With the precision footwork demanded of many performance horses, an interference-related abrasion is inevitable, and sometimes even the most conformationally correct horse will track less than perfectly and bang himself. If your horse does any of these things, protective legwear may prevent minor injuries, as well as give him additional, much-needed support when you are pushing him to peak performance levels.

What’s Out There

There are basically two types of protective legwear. Interference boots protect the horse’s legs from bumps and abrasions while working. These include bell boots, splint and shin boots, sid boots and jumping boots. Hock and knee boots also protect the horse, but are not typically used when the horse is working.

Support boots, also called sports medicine boots, offer the horse both protection from interference and added support to the soft-tissue structures of the leg.

A variety of protective legwear products have been designed for specific kinds of problems and disciplines. Starting at the bottom and moving up the horse’s leg, legwear includes the following:

• Bell boots protect the coronary band, the heel bulbs and the back of the hoof. They are available in both leather and synthetic materials, with the latter being the most popular. Some pull on, some use buckles and some have hook-and-loop closures. Petal boots come with plastic petals that slide on and off a strap to adjust them to any size. Bell boots are particularly useful for the horse that forges or overreaches. They help keep eggbar or other therapeutic shoes from being pulled off, protect an injured or tender hoof, or simply reduce potential hoof injuries.

  “I use boots for turnout, more than for anything,” says Pam Baker of Hillcrest Farms in Bealeton, Virginia, who trains national hunter champions. “I don’t take any unnecessary chances that my horses could play and hurt themselves. All my horses with eggbar shoes wear bell boots over them.”

• Interference boots, sometimes called ankle boots, protect both the front and back ankle joints from interference-related abrasions. Made of synthetic materials or leather, these boots are useful for a horse with imperfect conformation that may cause him to track closely or move with an unbalanced gait. They also offer protection for the horse that is subjected to intense competition, such as jumpers or other horses that wear studs in their shoes.
• Sports medicine boots wrap completely around the lower leg and have a support strap under the fetlock. They are usually made of neoprene lined with soft padding. Some sports medicine boots are made with an attached bell boot for complete leg protection. Their purpose is to absorb concussion as the horse’s hoof hits the ground, thereby reducing the risk of tendon and ligament injury. Veterinarians are also prescribing them for horses that have suffered and now are recovering from a bowed tendon or ligament injury, and for horses with arthritis and windpuffs, says Dal Scott, president and CEO of Professional’s Choice Inc., makers of the SMB II sports medicine boot.

  Sports medicine boots will benefit any performance horse, says Scott. For instance, one of the common problems with dressage horses is with the hocks and stifle, because they are asked to extend so far up underneath themselves. “Sports medicine boots benefit more than just the part of the anatomy that they fit,” he says. “They support the entire musculo-skeletal system of the horse. When used on the (dressage horse’s) hind legs, they reduce or eliminate hock problems.”

• Splint and shin boots protect the bone and soft tissues (tendons and ligaments) of the lower legs. They are called splint boots because they are designed to protect the splint bone. Splint boots can be used on both front and rear legs to protect the inside of the lower leg from being hit with an opposite foot. These boots typically have additional padding sewn into the inside of the boot for added protection.
• Jumping boots are somewhat similar in design to splint boots, but with an open front. They are designed to protect the check ligament and the top of the tendons, as well as the splint bones and suspensory ligament. Horses likely to overreach with their hind legs and catch a front leg as they jump can benefit from jumping boots.
• Skid boots prevent burning or chafing of rear fetlocks and pastern joints during sliding stops and turns demanded in many western performance disciplines, particularly cutting and reining.
• Polo wraps got their name because they were originally popular among polo players. Their usefulness has long since expanded into most every other discipline. Polo wraps, usually made of cotton-blend fabric, offer wide-spectrum protection, depending on how they are used. People who use polo wraps like them because of their versatility, since different parts of the leg can be protected, depending on how they are applied. Using polo wraps, however, requires some experience, since a leg can be easily damaged by a wrap that has been applied improperly. They also require more maintenance than leg boots in order to maintain their usefulness and elasticity.

Proper Fit

Selecting the correct style and size, and putting protective legwear on correctly is important and frequently misunderstood. If you have questions about fit or sizing, call the manufacturer or ask your tack dealer before purchasing a product.

Care and cleaning must also be considered before you purchase legwear, since keeping such items clean and in supple condition is imperative. Hunter trainer Baker prefers washable leg boots made of synthetic materials.

“Just keeping leather soft and supple is hard,” says Baker. “And if you don’t keep boots clean, they rub.” She notes that horses with white legs seem to be more sensitive to irritation. She also prefers certain types of bell boots over others. “Rubber bell boots probably stay on the best. I don’t like leather ones because they are too hard to keep supple.”

