There are any number of reasons you may need to wrap your horse’s legs with standing wraps, but one thing is for certain – you want to be sure that you’re helping and not harming your horse’s legs with your wraps. To that end, Dr. Jeff Beshear has provided his list of best practices for bandaging your horse’s legs.
Dr. Beshear moved to Charlottesville, Virginia from Lexington, Kentucky in 2000, married three-day eventer Emily Mastervich (now Emily Beshear), and co-founded Old Dominion Equine Associates in 2002. His interests focus on sport horse lameness and diagnostic imaging.
1. Roll your wraps under tension (tight) so you can just lay them on the leg and keep equal tension.
2. Use a good thickness cotton to prevent differences in pressure (I like No Bows).
3. Always wrap from outside to inside across the back of the leg.
4. Avoid wrapping the knees or hocks.
5. Use an adequate length of cotton to extend from just below the knee or hock to just below the fetlock.
6. Lay wrap on evenly with no ridges.
7. If you're not comfortable wrapping or if your barn help isn't, try Quick Wraps (Velcro)
8. Avoid wrapping wet legs.
9. Never turn out in standing wraps that don't tear. If needed, use sheet cotton and Vetrap for turnout wraps.
10. Always use a clean cotton.
Check out this video on how to properly bandage a leg!
Following the popularity of Rules Open Forum held virtually during the 2020 USEA Annual Meeting & Convention in December, the USEA Competitions, Calendar, and Rules Committee decided to host another Rules Webinar to share information about the extraordinary rule changes going into effect on April 1, 2021 and the rule change proposals being put forward to the USEF by March 1, 2021 for approval for the 2022 competition season.
Are you following along with the action from home this weekend? Or maybe you're competing at an event and need information fast. Either way, we’ve got you covered! Check out the USEA’s Weekend Quick Links for links to information including the prize list, ride times, live scores, and more for all the events running this weekend.
Chris Ryan’s initial assessment of this 3-year-old off-the-track Thoroughbred gelding is that he’s a “good quality sort. Brown is a great color – a strong color in ‘nature.’ One of the first questions I ask myself when evaluating a horse is if he has refinement. We know the breed type here is Thoroughbred but I still ask the question."
The USEA Event Companion App was launched in late 2016 for iOS and Android devices to provide USEA members with easy, at-your-fingertips access to the USEA calendar of events, dressage tests, rules, news, and more. The app, now in its fifth year, has rolled out a new feature for users - push notifications are here!