A matter of balance

Are boots or bandages better for leg protection? Professor Roger Smith FRCVS and Professor Michael Schramme weigh up the pros and cons

- Professor Roger Smith FRCVS and Professor Michael Schramme

Most horses are routinely booted up or bandaged for exercise. While some kind of protection is largely seen as essential, there are benefits and risks in covering or inadvertently constricting the lower limbs.

A common misapprehension is that bandages act to “support” the limb by preventing over-extension of the fetlock. A well-applied layered clinical bandage can provide some such support in foals or very small ponies, but studies have found that this is not the case with an adult horse. Achieving this requires the application of more rigid materials, such as a splint or fibreglass cast, or orthotic boots (EqueStride or FastTrack, for example). These newer boots can be used while the horse is at pasture or even being ridden, but are they are not insubstantial and are intended for injury convalescence rather than routine use.

A simple cloth bandage applied to the cannon region – a so-called “exercise bandage” – obviously provides no support to the fetlock joint, as it does not cover it. It is sometimes claimed that exercise bandages support the flexor tendons, but it is difficult to imagine how. The superficial digital flexor tendon undergoes a peak load in excess of one tonne during exercise, so surrounding it with a bandage will have no influence.

EXTERNAL FACTORS

THAT said, an exercise bandage or boot can guard against external trauma, which typically occurs due to an over-reach – when a hind foot strikes the back of a forelimb. This blunt trauma canbe massive, causing substantial tendon damage. A cloth bandage is unlikely to offer much protection other than against the lightest of blows, but rigid boots can be life-saving.