Simply reading the instructions before putting the legwear on the horse could help prevent common problems, says Les Vogt, 15-time world reining champion and developer of the Pro Equine Athletic Sport Boots. Manufacturers typically place logos on the front, include instructional pamphlets in leg-boot packages and take other obvious steps to help prevent damage done to horses by improperly applied gear.

Some boot advertisements, like one from State Line Tack, carry warnings about correct fit: “It is possible to cause harm to a horse’s leg by improperly applying a bandage or galloping boot. Anyone who intends to use lower-leg support devices should seek competent training in the use of these items before applying them to a horse.”

Although some applications may seem obvious, the amount of pressure needed to tighten a boot enough to keep it from slipping, yet not so tight that it causes damage, is a judgment call. Splint boots, for example, come in pairs, with a designated left and right. Pads go to the inside of the leg and tabs to the back. The pad is usually wider at the bottom to protect the fetlock joint. Over-tightening boots can lead to a bowed tendon, and with the more lightweight designs, it is easy to put a boot on too tightly.

Another problem is putting boots on too loose. If a leg boot is applied too loosely, it will slip down and rub the back of the fetlock joints or the bulbs of the heel and create soreness.

When Not to Use Boots

There are some times when even Vogt, who says he uses boots for nearly every occasion, doesn’t use them. He recommends removing boots when riding in foxtail, burr grass or on the beach. “Sand will adhere to the boots, and if you ride for too long, it will turn into sandpaper,” says Vogt. It’s important, whatever the riding surface, to remove the boots and empty them of any accumulated debris, and to clean the horse’s legs regularly every few hours.

Using bell boots requires special attention. “I can’t argue with protecting your investment or preventing injury,” says Dr. Joyce Harman, D.V.M., of Harmany Equine Clinic in Washington, Virginia. “But when you look at the comfort of the horse, especially with bell boots, the horse’s freedom and natural movement is somewhat altered.”

As a veterinarian, Dr. Harman sees horses with scarred pasterns from wearing bell boots. The damage isn’t prompted by any one material, but rather from poor fit, she says. Before scars become apparent, tissue is very raw and sore — observable to even novice riders as they put the boots on or take them off.

Bruce Olsen of Montrose Quarter Horses in Richmond, Virginia, is a former rodeo rider who now primarily trains young reining horses. He doesn’t use boots often, just skid boots if the longer hair on the hind fetlocks wears off or if he’s riding in an arena with very grainy dirt. He checks the boots frequently for dirt and sand that can build up and cause raw spots.

“When I learned to dance, my partner stepped on my feet to get them out of the way,” says Olsen. “Sometimes if you allow a young horse to bump into himself, he’ll learn where to put his feet a little faster. If it becomes a chronic problem, I’ll put a boot on so they don’t injure themselves, and I’ll start altering my training, trying to teach them where to place their feet. On young horses, I don’t use boots, and I don’t shoe in front, just in the rear.”

Olsen thinks that boot do have a place on some older, frequently injured horses, but using them on a young horse can simply teach him to continue interfering with his own legs. “When I start hurrying horses up, and if they’re shod in front after they have the cadence, I’ll put boots on them. If I see a horse that overreaches and hurts himself in the front, I’ll put bell boots on him. But it isn’t something I automatically go to.”

“Sometimes, just like other things, boots can cause problems rather than cure them,” says Olsen. “If you have to boot up a young horse, you’d better look at what you’re asking them to do. It’s like setting your clock ahead so you won’t be late. I don’t think it’s necessary. If you’re asking a young horse to do too much when he’s tired, you’re probably doing too much in your training program.”

When Are Boots Effective?

Like Olsen, most trainers and vets agree that legwear, particularly sports medicine boots, can support horses with chronic leg problems or a recuperating leg injury. They will also help the horse that has an incurable problem, such as an aged equine with weakened fetlock joints. But these boots are also beneficial to the sound, healthy performance horse on which great athletic demands are made. Regardless of what type of riding you do or how much you demand of your horse, if you notice scars, heat, scratches or scrapes on the inside of your horse’s legs or heels, you may want to talk with a trainer or veterinarian about adding equine legwear to your list of necessary equipment.

Read more on the proper use of protective boots >>

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Hmm, it’s a little stiff tightening the girth.

Up in the saddle, the blissful comfort you expected from your latest-design marvel is surprisingly absent. Your horse’s first steps are accompanied by a cacophony of squeaks and creaks. No, you haven’t made a big mistake. Your saddle is probably as much as you expected and more — it just isn’t broken in yet.

