A Ban on Bandages in Competition
Published earlier this year that the Dutch National Federation was putting a ban on bandages in competitions. Bandages will “no longer be permitted on the competition site” from 1 March in vaulting, and 1 April for dressage, jumping and driving. They are already outlawed in eventing. The Dutch equestrian federation (KNHS) said the move is based on science (Elder, 2024).
There are two areas of concern regarding the use of bandages on horses legs:
- Support
- Temperature
- Support
It was said by Morgan Lashley, specialist in sports medicine and equine rehabilitation at the University of Utrecht, “It has been investigated whether bandages can prevent overextension of the fetlock. The answer is no, even tape does not help against this”(Horsesport.com, 2024). This is also the opinion of Lars Roepstorff, DVM, PhD, professor of equine functional anatomy at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, who has said “In the superficial digital flexor tendon, the deep digital flexor tendon, and the suspensory ligament, you have a combined strain force of more than 1000 kg, when the horse is just cantering—and much greater when he’s jumping. Those are huge forces.
“You don’t support that by just putting something around it” (Lesté-Lasserre, 2023).
In a study investigating the influence of support boots on fetlock joint angle of the forelimb of the horse at walk and trot (KICKER et al., 2004) found at walk, two of the boots reduced the maximum extension of the fetlock by 0.8 and 0.9 degrees. In trot all four boots reduced maximum extension but 0.5-1.4 degrees. This means that the boots restricted the horse range of motion. It can be agreed if these support boots reduce ROM that polo wraps or bandages would not have this effect. The pressure under bandages also was found to reduce once horses began walking (Canada et al., 2018).
Temperature
When horses are at exercise, heat is generated in the tendon as it extends and contacts repeatedly. Cooling the tendons via blood flow doesn’t occur sufficiently due to the deficiency of blood vessels at the tendon core (YAMASAKI et al., 2001).
In a study investigating skin tendon temperatures under boots and bandages (Westermann et al., 2014) found that the skin temperature under a boot and bandage was significantly higher that that of a bare tendon during exercise. The maximum skin temperature recorded with no boot after exercise was 14.4°C, with a neoprene tendon boot was 20.7°C and with a 100% polypropene fleece bandage was 24.8°C.
This shows the fleece bandage had the highest recorded maximum temperature for the skin on the tendon.
Similar results were found in a study looking into changes in temperature of the equine skin surface under boots after exercise (Solheim et al., 2017). There were 16 horses used, all put through a standard exercise test, and lower limb temperature was taken before and after the exercise routine. There was a range of boots and bandages used, from standard neoprene tendon boots, leather tendon boots and fleece bandages.
From these results we can see that the fleece bandage had the highest average temperature increase of 16.5 degrees.
From the evidence shown, it can be concluded that fleece bandages on their own will not provide support for your horse and can significantly increase the tendon temperature. Since riders and grooms work very hard to reduce heat in the lower limb, this is an undesirable effect. It is encouraging to see the Dutch Federation putting the horses needs first by putting a ban on bandages.
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References
Elder, L. (2024) Dutch bandage ban at shows comes into force this spring - 1 Feb 2024 - horse & hound magazine, Readly. Available at: https://gb.readly.com/magazines/horse-and-hound/2024-02-01/65ba250a4affcc2e8666108c (Accessed: 01 April 2024).
Dutch federation bans leg bandages in competition (2024) Horse Sport. Available at: https://horsesport.com/horse-news/dutch-federation-bans-leg-bandages-competition/ (Accessed: 01 April 2024).
Lesté-Lasserre, P. by Christa (2023) The science behind Equine Boots and bandages, The Horse. Available at: https://thehorse.com/110289/the-science-behind-equine-boots-and-bandages/ (Accessed: 01 April 2024).