07/28/2021
A reader writes: “I have noticed that you seldom—if ever—put boots or bandages on your horses while you are riding them. Is this an oversight? Or, are you avoiding the practice on purpose?”
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No, it’s not an oversight. I seldom boot or bandage my horses or ponies, even when I am schooling them in the arena. When we are riding out over our particular country, it is actually risky to have leg protection on them, as the seeds and burrs have a nasty habit of working their way between the boot and the horse, with unfortunate results.
My long-ago mentor was always wary of wrapping horses—unless they were in danger of knocking themselves, as in trotting or cantering lateral movements—and she passed this reluctance along to me. Turns out, science is starting to back up this cautionary mindset.
According to the American Journal of Veterinary Research, in an April 2014 article, studies show that the temperature inside the tendons of a horse at rest is 37-38˚C. Damage to the cells starts occurring at 43˚C. After only ten minutes of sustained heat at 48°C, an increase of only ten degrees in temperature, there will be up to 80% cellular death. Yet, without boots or bandages and under strenuous exercise, the internal temperatures increase by only 3˚. It has been proven that most boots on the market, fleece wraps and bandages increase the tendons’ temps by, on average, 16.5˚!
Studies have also shown no significant shock absorbing benefits to boots or bandages. Their clear benefits are to prevent traumatic injuries while playing polo, knocking a fence, interfering (brushing) and overreaching, whereby the hind toes strike the heels of the fores. All serious injuries, clearly, therefore booting up would be a safety precaution during sports where such hazards are highly possible. Fast work since as racing, reining and training over jumps, along with skid boots for sliding stops, would be obvious situations. Other reasons for leg ‘protection’ would be to apply pressure or cold therapy to injuries, to keep open wounds and surgical sites clean and to reduce swelling.
A word of warning here. There is an art to applying wraps to legs without doing harm. It pays to have sound mentorship in this realm.
Online, most of the web articles pro booting are sponsored by the manufacturers of said boots. This, alone, is enough to put a question mark in my mind. Does a horse look sharper with high white bandages on all fours for his sale video? Yes. White stockings sell. Does a good mover—or a poorer mover—look better with white boots—or dark and unobtrusive boots—in the performance arena? Yes and yes. Good movement, or the appearance of it, wins.
The key to all of this, in my mind, is that these boots MUST be removed quickly once the horse’s athletics are done, to return the leg to its natural temperatures, to reduce the harm from overheating, literally ‘cooking’ those soft tissues. Yet, how often do we see horses working, standing in their bandages while riders visit or while they otherwise ‘cool out’? It’s something to be very mindful of, it you are in the camp of dedicated users. Use them and then, get them straight off.
I think many of us boot and bandage our horses because everyone around us is doing so. If it is right for them, then, why not for us?
On those long hauls where my sale horses have been transported to their new homes by trusted commercial haulers, the drivers have often made a point of requesting ‘little to no blanketing or bandaging’ when they pick up my horses. Invariably, I am told that most horses haul comfortably with a mindset of less is more. If a horse is being hauled beside strangers with an open partition, giving some leg protection from kicks and scrambling does seem prudent. In my experience, most trailering injuries are caused by other horses. On extremely long hauls, some bandaging can help support a horse prone to ‘stocking up’, though who is on hand to check those wraps and adjust them, as necessary, remains a mystery.
I’ve long been suspicious of bandaging and booting, as those who religiously do so, seem to report a higher recurrence of injuries, as opposed to the thousands of hardworking ranch horses who go long hours over taxing country and do not! Granted, the level of repetitious activity of the first group over the second might explain this discrepancy, as much as the overcooking of their horses’ tendons.
Now, for an admission. Cypress gets a few hours’ support, daily, from his compression socks while standing around. I have noticed that his damaged soft tissues—his deep flexor tendon and torn suspensory branches—are firmer and less puffy with a little extra support. The best I can do for him at this stage in his recovery, however, is to soak his lower legs in cool, running water down at the creek and then, quietly turn him out.
Bottom line, I add protection to certain horses and during certain activities, only on the advice of my trusted performance horse vet. In recent years, he, too, seems to be shifting towards the side of caution. There has to be a reason to boot and bandage, beyond saying ‘just because’.
Protective products newly promising supportive or cooling properties will convince me only if these claims are backed with independent, scientific, third party findings. It is not enough for me that they are endorsed by paid celebrities.
After putting a fair bit of time and effort into educating myself on the matter, my initial conclusions remain. In my type of program, the tendons and ligaments of my workaday horses are more at risk with boots and bandages, than they are, without. Their general wellness and rare injuries—knock on wood—seemingly support these findings.
