HORSE SENSE: Tips for choosing and fitting exercise boots 01 December 2017 Premium

USE PAPER CODESIGN IN

01 December 2017

Leanne O'Sullivan on 01 Dec 2017

HORSE SENSE: Tips for choosing and fitting exercise boots

Leanne O’Sullivan discusses the common types of exercise boots available for horses and when they should be used

Leanne O'Sullivan

1 December 2017

Boots are used to protect a horse’s legs and joints from injury

Tendon injury (Photo: Mark Johnston Racing)

Over-reach injury

BOOT BLUNDERS: A tweet from Olympic event rider and agent Vere Phillipps, which read: “Oh the joys of junior staff!! College trained too!!”

1. Close-front tendon boots

1. Open-fron tendon boots (Photo: Tomas Holcbecher)

2. Front brushing boots

2. Hind brushing boots

3. Rubber over-reach boots with velcro fastenings

3. Over-reach boots made of individual 'petals'

1. Fetlock boots

1. Fetlock boots (Photo: FEI/Arnd Bronkhorst)

2. A horse on the gallops at Ballydoyle wearing Yorkshire boots (Photo: healyracing.ie)

3. Rubber ring boot

4. A horse wearing speedicut boots on the hind legs

5. Front skid boots

5. Hind skid boots

6. Knee boots

A COUPLE of weeks ago I was scrolling through Twitter and came across a tweet from Olympic event rider and agent Vere Phillipps, which read: “Oh the joys of junior staff!! College trained too!!” The tweet was accompanied by an image which you can see below.