I was just wondering what everyone did for leg care of their big jumpers? Just routine, taking care of them after work or a show. Do you use ice boots, back on track products, lineaments, poultice, wraps, ect? I just want to see what others use and why it works best for your horse?
Sore No More poultice. I swear by it. Can’t use it for FEI competitions, though.
As far as what you can do depends on whether or not it’s an FEI horse or not, as supershorty alluded to.
We’ve got a few horses in the barn doing YJC stuff and 1.45m stuff - so big-ish, but nothing FEI yet. At home, if they jump any higher than 3’ or more than a handful of jumps, I wrap them in front with Back On Track wraps. If they had a hard school/trying jump exercise/jumped to height, I wrap them all the way around, again with Back On Tracks. Anytime they are wrapped, I use Sore No More liniment underneath, and I used it on their whole body if they had a hard flat school or jumped. At shows after showing or at home after jumping to height, we use IceVibe boots on their front legs - they have icepacks paired with gentle vibrating pulses. In addition, in the summer/down south during winter, they get a Vetrolin bath to cool off - but every horse in the barn gets that, not just the jumpers. Flame suit zipped - they also will receive Robaxin in their feed after a hard jump school. Finally, they also go out for a fifteen minute handwalk in the afternoon after a jumping session or hardcore flat session. Keeps muscles moving so they don’t tighten up and get sore. This is the general plan for the jumpers.
However, there are some tweeks for certain horses in the barn/certain situations. Obviously, if we are doing FEI we have to be mindful of what we use on them. If the ground/footing is hard/less than ideal, we will pack their feet with an arnica based hoof packing. There is an A/O jumper in the barn that is poulticed under his BOTs rather than linimented - it seems to work better for him.
I’m a big fan of Back on Track. I have the quick wrap boots for my big guy and also put him in a Back on Track sheet at night (and during the day if it’s cool out).
But really it depends on the horse. I have some horses who benefit hugely from poultices, Sore No More, BOT, icing, and other therapies, and then I have others (like my now-big-jumper) who show no perceivable difference with or without anything.
Oh, I also have a little microcurrent unit (similar to a TENS unit) that I use on my big guy - especially at the FEI shows where he’s often showing in more classes. That makes a bigger difference than anything else i have or use.
On a side note, showing in the FEI classes showed me that my guy does better without Bute than with. I used to give one gram of bute each night from about the 3rd day of classes on. Turns out that the trade-off of upsetting his stomach is not worth the (nonexistent) increase in comfort.
If we school or show with “jumper turns” (as opposed to schooling with more of a hunter/eq track) he gets ice boots on all 4 followed by the green jelly liniment, back on track wraps & Magic Cushion.
After a hard jump school or a show day I always cold hose his legs as soon as possible. Depending on weather I may give a full body liniment bath as well.
Once legs are dried off I will either poultice and leave his legs unwrapped (if turning out), or liniment and wrap (if in his stall). My horses legs are white and super sensitive, so if I poultice and then wrap he gets little sores on his legs.
I also have the BOT Royal Wraps and use those at shows, but without any liniments or poultice.
My question/concern on the BOT products is the heat that they produce. The idea with legs/tendons is to reduce the heat as quickly as possible after a ride to reduce the risk of injury. So if the BOT products increase blood flow and create heat, isn’t that bad? I do use the products and notice a difference in my horses when they have exposure for longer periods of time, but mainly use them in the colder weather. Anyone else have the same concerns? Or an answer for this?
I use back on track products and love them. Another need to pack hooves at home but I always bring it to a show. And, a great Grand Prix rider on e told me that when As green horse makes a spectacular effort, a liitle NSAID or robs in is appreciated. No different than you taking Advil after a harder than usual workout to prevent soreness later.
I am so skeptical of BOT but it seems so popular…do those of you who use their products see a noticeable difference? Blankets and leg wraps?
Ice boots, Sore No More liniment, standing wraps any time we do an excessive amount of work/at shows.
For reference, horse is a 13 y/o 1.20-1.30 jumper with 9 consecutive show seasons under her belt.
