With all of the horse products on the market it can be hard to know what things you need and are good for your horse or what things don't really do what they claim and can be detrimental to your horse. It's really hard to get a clear opinion as if you were to ask 100 people about any given horse topic, you'd likely get 100 different opinions and answers.
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I did a TON of research on myths and claims made about different types of leg protection for horses, and I'm going to share the results in this post. Please remember that this these posts are never to take the place of veterinary advice.
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First, let's talk about the claims that sports boots support the inner tendons of the leg or reduce shock to the bones. Every study that I found proved this claim as false except studies that were sponsored by sports boots companies and even those reports only used cadaver limbs of horses which means the lack of blood flow to the tissue means they already do not absorb energy well. I have linked all of the studies used to write this below.
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The Superior Digital Flexor Tendon (SDFT), Deep Digital Flexor Tendon (DDFT), and the suspensory ligament in the horse have a combined strain of 1000 kg (more than 2200 pounds) when loping. Because of this high force it takes more than simply wrapping something around it to help.
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The same goes for polo wraps or any type of wrap that is placed on a horse's leg.
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Next, let's discuss the detriments of the heat that accumulates in a wrapped leg, whether in a sport boot, or a polo wrap. The study I looked at took temperatures of horse's legs at rest, after twenty minutes of lunging, both wrapped and unwrapped.
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Unwrapped legs at rest had an average of 14.1 C with an +/- of 2.4 C while after working went to a 14.4 C with an +/- of 1.8 C.
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Legs wearing sports boots were on average 15.3 C with a +/- of 2.6 C at rest, while after working went to 20.6 C with a +/- of 2.9 C.
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Polo wraps were on average 15.3 C with a +/- of 1.6 C at rest, while after working went to a 24.8 C with a +/- of 3.6 C.
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We can clearly see that having something on the leg increases the temperature of the leg especially after working. The theory is that sports boots are often more breathable than the layers of fleece polo wraps which accounts for those temperature differences.
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But why is that important?
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It's important because higher temperature at the core of a tendon should be considered a risk factor for injuries. Overall, leg protection is helpful for strikes on the leg but not for tendon support on the internal structures.
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Soooo, should you be putting leg protection on your horse?
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That's completely up to you. If you do put leg protection on your horse be sure to not leave them on too long, as you don't want to increase that internal temperature on the leg. I would also say it's dependent upon the type of riding or what sport you're doing.
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I personally only put leg protection on when actually running the barrel pattern as I want them to have protection if they were to knock a barrel and it hits their lower limb. I do not wear them when just riding, trail riding, or in slow work because of that increased risk due to overheating.
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LINKS to articles - copy and paste into browser to read
https://doi.org/10.1016/50737-0806(00)70231.0
https://doi.org/10.2460/ajvr.75.4.375
https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0038-1632542
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