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[RC] Was Saddles, Now Boots and Tendon Tears - Stephanie E CaldwellWhy the boots? They aren't really good for anything unless they horse interferes and is in danger of hurting itself banging on its own legs. If that's the case, it really shouldn't be doing distance sports. My mare wore boots because she had a major tendon tear (95% high cannon in suspsensory, and 20% mid cannon in suspensory, deep digital, and superficial digital, all in her left fore). And the vet recommended her to be rehabed in boots and me to *never* ride her without support. So, she wears boots, some. Studies have shown that the boots don't really support tendons and ligaments, besides which, if they did, why would you want that? You want the horse to develop strong tendons and ligaments. That's the purpose of lots of LSD work. Strengthen, strengthen, strengthen...
The Ortho Equine boots have two levels of support. The
"support Strap" that goes down around the fetlock is
removable. So, if I'm going out and feel like my mare
needs the support, then she wears to boot complete. If
I'm going out to play and I feel like she needs a
little bit of support, then I remove the bottom strap.
When Star was first ultrasounded and diagnosed with
her tendon tears she continued to injure them by being
a complete idiot. My vet felt like she would not
return sound and remain sound. I iced, wraped,
massaged, and supplemented her for six months. Kept
her in a stall, the only time she was out was when I
was attached to her lead rope. Her leg healed so good
that when a new vet came out while my regular one was
on vacation last month he couldn't feel any scarring
in the tendon.
When Star tore her tendon she had on a pair of SMB II
boots because she'd been having problems with that leg
and it was *very* muddy. I do not believe that any
boot will prevent the level of damage I did to her leg
in fifteen miles of deep mud on a horse with long
toe/low heel that was already having problems. But,
boots are a great thing if you're going out, riding
fast, and not much over an hour, they still give
support at that level.
Thanks to all of y'all on RC that gave me
encouragement through the first month or so when it
didn't look like Star would be sound. She spent the
first three weeks after her injury lying around in her
stall, if it hadn't been for the encouragement from
those here I don't know that I would have tried as
hard to rehab her.
I think the things that helped her the most were
massive doses of herbal anti inflammatories and repair
herbs and whirlpool boots with homeopathy drops in
them. Unconvential as all get out, but she healed
better than I could have ever expected. She's started
beign lunged over small crossrails and staying sound
on that leg...
Thanks all!
Steph
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