Jess Milford Riding Instructor

This looks like it will be an interesting watch for anyone involved with horses

‘Pain-free horses don’t react like that’: film aims to help riders hear what their horses are saying - Horse & Hound The creators of a new documentary on the ridden horse pain ethogram (RHpE) hope it will improve horse welfare and performance, as well as horse sport’s future. The RHpE comprises 24 behaviours including tail-swishing and an open mouth, the presence of eight or more of which may indicate that the h...

Boots and bandages - are we harming our horses as we try to protect them?

Bandaging and booting our horses is becoming more and more popular, especially with the popularity of matchy matchy sets. But are we doing more harm than good? Most people will have come across the articles in magazines and comments from vets saying they are, and yet still they become more and more popular. Why is that? Why do riders still cover their horses in thick fleece bandages or fluffy boots despite the dangers? Tradition I suppose. Wanting to fit in. Or just habit, some will feel like they haven’t finished tacking up if they haven’t put the boots on.

I know this isn’t about dentistry (for which I apologise) but I am a vet first and foremost, and as a dressage rider I am asked why I don’t use bandages all the time. I’ve written about this several times now and no one pays attention, so rather than stating facts and quoting research, I’d like to take you through my journey of discovery, please bear with me. Facts and papers are at the end.

Rewind 12 years and I was in my final year at vet school. Prior to and during vet school I had a horse and we did dressage. I had planned to ODE but this horse pulled every tendon and ligament known to vet kind. He spent more time out of work than in. Each time I would up my game with the latest boots/bandages on the market. From fluffy boots to wraps to sports fetlock boots, fleece bandages to gamgee and cotton to the half fleece/half elastic bandages. I learnt new techniques for better support, figure of 8 bandaging to cradle the fetlock etc etc. I’d been there and done it. My collection was extensive.

Right at the end of vet school I had my rotations. I chose Equine lameness as one of my options. During in this I very vividly remember a wet lab with Dr Renate Weller where she had a skinned horses leg (showing all of the tendons and ligaments) in a machine that mimicked the pressures a horse applies to their limbs. She took us through walk, trot, canter and gallop, loading this leg so we could see the inside workings of the horses leg without the skin. It was fascinating I can tell you, and I very clearly remember thinking about my horse and wondering how on earth we are suppose to support this limb when it undergoes these incredible forces! Half a ton of animal pushing down a tiny spindle of a leg held by tendons barely thicker than my thumb. Craziness!

Fast forward just a few short months and I was a fully qualified vet in the big wide world. I attended my first BEVA Congress and during the break I wandered around the stalls looking at the latest inventions and technologies companies bring to these gatherings. Here I came across a company with the Equestride Boot which caught my eye. Now if you haven’t seen this boot, it’s wonderful and I’ve since used it a few times in rehabbing very severe tendon and ligament injuries with great success. The boot is a carbon fibre boot that stops the fetlock dropping, which stops the tendons and ligaments being fully loaded while they heal. This boot is super strong. You couldn’t ride a horse in it as it is limiting the range of motion so much, but they can move about easily enough at the lower settings to rehab etc. The guy on the stand (I’m afraid I can’t remember his name) showed me their research and in the straight talking Irish way explained the stupidity of expecting a thin piece of material to support a horse. And of course it can’t! Literally no bandage or boot (short of this very expensive carbon fibre rehab boot) is capable of reducing the amount the fetlock drops. Thinking back to Dr Weller’s demonstration, I could very clearly see how ridiculous I had been to ever believe a scrap of material could do anything to reduce or support that pressure.

But the boots/bandages don’t actually cause any harm do they? Surely it’s ok to use them on the off chance they might help and if we look good in the meantime, great! Well, not long after this, research started appearing that got me very worried about my bandage collection. Heat. Anyone that uses bandages and boots will not be surprised to see sweat marks under their bandages/boots after they’ve been removed. They trap a lot of heat. The horses body and legs generate a lot of heat when working. The tendons/ligaments in the leg, along with an increased blood flow generate ALOT of heat. Fleece bandages/boots in particular, hold this heat in the horses leg. Very few boots and virtually no bandages (especially if you use a pad under) allow the legs to breath adequately. This heat is easily enough to kill tendon/ligament cells. Each tendon/ligament is made of thousands and thousands of cells all lined up end on end and side by side in long thin spindles. They stretch and return to their original shape and size like an elastic band, absorbing and redistributing the pressures applied from further up the leg and from the ground impact below. All of these cells must work together as one to do this effectively.