How do you break a saddle in? As in many horse-related activities, there are traditional approaches as well as a little bit of new technology to help you along. Although there are many viewpoints on how to break in a new saddle, two points of consensus are: use some kind of lubricating preparation to add moisture to the leather; and ride, ride and ride until the saddle fits your seat.

Lubricating Products

Inside leather are bundle-like fibers that give it strength and flexibility. If those fibers get proper lubrication, they won’t squeak, dry out or split. Because leather is a natural substance, most who work with it recommend applying natural oils to replenish its moisture. Which products are best and worst for cleaning and lubrication leather is a topic of considerable debate.

Glycerin has traditionally been used to clean leather surfaces and maintain shine, but it doesn’t penetrate the surface. Instead, it attracts moisture from the air to keep leather pliable. Another traditional product, neatsfoot oil, penetrates the leather but has some other drawbacks, some caused by its change in composition over the years.

In the past, neatsfoot oil was actually made from boiled cattle hooves. Now products marketed as neatsfoot oils may be pork lard mixed with petroleum-based mineral oils. Neatsfoot and olive-based oils will permeate leather, but they continually migrate to the stitching and stress areas, eventually wearing off on your breeches or jeans. Neatsfoot doesn’t cause mold, but it does create an environment that can let mildew in. Also, neatsfoot oil may darken leather.

Using highly alkaline products can weaken leather’s fibers. Saddle soaps were made for convenience centuries ago by mixing soaps with oils. The soap’s cleaning effectiveness, however, is diminished by its efforts to dissolve its own oils, leaving little useful cleaning capacity to remove dirty oils from the saddle.

One-step cleaning/lubricating products are designed to be used occasionally when tack-cleaning time is tight. However, no one product can thoroughly clean and remove oils and then replace the moisture to lubricate the leather. Cleaning requires that dirt and soiled buildup be removed. Conditioning requires that oils lost in the cleaning process be replaced. Soap can also turn leather dark and remove tanning agents, causing hardening and cracking.

To begin the break-in process, Frank R. Marciante, who makes Marciante Saddles in Paulden, Arizona, recommends using and good grain oil — extra-virgin olive oil or peanut oil, but cautions that mice like peanut oil. Commercial leather dressings, such as Hydrophane, are also designed for the leather’s initial oiling.

For easier application, Marciante suggests pouring the oil in a can and painting it on with a brush. Wiping leather with a solution of bleach or vinegar was the traditional way to eliminate mildew, but that won’t prevent its return.

“If you treat your leather like skin, keeping it nourished and clean, it will last longer than you will,” says Anna Blangiforti of Unicorn Editions, makers of Leather Therapy products, which contain mold and mildew preventives. It’s especially important to clean and condition the underside of panels and flaps that rub against the horse because his body oils and salty sweat can damage the saddle, she notes.

Cleaning and conditioning products that are pH neutral will protect the leather’s fibers and stitching. Nontoxic additives prevent mold and mildew without detracting from other beneficial properties. Products with emulsifiers will also help push some built-up debris out of the pores of over-oiled saddles.

Sue Littlefield of L7 Ranch in Simla, Colorado, prefers to use a leather cream, which she applies as soon as practical to a new saddle. “I have found that it does not darken the leather as much as neatsfoot oil. It also is less sticky than oil compounds. A used, soft toothbrush is great for getting the product down into the tooling.” A good rule of thumb is that if the brush scratches your skin, it’s too stiff for the leather. And, she reminds, rawhide should never be oiled.

English Saddles

New English saddles often come with a white film of tallow, the natural fats and oils in the leather that have risen to the surface. “It’s a protectant and should be left on,” says Robin Davidson, saddle product manager at Miller’s Harness Company. As you ride, the heat and friction will rub the tallow back into the leather.

Davidson recommends treating your new saddle with a leather conditioner called dubbin, such as Lederbalsam. Dubbin is a super-fatted emollient, a thick, pasty product that helps nourish the leather.

“It is best to treat both the hair and flesh sides of the leather,” Davidson says. If the temperature is low, let the dubbin sit in the sun to warm up or it will be thick and difficult to rub in. Use a dry cloth or sponge, and rub on a light coating. After that layer has been absorbed, add another. A saddle that has been sitting on the showroom floor for months may need two or three coats applied a few hours apart. Then invest the time and ride in it, she says.

Using a leather oil may break the saddle in more quickly because it penetrates quicker than dubbin, but it might penetrate to the core of the leather and release the dyes if it’s too saturated, she warns. Over-oiling can also cause dyes to stain breeches.

“I’ve had many long discussions with the tanners and leather couriers we use, and they prefer the old English ways to make saddles and leather last a long time,” says Davidson. She cautions riders to never dip or soak their saddles in oil.

