Use bandages or gaiters?

There are several ways to protect your horse's leg. Bandages are a good alternative to gaiters. Bandages are wrapped around part of the leg. They are used on the front and rear legs. Bandages have several advantages: They protect the horse's legs from stripes, support the tendons and also warm them when it is cold in winter. Bandages are not suitable for show jumping! They quickly soak up moisture and do not offer enough impact protection. Therefore use bandages only in dressage.

Correctly wrap bandages around the horse's leg

Bandaging a horse's legs properly is not that difficult. There are just a few important points to keep in mind:

1. use Bandage linings to avoid pressure points and too tight wrapping (always necessary with elastic bandages!).
2. Do not wrap the bandages too tightly around the horse's leg, otherwise connective tissue, blood circulation and lymph flow will be impaired in the long term.
3. Use fleece bandages, because you cannot wrap them too tightly, you can use them without underlays, they are easy to care for, dimensionally stable and available in many colors.

Before you can bandage your horse, you have to wind the bandages up properly. If you have just bought it, you have to unwind it completely and wind it up again with the Velcro fastener inside. Ready? Then here are the instructions:

1. Place the bandage pad around the cannon bone from the center outside to the inside back without creases. A little tip: Bandaging pads with Velcro are easier to use.
2. Now start to wrap the bandage from the front outside to the back inside downwards and make sure that there are even distances of about 3 - 5 cm.
3. Once you have reached the halfway point of the fetlock head, wrap it up again. Here you can take larger distances of approx. 6 - 8 cm.
4. Ideally, the bandage is closed with the Velcro fastener so that it is on the outside and the opening points to the rear.
5. With a little practice you can divide the length of the bandage so that it goes from top to bottom and back again.

Make sure that you wrap the bandages tight enough when using bandage pads. If the bandage slips, it can be very dangerous for horse and rider. You should also make sure that you close the Velcro properly so that it does not open on the way.

The tail disturbs when bandaging the hind legs?

Then just tie a knot in the tail! Because this way the tail does not hang in the way when bandaging the hind legs. After that you should of course untie the knot, otherwise you might get some winking looks.

Pony bandages are narrower and shorter

Of course, you can also use bandages for warm-blooded animals and shorten these three to four meter long bandages a little. This works particularly well with fleece bandages. However, bandages for ponies are usually cut a little narrower. Try out what works best for your pony. However, we always recommend the bandages that are directly suitable for ponies, because these are only about 2 to 2,5 m long.