Just a little side step here to explain how tendons/ligaments heal. A tendon/ligament cell can not be replaced like for like. They always heal with scar tissue. This is why reinjury is so much more likely if a tendon/ligament is blown. The fibrous scar tissue doesn’t stretch, it isn’t capable of stretching or absorbing the impact of a horses movement. It will always be a weak spot. In a full blown sprain/strain the whole (or most) of the tendon has been damaged. But this heat injury might just kill a few cells at a time. Those few cells are replaced by fibrous scar tissue, then next time a few more etc etc. Like a rubber band degrading over time the tendon/ligament loses its elasticity and eventually goes snap. Then you’ve fully blown a tendon/ligament. The injury didn’t start to happen at that moment, but that was the final straw. The damage adds up over time, each time thermal necrosis (vet word for cell death) occurs.

So if using boots/bandages can not offer any sort of support, and using them generates heat that slowly damages the tendons/ligaments until they give way. Why use them? Protection. This is the only reason to use boots. To stop the horse brushing, injuring themselves catching a pole or over cross country. But for goodness sake make sure your boots are breathable! If the horse is sweaty under the boot but not above or below, the boot is not breathable enough. And don’t use fleece bandages just because you like the colour. These fleece bandages are the worst at holding heat in the leg, way above the threshold for thermal necrosis to the cells of the tendons and ligaments. If your horse doesn’t need protection, don’t use boots. I haven’t for the last 12 years and *touch wood* I haven’t had a single tendon/ligament injury in any of my horses. I will never go back to boots or especially bandages now. I don’t use them for schooling, lunging, jumping, travelling, turnout, stable, in fact I don’t use them at all. Ever. But I don’t hunt or XC.

I hope you have found my story useful and can make informed decisions on boots and bandaging going forward.

For more information on the Equestride boot and their research into support offered by boots and bandages, visit http://www.equestride.com/ and https://www.equinetendon.com/services/equestride/

The horses leg under the compression machine at the Irish Equine rehabilitation and fitness centre https://fb.watch/cmVMt6-iOJ/ (I highly recommend you watch this incredible video. It clearly shows the amount of force the leg goes through and demonstrates the real purpose of boots)

Other relevant papers-
https://equimanagement.com/.amp/articles/horse-skin-temperature-under-boots-after-exercise
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8f15/0ea480edca142260d01f419f80d2e7e7fb29.pdf
http://www.asbweb.org/conferences/1990s/1998/59/index.html

Edit 1 - I am getting asked about stable wraps very frequently. This post is about riding, the tendons and blood flow create heat which is trapped by bandages/boots during exercise. This doesn’t occur in the stable stood still. If the horse has a strain/sprain resulting in inflammation, then there is an increase in blood flow and there is heat being created. In this situation you should not be bandaging. But if it’s cold and an old horse needs stable wraps to keep the joints warm and improve sluggish blood flow (filled legs) you can use the heat trapping to your advantage. But you need to be careful in summer.

Edit 2 - the other thing I’m being asked about is compression. Compression DOES NOT control inflammation. The inflammation still occurs, but the swelling can not escape the bandages and the increase in internal pressure reduces blood flow, causing ischemic damage. Like laminitis within the hoof. The hoof capsule prevents swelling so the inflammation expands inwards and cuts off the blood supply. This is why laminitis is so painful and difficult to treat. Compression is only useful in the case of leaky vessels, for example reduced blood pressure, reduced movement so the blood isn’t being pumped backup the legs, or osmotic imbalances eg low protein with diarrhoea. In these situations, compression of the legs can encourage blood to return to the vessels and continue circulating.

Interesting to think about why our horses spook

Are they just being naughty or is there another explanation?

Recently I listened to a webinar with Wendy Murdouch and Steven Peters PhD, who provided neurobiological explanations for how our horses think, and therefore why they act and react as they do. (link in the comments)

Below is an extract from the webinar which explains why a horse's response can vary so variably to the same scenario...

“It is a nice day in the summer, and you have planned to meet up with friends to go for a hack with your horse.

You go out to the field to catch your horse, and as usual he wanders over to you. You lead him out of the field towards the gateway which is fairly narrow. Your horse pauses, a little unsure, but you give him a moment to relax and feel comfortable again, before heading through.

