| Have you ever had a horse with a bowed tendon? | | | | your horse stall rest with light hand walking for a week |
| Excessive or strenuous training can easily cause injury | | | | or so, until you see the swelling go down. |
| in your horses tendon. I had never heard of a bowed | | | | The third tip for bowed tendon prevention is to avoid |
| tendon, so when it happened to my horse, I didn't have | | | | hot walkers. Even though they are a time saver, the |
| any idea what to do. It happened when I had my horse | | | | constant strain of walking in a circle can further injure |
| in training with an over zealous trainer and the sad part | | | | tendons. Always hand walk your horse when they |
| was I watched it happen. | | | | have a leg injury. |
| If you follow these three simple tips, you can prevent a | | | | If you have a horse right now with a bowed tendon, |
| tendon injury in your horse. | | | | the first step of recovery is rest with light hand walking. |
| First, warm your horse up properly before starting your | | | | The following steps are what I used to help my horse |
| training session. Make sure you walk at least 10-15 | | | | make a full recovery from his severe tendon injury. |
| minutes before you ask for the trot or canter. Trainers | | | | 1. Ice twice a day, and apply a standing wrap for |
| sometimes don't take the time to warm up the horse | | | | constant support. |
| properly because it takes too much time. Always | | | | 2. Hand walk for 5 minutes twice a day during the |
| make sure to warm up at a nice easy walk with | | | | acute stage of injury. |
| simple changes of direction, rather than at a trot or | | | | 3. Use an infrared laser to help reduce the scar tissue, |
| canter. | | | | and speed healing to the tendon. |
| Secondly, if you notice any type of swelling in your | | | | 4. Make sure your farrier understands what a |
| horses legs, apply first aid immediately by icing the legs | | | | balanced foot is in order to reduce the strain on the |
| and putting a proper standing wrap for support. Give | | | | tendons of your horses legs. |