons. My trainer Olympic dressage has been bandaged when stabled (about 19 hours a day) booted when worked or turned out (the reamining time) since he was 4, he's now nearly 15 and has never been lame a day in his life. I have never heard a vet tell anyone that there horse tendon has popped due to boots or bandage. I have heard of a few horse with tendon or ligamenet injuries due to the misuse of studs!
 
I doubt a vet would say it was due to use of boots/bandages as using them is just a given these days. But long term use could weaken them in some cases maybe?

Why boot horses 24/7? I think (and I could be wrong, as I say, musing!) the more horses are wrapped in cotton wool, the weaker they become. Little neddie came from a field in gateshead where he had lived out 24/7 with no rugs or hard feed, no boots, ust your general hard geordie
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He's TB aswell. So it means that now I have him, he is a good doer, and needs minimal rugging.

I read in some magazine somewhere the other day about how this top showing woman baths the horses everyday, heat lamps, feet scrubbed with dettol etc. If little neddie has wet mud, it gets a cold hose, if it is dry I flick it off with a brush.


Thats off on a tangent, anyway.
 
I completely agree that if you wrap them in cotton wool they are more likely to break!
Heat is a huge contributing factor to tendon damage as it allows the fibres to stretch beyond their normal range and causes irrepairable damage, just like with elastic if you stretch it too tight around your pony tail too often it gets to a point where it snaps as each time more damage is done.
obviously some horses are more predisposed to the injuries than others.
Why does a horse need to be bandage all night anyway unless it has a problem? Do competative people wear support bandages in bed every night??
 
But really how hot does their legs get under bandages? As for boots they are only brushing boots, they should be quite breathable
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AS for the why it's to stop any filling on the fetlock and tendon area, she believes that legs filling does more damage than bandaging. I use wraps during the winter to keep my girls legs from filling, seems to keep her more supple in the morning. I know it's different to bandaging all year but I still do it as do many people and as I say I've not heard anyone have tendon issues.

The whole process of bandaging was started by the racing world and they used it to stop injuries by ensuring the horse was properly warmed up. I suppose it's like having constantly warmed up muscles, less likely for one to ping?

I'm not expert (clearly!) but I know lots of quite experienced people that bandage and boot 24/7 then again I know a fair few that don't!
 
I thought it was proven legs overheat in many boots (Cetainly, Pips legs will sweat if he has WW brushing boots on for a hard workout, like under the saddle) and that this was very bad.

I also thought it was proven booting up 24/7, then removing them was fact to be bad- but if they are never removed not a problem.

There are studies on it *Toodles off to find a link hopfully*
 
I've seen white sweat on horses legs from bandages and neoprene boots, especially in hot summer weather.

It makes sense to prevent horses from being cold before being worked, I guess in the same way (wierdly) you don't put a baking dish in the oven when it has come straight from the freezer.

Ho hum.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I guess in the same way (wierdly) you don't put a baking dish in the oven when it has come straight from the freezer.


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You don't? Why what would happen?
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Sadly I wasn't joking and I never knew it would crack
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not that i have any bakking dishes in my house
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Anyway back to horse's legs, funny shape ain't they...
 
And glasses! Don't wash glasses in hot water after you've had a cold/icy drink! Eeeee, and I'm the student!

On a morning, little ned walks all spazzy (again, sorry for the un-PC) until he's given them a good click, like some old man!
 
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