[QUOTE=winter;7690371]
I am so skeptical of BOT but it seems so popular…do those of you who use their products see a noticeable difference? Blankets and leg wraps?[/QUOTE]
I have a friend who is an equine vet, she knew very little about them and thought they probably didn’t work, until one of her clients started using them and she saw the results in that horse’s legs. Now she swears by BOT, uses them on her own jumpers, she also uses ice, poultice and Magic Cushion depending on the horse/situation.
We use a lot of different systems depending on the horse!
Many just get plain ice boots after schooling, some get the IceVibe Veredus boots, or the Gel Compressions ones from equifit, we also have a set of inflatable ones for the whole leg. These are put on the front legs of the horses.
Some horses before jumping will stand in the magnetic boot/blanket systems for 30 minutes. After jumping we put them on the magnetic mat for their feet. Some of them get point lasered before competing.
They all get their legs washed with various antibacterial soaps, then depending on if the horse does FEI or not, they either get alcohol/witch hazel, and the FEI ones get Tendonil and Traumeel.
Depending on if the horse eats wraps, or bangs its knees is how we decide on the type of leg wrapping. Most get back on tracks all around, if they bite them then they just get standard cotton wraps, and if they pull them off then they only get them in the back.
Their feet are packed after large jumping sessions too.
Back when I groomed for an A barn any horse that jumped over 3’ got a little extra attention.
At home after a jump school they were cold hosed followed by either alcohol or sore no more and thrown outside for the remainder of the day. When they came back in they were checked over. If everything looked good they were wrapped for the night for some extra support. If there was anything questionable we poulticed and wrapped overnight.
We had one 1.40 jumper with an old check ligament injury who got some extra attention with ice boots, leg sweats, bot wraps, etc. when appropriate.
At the shows since turnout wasn’t an option they were cold hosed, handwalked, poulticed and wrapped, handwalked again later in the day, and wraps came off first thing the next morning so the legs could be checked.
I basically do the same thing with my own horses. The only difference is that in the summer my horses are turned out at night during the summer, so they jump, get coldhosed then either alcohol, sore no more, or poulticed and wrapped for the day, then everything comes off for night turnout.
My young hunter wears pads in front due to thin soles, if/when we decide he doesn’t need pads anymore he’ll definitely get his feet packed after jumping or riding on hard ground.
Mine sleep in Back on Track wraps and sheets. They are iced daily after work with Ice-Vibes, all four legs and hocks, for 15 min. Twice a week they get magnetic therapy (soles, fetlocks, and back). Also, they get 45 min full body vibrating massages once a week. They are turned out in small paddocks for about an hour a day, hand walked daily for 30 min, and I bought the Equilibrium massage pad, which I use every other day and in between classes. I rub the tendons with arnica based products and give them IV Condroitin and Glucosamin once a week during show season. I have a magnetic blanket (the normal, no electricity required, type), which I use every other day under their sheets for about two hours and also between classes. Last but not least, my vet comes once a week for routine checks to make sure no hidden pains are creeping up on us, so we can catch them before it’s too late.
Bringing this back up out of curiosity… looking into poulticing and I am very interested. How hard of a workout does it have to be for you to put poultice on your horse? And how long do you leave it on for? And regarding the actual wrapping… does it matter if the poultice paper is wrinkled? All of the videos I watched it was quite wrinkly. Thanks 
I only use poultice when we show or when we school over a big track (1.40m +). I leave it on overnight under a standing wrap.
The poultice paper is wrinkled because it’s wet - you soak it before you put it on.
[QUOTE=supershorty628;7695165]
I only use poultice when we show or when we school over a big track (1.40m +). I leave it on overnight under a standing wrap.
The poultice paper is wrinkled because it’s wet - you soak it before you put it on.[/QUOTE]
I was hoping you would reply 
That sounds like the system that makes the most sense… I wouldn’t be able to leave it on overnight because then my horse would get turned out with bandages on in the morning (and I wouldn’t want to have to ask the workers to deal with unwrapping/rinsing), so I was hoping it was pretty much a show-only type of thing (plus we only jump about 3’ in lessons). I knew it was wet, but I was just making sure it was okay for it to be wrinkly. Thanks!
You could probably leave it overnight without a wrap, just don’t put the paper on it. If you do that, though, don’t put the horse in its stall until the poultice is dry!
Great! And what is the point of wrapping?