Once on the yard, you groom and prepare your horse to load. He seems a little restless at the sight of the trailer, but as you again you take your time and reassure him, giving him the chance to settle. He briefly pauses at the bottom of the ramp, but you give him a loose rope, so he drops his head before walking in the trailer; loading easily as per usual.

You arrive at your friends yard, unload and tack up. You take your time while chatting with your friends; again he has the chance to settle. You saddle up and get on.

Shortly down the bridle path there is a fallen tree across a gateway, but your horse pays no attention to it and continues walking past at a nice pace, in step with the company.

All in all, you have a pleasant day with your friends and enjoy the hack. You make plans to go again next week.

The following week comes, and you arrive again at the yard to get your horse ready to go. However, this week you are running late and having just received some bad news, you are not in the best mood.

You head out to the field, but today your horse does not come across to you as he usually does. Delaying you even further. So, once you've caught him, you march him back to the yard to get ready, towing him through the narrow gateway. You don't have time for messing around today.

You tie him up to groom and get ready, but he is fidgeting and spinning all over the place. When you head to the trailer to load, he plants himself at the bottom of the ramp and refuses to move. You give a tug on his headcollar, and end up swinging the rope towards his hindquarters, which startles him and he jumps up the ramp and into the box.

When you arrive your friends have already tacked up, so you apologise and drag your horse off the trailer before throwing the tack on and jumping on yourself.

Your horse seems very fresh this week. As you make a start down the bridleway, you again reach the fallen tree. But today, your horse shys and throws his head up; nostrils flared and wide eyed. He is not going past it, and begins to spin and shy all across the path.

You think "Stupid horse, he has passed this tree many times before, what is wrong with him today?".

And that's just it. Today is different. Today he is acting under different chemicals. A different mindset.”

To understand why the outcome of the two events was so different, we must first consider how the horse's brain works..

From an evolutionary perspective, a key requirement for learning is for the individual to feel safe. The horse especially, constantly asks this question, because as they are a prey animal by nature and everything is a predatory threat to them unless proven otherwise. "Am I safe?", is a question which we must constantly answer for them.

So lets review the first day; the horse hesitates before going through the narrow gate, is he safe going through? By pausing and giving him time, you answered his question, which allowed him the chance to reset and relax so he walked through. Similarly, at the trailer he was given time to settle and reset while you groomed, again at the bottom of the ramp, and when he arrived at your friend's yard.

A horse doesn't want to be stressed, and under the influence of the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response). It is an unpleasant sensation. So given the opportunity, those moments of pausing and taking a break, they will reset themselves and drop back towards the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest).

Consequently, in the first occasion, as a result of your constant reassurance and chance to reset and settle, he remained in a relaxed state of being and a happy mindset when setting out on the hack.

But on the second occasion, because you are in a rush and in a bad mood, everytime the horse asks "Am I safe?", the question is ignored. At the narrow gate, during grooming, loading and tacking up. And so instead of resetting and dropping back into the parasympathetic nervous system, he became hyperaroused and remained in the sympathetic nervous system.

Chemically what is happening in the brain, is that the area in the horse's brain called the locus pherulious, is pumping neurophrenieprine (adrenaline) into the brain. Without the chance to reset, the level of adrenaline is getting higher and higher, leading to a greater stress response.

So by the time you get to that tree that has fallen down, your horse reacts and shys. You think "Stupid horse, he has been past that tree so many times".

But he hasn't been past that tree full of neuroprehnephrie. He is acting under the influence of completely different chemicals. And as such, his response is completely different, but proportional to his mental state.

To compare this to the equivalent in humans, Steven Peters PhD used the example of going to the cinema..

If we go with a friend to watch a light hearted comedy, we leave feeling super relaxed having had a good time. However, if we go to watch a scary movie by ourself, which finishes late at night, we will leave with a very different feeling..

Now if on our way home we take a shortcut down an alley, we are likely to be more alert and on edge than usual. And if there is suddenly a loud noise, such as a dustbin falling over, we are likely to jump out of our skin in fright.

We do not think "Stupid human, we have been down this alley countless times! We know it is just a dustbin falling over." No, our brain is chemically in a very different place. And as such, our reactions are proportionally different.

So perhaps next time your horse is acting out, whether he is being naughty or spooky when you are working him, or reactive to things that have never bothered him in the past. Take the time to think about where he is mentally. Have you been answering his question; "Am I safe?".

