You need to wrap your horse’s legs to protect and cover an injured area; provide warmth to stiff/old tendons, ligaments, or fetlocks; control acute-injury swelling and movement; and to protect his legs while trailering hauling.
Improperly applied wraps can do a lot of damage. The blood supply to the tendons in the back of your horse’s leg is compromised if the wrap is too tight, is applied with uneven pressure, or if it slips down and bunches up.
How much tension to use when applying a wrap depends on the materials you use. A properly applied bandage will stay in place without slipping and will lie snug against your horse’s skin, but not snug enough to indent it. You should be able to slide a fingertip between the bandage and your horse’s leg.
The Lingo
? Cottons:The inside layer of stable bandages, and sometimes work bandages. Can be either disposable cotton sheets or reusable and washable wraps of cotton or synthetic materials.
? Quilts: Cottons with a quilt pattern.
? Pillow wraps: Extra-thick cotton wraps.
? Fleeces: Lamb’s wool wraps (use in place of cottons).
? Standing/stall/stable bandage: The outer layer of the bandage. May be cotton (no stretch), fleece or nylon. Velcro closure, although old-fashioned stall wraps were cotton and secured by large safety pins.
? Polo bandages:Fleece or nylon bandages, 2″ to 6″ wide, for use as outer layer of stall wrap or during exercise. Varying amounts of stretch.
? Stall or stable wrap:Bandages the horse wears when in the barn.
? Shipping wrap: Bandages worn during shipping. These should be long enough to cover the pastern, heel bulbs and coronary band.
? Standing wrap:Most people use this synonymously with stable wrap, while others mean a wrap that comes down to cover the pastern and coronary band, like a shipping wrap.
Stall Wrap
Start with a regular stall wrap (also called a stable wrap or standing wrap). This will have an inner layer of cotton or fleece and an outer bandage to hold that in place.
The inner cottons are available in pony/mini sizes, in 12 or 14-inch lengths. The 12-inch cottons are for front legs, where the cannon bone is normally shorter than behind. The outer bandage will need to be between 9 and 12 feet in length and 4 to 6 inches wide.
Here are three rules of thumb when bandaging:
? Always start the wrap over bone, not the tendons.
? Bring the wrap around the front of the cannon bone first.
? End the wrap along the cannon bone.
Stretchy materials are easier to work with than cotton-flannel bandages, but can also be pulled too tight. As a rule of thumb, never stretch to more than 1.5 times the resting length of the fabric, and never, ever stretch as tight as it can go. To get an idea of how much pull/force this requires, first unravel a 4- to 6-inch length of bandage, hold it in front of you and gradually stretch until it is 1.5 times the original length.
Before you begin, clean the leg where the bandage will lie. Brush the hair so that it is lying smoothly.
Start at the cannon bone. If you’re right-handed, start the wrap on the left leg on the outside of the cannon bone, wrapping clockwise. On the right leg, start the wrap on the inside of the cannon bone, again going clockwise, to come across the front of the cannon bone first. If you are left-handed, reverse this.
Apply the cotton so that it lies smoothly along the leg, with no wrinkles.
While holding the cotton in place lightly with one hand, begin the outer bandage by tucking it under the end of the cotton for a short distance, then wrapping in the same direction, first down to cover the fetlock joint, then back up again to end at the top of the leg. Each layer should overlap the one before by about half the width of the bandage.
One of the trickiest things to learn is where to start the outer bandage so that you finish wrapping at the top of the leg without too much bandage left over, or not enough left. This is going to depend on the length of your bandage (9 or 12 feet), the width (between 4 and 6 inches) and how much stretch it has, as well as how long the horse’s cannon bone is.
In most cases, you’re just going to have to experiment with your bandaging materials to find out what works best, but in general the outer bandage is started anywhere from halfway up the cannon bone to just above the fetlock joint, worked down to take in the fetlock, then brought back up again.
Shipping Wraps
When your horse is shipping, sudden stops and sharp turns can throw him off balance. In the scramble to regain his balance, it’s fairly common for the horse to step on himself, usually along the lower leg or coronary band. This can result in some serious injuries that you can avoid by using shipping wraps.
Shipping wraps must cover the pastern and coronary band. For horses with fairly short cannon bones, 14″ cottons and long polos will usually get the job done. For longer cannon bones, you may need to go with regular stall wraps and a pair of bell boots, or invest in
a good pair of one-piece shipping boots that cover the pastern and hoof well.
Wraps During Riding
Wraps are used during work to protect the lower legs from bumps, either from the horse’s own feet or jumps, and to provide some support to the fetlocks and tendons/ligaments.
Expert application is even more important than wraps for stall use because there is a much higher risk of the bandages sliding down due to the greater movement. This can put uneven pressure on the tendons and cause injury. Wraps that come loose and unravel are an even greater danger, for obvious reasons of the horse getting tangled up in them and spooking or even falling.
Bandages for use during work are generally much lighter and thinner than stall wraps. Instead of thick cottons, thin disposable cotton sheets, such as the BB Satin Star leg wraps, are usually used. A sheet of this is cut to size and covered with either a self-adhesive wrap, like V??????? Vetrap, or a stretchy polo wrap. When more protection and support are needed, rubber sheets may be used as the inside wrap, with rubber or elastic bandages on the exterior.
If your horse could benefit from the protection or support of a wrap when working, but you don’t really feel comfortable with the idea of using one, consider a sports boot instead.
Wrapping Wounds and Injured Legs
Whether it’s a pulled tendon, a wrenched ankle or a nasty wound, wrapping can improve a horse’s comfort by controlling swelling and, in the case of wounds, keep the injuries clean.
Wrapping over a wound, whether sutured or open, can be tricky. You don’t want the cotton in direct contact with the wound because of lint. It’s less of a problem with the disposable sheet cottons, but these can end up sticking to wound drainage.
Your best bet is to cover the wound with regular gauze sponges that have been lathered with plain petroleum jelly, Skin Rejuvenator (Veterinus DermaGel) or an antibiotic cream. Do not use Telfa because it won’t adhere well. Smooth this out so that the edges are all well stuck to the skin before you begin wrapping.
When wrapping injured legs, be careful with pressure. Too much pressure is painful and, when combined with the swelling from the injury, can cause additional damage. Wrap just tightly enough to ensure that the bandage does not slip down, and check it every few hours to make sure there is no swelling appearing above or below the bandage.
Eleanor M. Kellon, VMD, currently works as a writer, teacher, and internal medicine/nutrition consultant. Prior to this, Dr. Kellon has had more than 10 years experience in private practice. She also has extensive experience with performance horses. She’s based in Pennsylvania, where she and her husband raise, train, and race Standardbreds. Her most recent book is Horse Journal Guide to Equine Supplements and Nutraceuticals (Globe Pequot Press).
