Nine Ways to Protect Your Horses' Joints

Horses' joints are the springs of life... so protecting them is vital for longevity. Performance horses work particularly hard, so it is important to minimise wear and tear on their joints.  Find out nine things riders should do to protect their horses' joints: 

​1. Ride on a good surface. Pay attention to the surfaces they are train and compete on. 

2. Slowly prepare them for the work. Bringing them slowly into the work that is expected from them will help their bodies adapt.

3. Look after their feet. Good shoeing and trimming is absolutely essential to ensure theirs legs are tracking as straight as possible and in-line with how they were born to move.

4. Train them correctly. Correct training is more important for long term soundness than most people realise, as it helps horses move straighter. This allows their joints to load move evenly and therefore distribute the forces better.

5. Cross-train. This has been proven to be protective from an injury risk point of view

6. Look after their nutrition. Correct nutrition relative to the horse's work load  is vital so the horse is not carrying too much weight or being over fed and running the risk of injury due to freshness or overworking.

7. Take care of their muscles. Horses' muscles need to be healthy and in good condition so the joints are not under abnormal strain.  This is where nutrition, body work , saddle fit and correct work all come together.

8. Minimise concussion. Concussion caused by stomping at flies can be minimised by regularly using fly spray or fly boots or creating fly free areas as much as possible. Fans in stables keep air circulating and will reduce fly numbers as well as do fly traps around yards.

9. Consider joint products. There are a lot on the market. Some are systemically injected into the whole horse, others injected into particular joints and others administered orally. They all work slightly differently and take varying lengths of time to begin to help. Some will work in one situation whereas another product may produce a better result in another case. It is impossible to tell without trying so don't be afraid to give something a go and make a switch where necessary. If you are looking for a good place to start... check out the range of Joint Products I have carefully selected for my equestrian team at the VH Saddlery Shop.