Jessica Jahiel's HORSE-SENSE Newsletter Archives

Support boots for wind puffs?

From: Mary

Dear Jessica; I have a 4 year old Peruvian Paso that has developed wind puffs around the fetlocks of all four legs. My vet suggested that I use support boots when I ride him but I noticed in one of your articles that you don't advise using boots for trail riding and that is all I do with him. Also I ran across an article on a Equine Reseach website that says there is new evidence that boots might actually do more harm then good. The site says that a study was conduted to ascertain whether shock waves were reduced through the use of support boots or wraps and they found that leg supports increased the frequency of the shock wave that contributes to vibrations in the horses leg. Application of leg supports may result in the stiffness of the leg. As the thickness of the leg support increases the frequency of vibrations will also increase. Anyway,now I am really confused about if I should use boots or not. If you would like to read the article you can find it at www.usyd.edu.au/su/rirdc/ Please let me know what you think and thank you so much for your help!! Mary

Hi Mary! Boots and bandages won't make any difference to your horse's wind puffs, except in a temporary, cosmetic way. I'm familiar with the study cited in the article - and with the other studies on the subject - and I think you can safely leave the boots and bandages at home. If you know that your horse's lower legs swell whenever he is confined to a stall at night and unable to exercise freely, and you're at a show or clinic where you don't have the option of leaving him in a field or paddock all night, you can wrap his legs in the evening to keep the fluid from pooling, then unwrap him in the morning when you're going to turn him out or ride him. If you aren't worried about the look of the wind puffs, don't bother with wrapping him - just try to arrange his schedule so that he's outdoors moving around as much as possible, 24/7 for preference. That is the single most helpful thing you can do for him. Since you're doing trail-riding, I can't see any advantage to putting boots on your horse - and I can see quite a few disavantages.

I suggest that you talk to your vet and find out why s/he suggested using support boots. The ligaments and tendons they're designed to support aren't involved here, or shouldn't be, but since it doesn't make sense to suggest support boot for wind puffs, the fact that your vet DID suggest them makes me wonder if there may be some other problem with your horse's legs. If the problem isn't merely wind puffs but something with real potential for damage, and your vet believes that support boots might provide a little (not much) support for your horse's suspensory ligaments, then boots might indeed be useful (see below for precautions when using boots on trails). For trail-riding purposes, though, I'd avoid boots and bandages, especially if wind puffs are all that's going on with your horse's legs. For one thing, your horse will be on the move when he's on the trail. It's inactivity, "standing around", that lets those windpuffs become enlarged - activity increases the circulation in the horse's body and reduces the size of the windpuffs.

If you decide to use boots, remember to keep your horse's lower legs and the inside of the boots absolutely clean and free from all debris. Wind puffs aren't painful and don't cause lameness - they're a cosmetic problem, not a functional one - but a pebble or a chip of bark or a lump of dirt, rubbing back and forth in the hot, damp environment between the boot and the horse's leg, CAN cause sores and lead to lameness.

Don't worry too much. Wind puffs are unlikely to be a problem in themselves, or to cause a problem. If you can keep your horse turned out, he'll keep himself on the move most of the day and night, and that will do more for his legs - and for reducing the size of the wind puffs - than any boot or wrap or liniment could.

Jessica

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