Home » Attention: Leg protection for horses is more harmful than assumed

Attention: Leg protection for horses is more harmful than assumed

by Laura Wienecke
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Splint boots and bandages can damage the tendons of the horse’s leg more quickly than previously assumed due to heat accumulation. Therefore their use needs to be well considered and well dosed.

A study conducted at Middle Tennessee State University was able to show that leg protection for horses carries a great risk of overheating and tendon damage as a result. Lucas Brock and Holly Spooner tested six different splint boots and bandages for their temperature- and moisture-stopping effect on the horse’s leg. The horses in their test wore a leg protector on one front leg while the other was left uncovered. They were worked in twenty-minute test runs and then rested for three hours standing at an ambient temperature of about 23 degrees. Throughout the procedure, temperature and humidity were measured on both forelegs in close proximity to the grip bone and flexor tendons.

The results are unsurprising, but no less alarming for that: both the neoprene boots (traditional and perforated) and the splint boots made of more breathable Stomatex,  elastic and fleece bandages led to greatly accelerated and increased heating of the leg.

After only 15 minutes, the covered legs reached temperatures that can lead to cell damage and did not cool down again even after the horse had finished working, as long as the leg protection remained on the horse. The uncovered horse legs, on the other hand, did not reach a potentially damaging temperature range, but also hardly cooled down again within the three-hour rest period.

According to the authors, therefore it’s important to consciously weigh up the protective function and the risk of overheating when using bandages and boots and to keep the actual training needs in mind. If they are used, they should be removed as soon as possible after the work and the limbs should be cooled, for example with a water hose. However, this also makes sense after training without leg protection. How the horse’s legs cool down passively and which strategies are suitable for more efficient cooling will be shown by future research.

Compression is also damaging

This is not the first time that science has critically examined the effects of leg protection on horses. Already in 2006, a study conducted at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover showed that stable bandages do more harm than benefit, because the compression in the area of the lower limbs sometimes impairs the function of the lymphatic system massively.

Source: pferderevue.at

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