Western Saddles

Western saddles, with their heavier leather and thicker layers, require a more time-consuming break-in process. The old cowboy approach is to throw the new saddle in a water trough, then ride it dry. By accident, Don Burress, who, with his wife Kay, owns Cowboy’s General Store in Lawrenceburg, Indiana, learned how well that works. Trail riding one summer day, he got caught in a drenching rainstorm. The group kept riding. “By the time we got home, that saddle fit me like a glove. It had gotten soaking wet and dried to the shape of my body,” says Burress. As you use leather, with oil and heat and you in the saddle, it will continue to conform to your body. “In my opinion, it doesn’t hurt to get a saddle wet,” says Burress, who has ridden for 45 years and sold saddles for 13, “but the main thing is when they dry out, you put the oil back in to replenish what dried out.”

Stirrups on a western saddle that hasn’t been broken in have a normal tendency t be parallel to the horse, when they need to be at right angles, says Burress. He soaks the saddle fenders, then rolls them back in toward the horse and ties them to dry, which sets the leathers so the foot will naturally slide into the stirrups. “When I store a saddle, I run a 2-by-4 through the stirrups to keep them turned in toward the horse,” says Burress.

Sharon Camarillo, an international horsemanship andbarrel racing instructor who is also the author of the book and video,Training, Tuning and Winning, goes even further. She takes the stirrups off, soaks the fenders up to the skirt in water for four to five minutes until the leather is about as pliable as clay, then molds them with her hands, dries them, applies a saddle soap or spray glycerin, replaces the stirrups, turns them out, and puts a rake handle through the stirrups to hold them in position. “Then I go over the saddle with a good saddle soap,” says Camarillo. “Then just ride in it. I have done the same process by riding the saddle until it dries. A night or two with a rod between the stirrups usually does it.”

Bruce Olsen of Montrose Quarter Horses in Richmond, Virginia, uses the same approach of wetting the stirrup leathers and turning the stirrups in. He places an ax handle weighted with a bucket of water hanging from it through the stirrups to stretch the leathers. He says it takes a week and a half, riding 10 hours a day to get a saddle “that feels pretty good.”

“If the stirrups are persistently hard to keep turned, softening the leather will help,” says Littlefield. She offers another time-proven solution: “If the saddle squeaks too much to tolerate, turn it upside down to where you can get under the panels, and shake a generous amount of baby powder into the tree and under the jockeys. Once righted, wipe the excess that may get onto clothing while using it. This will help alleviate some of the noise while the leather gets seated, stretched and settled in the process of being used.”

Ride, Ride, Ride

Once you’ve selected a lubricant and applied several coats to your new saddle, the next step is riding in it. But be sure that you’re just breaking in the saddle — not your body or your horse’s back — cautions Holly Covey of Mary-Dell Farm in Harrington, Delaware.

The best way to break in a new saddle is to spend hours in it. Avoid using a heavy pad, ride for 20 to 30 minutes, then stop, get off, take the saddle off, and see if there are any hot spots on the horse’s back, says Covey. And while you’re riding, watch the horse’s ears and stay alert to see if there’s something bugging him. Those may be signs that the saddle doesn’t fit.

“New English stirrup leathers don’t feel the same as old stirrup leathers,” she says. She suggests riding in the old ones until you feel more comfortable with the new saddle, but be aware that the old stirrup leathers may mark a new saddle, and you should never put them on a trial saddle. “Wear chaps or breeches and boots when riding in a new saddle. If you want to get a good sore, ride in jeans,” says Covey, adding that if you are moving your leg around trying to find a comfortable spot, the saddle won’t break in right. “If you’re switching from an all-purpose saddle to a dressage saddle, which really puts your leg in a different position, ride in the new saddle for a while, then go back to the old until your legs are used to the new leg position, or go back to your old saddle for a few minutes at the end of the ride,” she says. “I’ve ridden half the lesson in the new saddle and half in the old. A new saddle that fits properly will break in quickly. A new saddle that still has you gritting your teeth after several weeks of daily riding may not fit you or the horse.”

Don’t expose your saddle to too much sunlight at first, because it has no natural oils, she cautions. Continually clean and oil it to work softness in. If you have a black saddle, be sure you don’t wear your best white breeches. The black will rub off, especially if you sweat a bit. Most leathers have dyes that are sweat-resistant, but save the white pants until the saddle is broken in.

Although breaking in a saddle is somewhat of a “no-pain-no-gain” proposition, keep in mind that significant pain for you or your horse is a big hint that the saddle may not fit one or both of you. Keep your leather-lubricating product handy to use regularly and whenever your saddle gets wet. Your new saddle will soon be as comfortable as the old, and you’ll be ready for that show or trail ride.

The post How to Break in a New Saddle appeared first on Horse Illustrated Magazine.