Do you use liniment and standing wraps after you jump? Do you use them each time or only after a show? Only after a harder jumping ride?
After a harder jump school or show.
Be careful using liniment and bandaging, many liniments will burn if bandaged over.
But to answer your question, I use when showing, poultice and bandage, if at home after a hard school, I use liniment or poultice and turn out, no bandages.
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I used liniment under wraps once and managed to burn my poor horse. Not pretty. Poor horse.
Like DoubleDown I used poultice and wraps at shows. At home I used either poultice and wraps or liniment with no wraps after an extra hard lesson.
I use leovet cold pack plus
https://www.argentoeq.com/collections/therapy-first-aid/products/leovet-cold-pack-plus
I’ll use it on his legs and back after jumping with BOT quick wraps when he comes in for the night. I trailer in for lessons so right after I ride I use cellsius gel and put his shipping boots back on. My last horse had a career ending ligament tear so now I’m pretty anal about legs…
https://www.argentoeq.com/collections/therapy-first-aid/products/leovet-cellsius-gel
You do not need to worry about burning your horse with the cold pack plus and has so many great things in it like arnica and aloe (also feels amazing on your own sore body!). For shows I generally go with poultice and regular standing wraps but I’ll still use the cold pack plus on his back
Next to never.
Some older horses.
Some horses jumping over 130.
Sometimes is “necessary” ie that time one of our horses ended up with open wounds on the front of his front legs and needed to be wrapped at night so they wouldn’t rub open when he was laying down, or my own mare who is a stall kicker and kicked herself lame at one point.
And never with liniment under.
More normally ice boots for 20 minutes after a class.
I’m too paranoid to use a liniment, or even sore no more under wraps, so I just use a brace (rubbing alcohol) then wrap only at shows or clinics where we would jump way more than normal.
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Probably in the minority here, but I have never wrapped my horse after any kind of schooling or showing and he’s just fine. Now 22 years old and has never taken a lame step, though he is recently retired from jumping anything higher than a Cavaletti. I would wrap for trailering, and if there is a medical need to keep a bandage underneath for wound care. I think a 15-minute hand walk followed by ice boots for 20 Minutes is advisable, after a very tough schooling session or a competition, but see no need for wraps, which I think cause more harm than good and are often incorrectly set up.
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If they’re in a stall after a higher jump school I’ll always wrap. Higher usually meaning 1.20+ but with young or green horses I will wrap them after their first few times jumping 3ft. I also always wrap at shows.
I put liniment under wraps I haven’t had a problem with it so far, but some horses really don’t like it or are sensitive to it. Hell, if my knees get sore I liniment and wrap myself.
This all being said I do have 2 horses in my care right now that get wrapped every time they are in a stall. One is older and has some minor puffiness to his legs that disappears after wrapping and the other stocks up super bad. It can’t hurt to wrap if you know how to do it properly
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Some liniment you can wrap over and some you can’t. We used to use alcohol and witch hazel with wraps but now cold therapy appears to be the more proven therapy.
There are so many affordable options for ice boots now I would not bother with liniment.
Cold hose 15 minutes on, 5 off, 15 on and then turn out is probably the best.
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I’ve only JUST recently started wrapping my mare. She’s a stall kicker AND she stocks up. When I started wrapping her, it’s amazing at how good her back legs look. I only do the backs, but I’m going to start doing the fronts after a harder jumping day. I won’t use liniment with them. And, okay, I’m embarrassed to even admit this, but I’m not even sure what poultices really are. :tickled_pink: I know, after 35 years of horse care, I should know this. But since I never used it, I don’t know. Anyone want to GENTLY explain? I know what it looks like, but what’s actually IN it, how do you use it, and when?
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I use BOT wraps if I ride and then put her right back in a stall after. If she is going back out, then nothing or maybe open poultice after a harder ride. Mare is 19 and stocks up if she works and then stands around.
You are not alone. I don’t know either and would love to learn more.
When I was younger we did wrap with liniment under and never had an issue but I have heard that is not done often now. I use Bigeoil on my horses leg after jumping but do not wrap over it and it is 1 part liniment to 3 parts water.
