Horses are a great pleasure, but also a big responsibility. About seven million people partake in horseback riding each year as leisure activities or as part of a hobby. Keeping your horse in proper shape to be ridden is important and knowing how to fix an injury is just as important. The first sign of an injury with a horse is usually the horses posture. Considering horses can weigh around 2,200 pounds, it makes sense that they accommodate for an injury by placing more weight in other parts of their body. Horse wraps are an easy way to help an injured horse, so long as they are applied right. Read below for tips on properly applying horse wraps on an injury to your horse.
Measuring
Proper measurements are important when choosing horse wraps, and assuming a certain size is never a wise choice. Even if you are pretty sure about measurements, such as believing that the back legs will measure longer than the front legs, still check and measure to ensure that you are assuming correctly. If the measurements are odd, or in between it is best practice to go up instead of down in size. This is true for any measurements for your horse, no matter what you are getting. Horse neck covers, horse polo wraps, horse knee boots, horse leg braces, and horse wraps should all be measured and move up when measurements are in between.
Calm
When you start using horse wraps on your horse, it’s extremely important to keep you horse calm. You yourself should also stay calm, as this will aid in keeping your horse calm. Sometimes horses have a hard time calming down no matter what, and talking with your equine specialist can help you determine alternate ways to calm your horse. If you choose to attempt to use something to calm your horse down be sure to follow all recommendations and get advice from professionals. Certain medications should not be used in certain animals with some conditions, and some are not safe to use for this situation and should only be used for other more urgent situations.
Practice
When working with horse wraps there is a certain amount of tension that you should have and this tension is more important than you may think it is. If you have tension too loose then you risk the horse wraps slipping and not providing any benefits at all. If you have the tension too tight on your horse wraps then you risk damage to the tendons on the horse. Consider practicing to get the amount of tension just right so that it doesn’t slip, but not tight enough to cause tendon damage.
Smooth
It is important to ensure that the bandages are smooth and clean after you apply them. There should be no wrinkles or bunches where the horse wraps were applied. This can ultimately lead to pressure points which can hurt the horse and cause more damage than you started with. Use a spiral pattern and ensure that each new layer overlaps the previous layer when wrapping. This helps to ensure that there is even pressure all around the horse’s leg and no one part of the leg experiences more pressure than another part.
Cleaning
Bandages and horse wraps should be checked regularly. They should be changed when they show signs of dirt or wear and tear. If the bandage gets wet you should change it. Bandages generally should be worn no more than 12 hours before they are changed and new bandages applied. Remember to only apply bandages to clean areas on the horse, and thoroughly clean all areas before applying new bandages.
When your horse is injured you are more likely to take it easy on them and give them extra attention and care. This is beneficial, but there are ways you can help them feel better quicker and horse wraps are one of those ways. With proper use, these can have your horse feeling more like himself and back to galloping in no time.
