Protecting your horse's legs is a very important part of equestrian husbandry and something that just about every horse owner/rider deals with on a day to day basis.

We ride them on roads, in arenas, doing flat work and jumping, as well as trucking them to events throughout the year. It makes sense to protect the legs from possible harm and trauma that might occur during these routine exercises. Boots and bandages are most commonly used for three reasons - to protect, support or to control swelling - and in this feature we look at protection from trauma through the use of boots.

There are a huge variety of boots available on the market each for different jobs and choosing the right set for your horse is quite a task; the wrong boots can cause damage instead of protecting from it. Many people tend to think that boots on the front legs are quite sufficient and forget that often the back legs require protection as well. Some 80pc of a horse's unsoundness is from the knee down, so it is imperative to protect all four of your horses legs accordingly.

Starting from the knee down, we will consider what we can buy and why. If you are riding on roads that are slippery, and let's face it most are, you should think about using knee boots. It takes a split second for a horse to come down onto its knees and on tarmac surfaces the damage is extensive. The skin over the knee is very thin and tears easily. Repairing split knees takes a very long time as every time a horse bends its leg the wound re-opens and when completely healed it leaves an unsightly scar. Most of us will not purchase a horse with marked knees!

Moving down the leg we look at protecting the canon bone and tendon/ligament area for both the fore and back limbs. To provide sufficient protection against the action called 'brushing' - where the two legs rub against each other on the inside during movement, creating friction and bruising around the fetlock joint from constant knocking - we use the brushing (splint) boot. This sits just below the knee/hock and above the fetlock with extra long cupped padding on the inside that comes down to cover the fetlock joint. These boots do not prevent the horse from striking into himself, but they do minimise the damage incurred.

Tendon boots are fitted to the fore limb with the straps at the front and thick padding or a steel plate running at the back of the leg. They provide protection to the front legs from a horse striking from behind when jumping, driving or swimming.

Galloping boots provide protection and support for a horse that is doing fast work, such as eventers, endurance and race horses. They reach from just below the knee to below the fetlock offering duel protection all around the leg by acting as a splint and fetlock boot. (It is worth noting that there is a large variety of combination boots designed to provide protection and support for the structures of the lower leg, such as Sports Medicine Boots.)

A bell boot, commonly known as an over-reach boot is used to protect the front heel and pastern area from being hit by the hind foot on the same side, this gait abnormality is known as over-reaching. This is extremely painful to a horse and can cause him to be off work for some considerable time. Young horses who are not quite balanced in their movement can be prone to over-reaching as well as jumpers, and it is often recommended that you wear these boots even if your horse hasn't over-reached in the past.

There is often confusion between the sausage boot and the rubber ring, both of which are fitted around the pastern to sit comfortably on the coronet band. The sausage boot is placed on the fore limb pastern to prevent the heel of the foot coming into contact with the elbow of the same leg when the horse is lying down. It can help to prevent a 'capped' elbow from developing. The rubber ring is attached around the pastern of the hind limb (either one or both) to prevent rubbing and knocking around the coronet area in a horse that moves close behind (plaiting).

For horses that plait behind you use the fetlock (ankle) boot. It is a small boot that fastens around the top of the fetlock joint with a padded cup covering the inside of the joint completely. They are designed to guard against the damage caused by brushing from the opposite leg and to protect the sesamoid bones in the fetlock during fast work or jumping.

For travelling it is vital to use high quality, thickly padded boots that cover the front legs from above the knee to the floor and for the hind limbs they must cover the hock, again running to the floor. Bandages with gamgee underneath are not adequate protection against jolting or sudden braking alone. If you must use bandages use knee, hock and over-reach boots to protect the areas bandages do not cover. It is worthwhile investing in the correct travel boots from the start, they are easier to use and less time consuming to place and offer total leg protection.

Whatever boot you choose to use, and there are many, and for what ever reason you need them, it is always advisable to seek expert advice from a knowledgeable equestrian handler/trainer, an experienced tack store or your veterinarian.

In an ideal world, a horse's movements would be perfectly straight and it would never need boots for protection. However, our horses do need a helping hand to prevent against the effects of brushing, knocking, striking and over-reaching, which happen more often than we think.

Published: 01/07/2005