I don’t know the exact ingredients in poultice or anything but it is meant to draw out inflammation. It is kind of like soaking yourself in Epsom salt after a long horse show or something. I wrap after a hard jumping session and spray alcohol underneath. After shows, I will poultice and pack feet as well just to reward my horse for his long day of work. I feel like wrapping helps keeps their legs nice and tight. I also jump in polos instead of boots because I feel like it helps prevent windpuffs. I love that bigeoil stuff. I love the way it feels on my hands after applying it, but I find myself using alcohol more often than not. I am now at a barn where the horses go out at night so I use it after shows instead of poultice since he is going outside and moving around. But when I was on the circuit, the horses were wrapped more often than not because they were in a lot and usually worked pretty hard when we were showing. That is where I learned all about poultice and packing feet. I just feel like it makes for a happy horse.
Poultice is a clay-based product designed to draw out heat an inflammation. Uptite is a pretty well-known and well used brand, though Sore No More makes one that I really like. Sore No More has some herbal ingredients mixed in (it smells so nice) but Uptite is straight minerals, according to the interwebz (a superior aluminum silicate, scientifically blended with montmorillonites, biborate of soda).
It works really well and my picky mare (who doesn’t tolerate much under standing bandages) is happy to have her (front) legs poulticed. You know when you pull it off in the morning after a show and spots of the poultice have completely dried that you probably had some heat somewhere.
I buy paper lawn bags and cut pieces to size, apply the poultice nice and evenly, wet the lawn bag piece and wrap it around the leg, and then cotton and standing bandage on top.
I like poultice because my sensitive-skinned mare has never had a reaction, and it is much gentler than any liniments, so I don’t worry about burning her skin. I will occasionally brace with alcohol if she hasn’t worked as hard and I don’t want to drag all the poultice stuff out.
I only do this after shows or if she has jumped a lot (she is older) and I use BOT hock boots in with the standing wraps too.
I’m an eventer and I wrap after a hard jumping ride(s) (usually a weekend clinic or a cross country school on hard ground) or a show/event, especially if the horse will be standing in a stall after working. I’ve never used liniments because I have always worried about burns as I often have thin/sensitive skinned horses. I used to use poultice but it is messy and a hassle. I have recently switched to BOT standing wraps and am very happy with them - no mess and legs seems just as tight and cold when unwrapped as they did with poultice.
All of my barn mates event and I have been really impressed with how eventers do leg care. My friend will do ice boots in the stall (if it’s a 3DE), after XC on her UL horse, and then poultice, pack hooves, and wrap over night. If it is a one day, she ice boots at the trailer and then throws some wraps on for the ride home, and then he gets unwrapped and chucked out in his field for the night.
My jumper generally goes on WAAAAY better footing and doesn’t have to gallop cross country so I like to cold hose for a few minutes, slap some of my homemade arnica sauce on, and wrap for the night if he’s staying at the show. I also sometimes pack his feet, depending on the footing and how many days we’ve been at the show. We are moving up a level this fall so I think I’ll invest in some ice boots- the science I’ve looked into seems to show that ice is the way to go.
I refuse to apply liniment under standing wraps because of the possibility of burns. I’ve seen it too many times.
I usually use Back On Track no-bow wraps after cold hosing after a long show day. It has done wonders for my horses. When my older gelding had surgery, I used BOT wraps every day to reduce swelling, and his legs were the cleanest and tightest they had ever been. I have seen a huge difference in how my horses recover after a long day of showing when I use the wraps. They are ready to go the next day - no questions asked. I personally believe that BOT items do wonders for inflammation and soreness.
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The key to wrapping legs with any liniment is to rub/massage the legs until the liniment is DRY. Yes, if you wrap a leg still saturated in wet liniment, of course it will become an irritant. It has to evaporate. It is primarily the rubbing action that stimulates blood flow to aid in healing. Applying a typical brace with no extra effort to encourage blood flow is merely just a waste of a product. Standard standing bandages are applied to prevent stocking up for stall bound horses after a workout. On the racetrack we apply a brace, rub until dry and apply bandages. After 30 years in this industry I have yet to see a irritated leg from this method. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that I’m not referring to any fancy “new age” products that might be out there, I am referring to old fashioned liniment braces or rubbing alcohol.
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There are some brands of quick wraps now (specifically the ones made by HW Ireland) that I like for if I have a harder jump school say over 3ft. Our stable hand loves them because a few velcro straps and boom they’re off. If I do regular wraps I stop by in the morning to take them off and throw them in the wash. Nothing can compete though to a well done standing wrap, and at shows I like to poultice. At worse it takes 15 minutes of cold hosing to get the stuff off and that is good for their legs. I think it is one of the most important things to teach the teen riders, not only does it teach responsibility but they actually look at they’re horses legs and get to know their horses bumps and lumps and notice when something is wrong before they are at the ring and lame.