Credit to Steven Peters PhD for this fantastic explanation and analogies.

It is also worth noting, that pain plays a hugely significant role in behaviour, and also affects the sympathovagal balance in our horses nervous system. This is a huge multifactorial topic on its own... But it is always worth considering is my horse being naughty because of pain?

What is the longest a horse can safely go without food?

More and more I see horses and ponies stood for long periods of time with no hay or haylage. Usually under the guise of a “weight control diet”. So how long can a horse be without food before damage is done? And what damage is done?

For those with a short attention span, I’ll give you the answer to begin with - 4 hours, maximum.

Why?

Horses are grazers. They are designed to eat constantly. They have no way of storing their acids and digestive enzymes, they’ve never needed to. They have no gall bladder to store bile and their stomachs release acid constantly, whether or not there is food in the stomach and intestines.

A horses stomach only holds approximately 8-15 litres. Depending on the substance eaten, it takes on average 4-6 hours for the stomach to completely empty. After this, the acids and enzymes start to digest the inside of the horses stomach and then the intestines. This causes both gastric and intestinal ulceration. It has been estimated that 25-50% of foals and 60-90% of adult horses suffer from ulceration. But I won’t go into detail about this, there is a lot of information around about ulcers.

So is that it? Are ulcers the only concern?

No, having an empty stomach is a stress situation for a horse. The longer they are starved, the more they release stress hormones, cortisol predominantly. Cortisol blocks insulin and causes a constantly high blood glucose level. This stimulates the body to release even more insulin, and in turn this causes fat tissue to be deposited and leptin resistance. Over time this causes insulin resistance (Equine Metabolic Syndrome). All of these mechanisms are well known risk factors for laminitis and are caused by short term starvation (starting roughly 3-4 hours after the stomach empties). Starving a laminitic is literally the worst thing you can do. Over longer periods, this also starts to affect muscle and can cause weakness, and a lack of stamina so performance horses also need a constant supply of hay/haylage to function optimally.

Let’s not forget horses are living, breathing and feeling animals. We talk about this stress reaction like it’s just internal but the horse is well aware of this stress. Door kicking, box walking, barging and many other stable vices and poor behaviour can be explained by a very stressed horse due to food deprivation (we all have that Hangry friend to explain this reaction). Next time you shout or hit a horse that dives for their net, remember their body is genuinely telling them they are going to starve to death. They know no different.

But surely they spend the night asleep so they wouldn’t eat anyway?

Not true. Horses only need 20mins REM sleep every 24 hours (jealous? I am!). They may spend a further hour or so dozing but up to 22-23 hours a day are spent eating. So if you leave your horse a net at 5pm and it’s gone by 8pm, then by 12am their stomach is empty. By 4am they are entering starvation mode. By their next feed at 8am, they are extremely stressed, physically and mentally.

Now I know the cob owners are reading this mortified. I can almost hear you shouting at your screen “if I feed my horse ad lib hay he won’t fit out the stable door in a week!!”

I will say that a horse with a constant supply of hay/haylage will eat far less then the same horse that is intermittently starved. They don’t eat in a frenzy, reducing the chance of colic from both ulcers and over eating. Cobs included.

However I’m not suggesting you sit your cob in front of a bale of haylage and say have at it! There is a difference between ad lib and a constant supply. There is much we can do to reduce calorie intake and control weight whilst feeding a constant supply.

The easiest is small holes nets. There are many. Trickle nets, greedy feeders, nibbleze, trawler nets etc. My personal favourite is the Shires Soft Mesh 1”. They don’t cost the Earth, they are easy to fill and they don’t have knots so are much gentler to the teeth. Now often I suggest these types of nets to owners and the owner tells me “Oh no, *** won’t eat out of those” 🙄 this is nonsense. If he was left it, he would. Remember, you can give a normal net and one of these for them to nibble at after. Better than leaving them with nothing at all.

A few other tricks, hang the net from the ceiling/rafters, it’s harder to eat out of a net that swings. Soak the hay, a minimum of 4 hours to be effective. Mix with straw but be sure to introduce the straw slowly and make sure it’s top quality and a palatable type eg Barley or Oat, otherwise they won’t eat it.

Don’t forget exercise. The best way to get weight off a horse is exercise. Enough exercise and they can eat what they want!

