If you’ve experienced your horse being injured because of the work you’ve asked it to do, you’ll know it’s not something you want to repeat. The majority of horse owners put the welfare of their horses first and don’t want to see them in pain and unable to live a normal life. No horse is happy on box rest and some hate not being ridden, sitting in the field when the rest of the yard loads up and heads to ‘parties’. Plus, if you’ve spent months working towards a goal, with early mornings, expensive lessons and sacrificing a normal life to ride whenever you can, it’s disappointing when things don’t go to plan. That’s why we’re sharing five key steps you can take to help prevent injury, so that you have the best chance of keeping your horse happy and healthy.
- Always warm up properly – longer in winter
A proper warm up is crucial to preventing injuries in the equine athlete. The gentle movement in the early stages of a warmup increases blood flow to the muscles and vital organs, preparing them for work. It will also stretch the horse’s muscles, tendons and ligaments, and remind them to engage their core and carry their rider correctly, all of which will help them avoid injury. As the pulse and respiration rate rises and the horse is warmer, you can ramp up the intensity of the warmup until you’re ready for training to begin. Remember that your horse’s core temperature will usually be lower in the winter when they’ve been standing still in a cold stable or out in a wintery breeze, so plan for a longer warm up than usual. Use a quarter sheet on clipped horses until they are warmed up, as you can always fold it back over the saddle and sit on it when they are working hard.
- Crosstrain with your horse
It doesn’t matter if you compete in just one discipline – dressage, show jumping, eventing, point-to-points or showing, it’s crucial that you cross-train your horse. Cross training means doing other types of work with them that aren’t directly related to their discipline, for example taking a dressage horse hacking, on the gallops or popping a few fences on the cross-country course. Or taking a show jumper and long reining them, cantering along a bridleway and doing some flatwork will help prevent injuries. That’s because there are two major benefits of cross-training. Firstly, it helps boost cardiovascular fitness in virtually every horse, and that means they are fit enough to cope with the stresses of competition. Secondly, by trying different types of training you’ll work different parts of the horse’s body, hopefully reducing repetitive stress on their joints and soft tissues. Our water treadmill is a really popular cross training tool for our customers as it offers low-impact, straight line exercise that still give their horse an excellent cardiovascular workout!
- Vary the surfaces you train over too
We love the fact that our gallop provides perfect footing 365 days a year, and our customers find it invaluable when the ground is muddy or rock hard. However, there’s evidence that working your horse on a range of different surfaces is beneficial for them. As the horse walks over different surfaces, their muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments will respond and develop in different ways. By mixing in a range of surfaces, you’re preparing your horse’s legs and feet for anything. Plus, if you only ever work your horse in a perfectly harrowed school and then turn them out in a perfectly rolled and topped field, they may be lacking in proprioception ability. Put simply, proprioception is the body’s ability to sense movement, action and location. Different surfaces test and boost that ability, and again that ensures your horse stays safer when you’re training and competing. So, while we all love a spin on the gallops, make sure you add in schooling on grass, some gentle roadwork and careful hacks over uneven ground too.
- Keep the horse’s legs cool whenever possible
The trend for thick, fluffy polo bandages that match your numnah and ears, or sheepskin-lined tendon boots that look oh so luxurious and soft? They could both be making your horse’s legs into a ticking time bomb. That’s because the cells soft tissue in horse’s legs aren’t designed to get hot. If they get hot, the cells in them can start to weaken and eventually die off, and that could lead to injuries like tendon strains, lesions and even rupture. A study by the University of Veterinary Medicine, in Vienna, Austria, found that the core temperature of tendons got within three degrees of the ‘danger zone’ for cell degradation in horses being worked hard without boots on. With bandages or fluffy boots to trap the heat in, the consequences could be unthinkable.
Boots designed to protect tendons from strike injuries are necessary for jumping and galloping, but they should be as lightweight and breathable as possible and removed straight after work. Stable bandages, when used to prevent swelling in horses on box rest for example, have their uses too, but be wary of thick bandages in warm weather and ideally never when you’re riding… even if the matchy-matchy sets look nice in pictures.
- Cool down properly – especially in summer
A proper cooldown is the final element in our five top tips for presenting horse injuries. Cooling off is important for any athlete, but horses need extra attention as they have a smaller skin surface area compared to their mass – i.e., they can create lots of heat, but not be able to get rid of it as easily as a human can after exercise. Make sure you walk your horse (ideally in the shade in the summer) until it’s stopped blowing, and in warm weather combine this with a wash with cool water to bring their body temperature down. When it’s hot, leave the water to evaporate on its own, as this helps remove heat from the horse’s body. If they continue to sweat, they’re still too hot so keep applying water.
When the weather is chilly (or downright freezing) you still need to cool your horse down but be careful that they don’t catch a chill. That means walking them until they stop blowing and sweating but popping a sweat rug on to keep the chill off their back. Use warm water and a sweat scraper to remove sweat and dirt, and then pop a warmer rug on that allows water to escape while they dry.
We all know that accidents can happen, and that some horses are masters at finding something to catch themselves on or always being the one to be kicked in the field. But by implementing the ideas above you’ll help minimize the risk of injury. That means you can hopefully avoid a sore and unhappy horse and stay on target to achieve your competitive goals together!