Would you put boots on a horse that has had tendon problems?

3Beasties

3Beasties

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New Horse arrived on Tuesday and I am just in the process of trying to sort tack out (owners first horse so he hasn't got anything for it at all).

He is a 9 Year old TB that broke down when racing (not sure how long ago). He has been Pinfired and his tendons are very bowed.

He has point 2 pointed since and is still sound.

So would you ride it with some sort of leg protection on? And if so what? Tendon boots / Brushing boots / bandages ??

He will mainly be used for hacking, a bit of schooling and eventually hunting.

A picture so you can see his legs
CIMG2726.jpg
 
oh bless him, hes a stunning looking chap. Personally I would boot him to ride just to give him a bit of support.
Trizone have some lovely new allround boots out that are also 'air cooled', so he could have support but without them making his tendons overheat. I would use something like that.
Just my oponion though, others may think differently.
 
Ooh, we have an old ex-racer who has legs like that (both of themin front!). We 'saved' him as a 19 year old (was going to be PTS as no home for him) although previously we had him on a sort of recoup grass rest loan as his previous loan homes had gone t*ts up!

The previous owner who had him post racing used to do a fair bit of xc and SJ with him and I think he's been sound ever since he was retired from racing. We did hack him out but I don't think we booted him up - certainly not initially or for his tendons. However, we ended up having to put overreach boots on him as we realised he is rather accident prone!

Unless the particular horse is clumsy/accident prone or his forelimb conformation makes him pre-disposed to brushing etc then I wouldn't be overly worried as the tendons themselves should be fine and plenty of turnout and walking on roads will help.

Horses shouldn't have to wear boots for hacking generally - in fact vets we've spoken to over the years have more or less been anti-boot. Certainly support ones anyway. Ok, so tendon boots and overreach have benefits to prevent horses striking into themselves when jumping but they shouldn't need supporting.
 
Keeping them cool is important IMO. I doubt you could support them with anything other than correctly applied bandages, but if you bandaged then you'd be heating the tendons - I'm not sure you'd get enough support from the bandages to justify heating the legs really. If you wanted to protect his legs, I would get some air-cooled tendon/XC boots with good tendon shields. Make sure they fit well - I imagine the extent of the bowing on his left fore might change whether the boots fit or not. If he doesn't brush or damage himself when he is moving, and you don't want to use boots, don't use them
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i had a horse once who had done a tendon jumping over a hedge out of his field 3 years before.

i only rode him in boots for xc as i prefered to keep his legs cool- i don't think a knock or brush to a previously damaged tendon would do anything more than it would to a 'normal' leg.
 
I agree, unless he brushes himself I would resist temptation to boot because of the heat.
if he has stayed sound p2p then I wouldn't worry about hacking and I defo wouldn't wear boots out hunting as they can cause more probs than they solve imo.
 
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