And lay off the bucket feed and treats! Horses on a diet require a vit/min supplement in the form of a balancer but that’s it. The odd slice of carrot or swede won’t do any harm but no licks, treats, treacle, molasses, cereal based rubbish. Even if it says low sugar or the marvellously misleading “No added sugar”! Your horse would rather have a constant supply of hay, I promise.

Written by Vikki Fowler BVetMed BAEDT MRCVS

A few edits for the critics-

Firstly, feeding a constant supply does not mean ad lib feeding. It means use some ingenuity and spread the recommended amount of daily forage so the horse is never stood with out food for more than 4 hours. I am not promoting obesity, quite the opposite, feeding like this reduces obesity and IR. This can be done whilst feeding your horse twice a day as most horse owners do. Just think outside the box for your own situation.

Secondly I am in the UK and this post is UK specific, use some common sense when reading. Yes in warmer climates, soaking hay for 4 hours is dangerous and studies show 1 hour is plenty in hot weather but in the UK’s arctic climate, a minimum of 4 hours is required. Equally the UK feed exclusively grass hay. I can not comment on other types.

Thirdly, yes every horse/pony and situation is different, but this is a law of nature and all horses have this anatomy and metabolism. How you achieve this constant supply is individual, the need for it is not.

Fourthly, the use of hay nets in the UK is very very high. I’d estimate 95% of horses I see are fed this way and very very few have incisor wear or neck/back issues as a result. Yes, feeding from the ground is ideal, but a constant supply, I feel trumps this. Again with ingenuity both can be safely achieved.

Finally, straw can be fed to horses safely, introduced very slowly, with fresh water always available, plus a palatable and digestible type of straw which will depend on your area. Again many horses in the UK are bedded on straw and most of them eat it. This is not a new concept to us.

Final finally 🤦‍♀️ and I feel I must add this due to the sheer number of people contacting me to ask, feed your horses during transport!!! I am astonished this is not normal in other countries! Again in the UK, we give our horses hay nets to transport. We don’t go 10 mins up the road without a haynet and a spare in case they finish! Considering we are a tiny island and we rarely transport even 4 hours, we never transport without hay available. I have never seen an episode of choke due to travelling with hay available. If you are concerned, use a slow feeder net so they can’t take too much in at once.

If you get to the end of this post and your first thought is “I can’t do this with my horse/pony, they’d be morbidly obese”, you haven’t read the advice in this post thoroughly.

I've just started this free course and finding it really interesting. Great for something different to do out of the saddle during lockdown, and looking forward to seeing how it impacts my riding.

What can you do when you can't ride? Or even if you can ride, but you want to do things OFF of the horse to improve your balance, coordination, stability, and awareness IN the saddle.

Together with Feldenkrais Practitioner, Catherine McCrum, we have put together a set of off-the-horse lessons that you can use to improve your coordination, balance, suppleness, and feel.

By now you may have heard EVERYONE talking about Feldenkrais, and likely you are curious what all the hub-bub is about.

So we have put together a FREE 7-day challenge so that you can experience Feldenkrais first-hand. In this challenge, you will do one Feldenkrais lesson per day. These lessons are pre-recorded so regardless of timezone or location in the world, you can do it on YOUR schedule and terms. Then, once you have completed the lesson, meet us in the Facebook group for a discussion about the lesson:

- What did you observe?
- What changes did you notice as a result of the lesson?
- Did you notice you have better balance afterwards?
- Are you more symmetrical?
- Can you FEEL your body better after the lesson?

If you are one of the lucky ones who is able to ride your horse right now, you can go ride after the lesson, and observe how these changes transfer over to your awareness in your riding. If you are not able to ride, don’t worry - the changes are cumulative and when you ARE able to return to riding, you will find interesting changes occurred while you were on this Quarantine “time-out”.

This challenge starts TODAY, May 1st. The first lesson will be sent out and posted in the Facebook Group later today. Get yourself signed up and join us! It is totally FREE. Oh and bring your friends!

Sign up here - https://courses.artisticdressage.com/HCFHR-challenge-signup

The Rider Weight Debate: What can the latest research tell us? - Good Horse Rider size often comes up in discussion and debate but there isn’t much conclusive research on the topic. A recent pilot study may promise future insights.

Nice picture showing the difference between true bend with the horse working from inside leg to outside rein (right) vs being pulled round with the inside rein (left)