Wraps or tendon boots

[dwi]

Daisy is coming back into work following an injury to her tendon sheath. We don't know how she did it but I would like to put some kind of boots on her legs to reduce the chance of it happening again and to protect the injured area.

What are the pros and cons of sports boots against tendon boots?

Which do people tend to prefer?

 

[CentrestageSHS]

If she had a tendon injury I would say she could do with some decent boots all round for support and protection. However the tendon boots would offer protection to the legs but not much support, and the sports boots would offer support but not much protection for striking into her tendons.
You can now get sports boots with in built tendon protection from Premier equine international, I don't know how good they are but they sound a good idea. You could also bandage her for support and put tendon boots over the top of the bandages which would offer support and protection. Or go for some carbon gel type boots, these have just come onto the market and are really strong and protective. I personally use tendon boots for sj and sports boots for dressage schooling.

 

[RachelB]

Most types of sports boots heat the leg up - which is exactly what you don't want as heating tendons makes it easier to damage them. The best wrap boots I've found are the Equilibrium ones as they are very breathable, are supportive, and have extra padding where needed. As has been said tendon boots offer no support, just protection (again if you choose these, go for aircooled ones, well even normal ones are better than warm fleecy ones unless they rub your horse!)
But TBH something I've heard a few people quote on here makes more sense to me - there is no boot or bandage yet invented that is going to support the weight of a horse by being wrapped around its legs.

 

[meandmyself]

No boot or bandage is going to be enough to give you support. A bit of fabric isn't strong enough to support the weight of a horse.

If you want to use something, I'd go for tendon boots- they heat the leg up less, and will protect that area from any knocks.