# Riding a horse with an open wound?



## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

You have pictures of the wound and location currently?
Wounds heal in stages and what you think looks good could be still serious under the just scabbing over and interior of the leg.
Excessive demanding movement, even vibration could open the whole thing up again...


I'm not sure how you plan on wrapping a wound in the location you describe, hold bandages in place and not cut circulation nor restrict motion...
Maybe and very dependent upon appearances would dictate what if anything I applied to a open/healing wound that could make matters worse...
And again, dependent upon all of the above would dictate to me whether I took the horse on a outing of this long a trailer ride and working experience...


Pictures, pictures please..
:runninghorse2:...


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## Foxhunter (Feb 5, 2012)

I have, when a horse has had an injury and swollen, ridden it to get the swelling down, this was only at a walk. 

I agree with HLG above it just depends on the injury and a bandage would never stay up on the forearm.


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

With superficial wounds that don't affect movement, and with the horse running around normally, I'd generally train normally. Wound healing is designed for life on the range, and pretty good. I'd not feel that you're increasing risk of infection - the most likely source of infection in a case like that is a horse rolling, not a horse working. If you want to cover the wound in a bad spot that can't be bandaged, e.g. to prevent it getting dirty when the horse rolls, you can use sticking plaster - with a wound the size you're describing, the Elastoplast cut-to-size wound dressing can work effectively on a summer coat - clip the surrounding area if you have a winter coat:










But, I think this is probably the most useful product for small superficial wounds:










This keeps the dirt out, in horses and humans. Only thing is, it stings like heck to put on, so distract your horse with a big carrot and make sure it's munching before you spray. This product is often used with racehorses in training.

I don't get commission from Elastoplast, and there are other brands of this as well. Elastoplast does stick very well compared to most brands though.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

I saved pieces of your "pointed" description.. _please read each one carefully and critically._



Ninetolove said:


> (A week ago) He got _very beaten up._
> Among all of his scars he got a deep cut on the top half of his leg.
> It did get all swollen etc but it's healed up nicely, the wound is a bit smaller than a 10c coin.
> Give or take a couple of days it should scab over
> ...



Your horse was in a fight 1 week ago.
He was beat up pretty bad.
He received a deep cut to his upper forearm.
Swelling at injury site took place but has receded.
The wound _appears_ to be healing...
It has _not_ scabbed over...
Luckily where the wound is it doesn't affect his movement or his joints_..._

So, the last sentence bothers me... :|
This part of the horses anatomy is muscle tissue and _does_ indeed move, it ripples under the skin every step that horse takes no matter how large or small, fast or slow...
No stick-on or spray product is going to keep your barely healed tissue from ripping new fibers apart...the horse is compensating and if this is indeed "a deep gash" and it was not stitched {no mention of} you are asking for trouble trying to run the animal in gymkhana events in my opinion.
Even stitches take 10 - 14 days to top-heal and longer for true depth healing before they fully dissolve. Till dissolved they support healing tissue to stay together...

Self-exercise to reduce swelling is one thing...even light riding..
Riding the horse under speed adding serious torque to all parts of the body to me is just asking for trouble.
Take a different horse, borrow a mount or just be a spectator and save the horse and allow a "deep gash" to heal properly with minimal scarring as scar tissue is _not_ elastic in nature and can cause all kinds of issues in your future....
Let the body repair itself correctly, no stress induced against it.

Correct healing of the body starts inside and works outward...the fact you say *no scab is apparent* speaks volumes to me. :|
:runninghorse2:...
_jmo..._


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## SueC (Feb 22, 2014)

I have yet to see a 10c sized wound a week old that's healing well that I wouldn't exercise a horse with. All that talk of torque etc is fine, but this also happens in real life, in wild animals, all the time, and it generally works out well, thanks to selection pressure producing superior wound healing over millions of years. Clearly you don't spray the clear wound dressing on exposed muscle fibres, but the post didn't give me that impression, and anyway, the OP can exercise discretion. And sometimes wounds like that don't scab, they just granulate. Our horses move like this in the paddock:






...and when they are doing that, riding, or even race training, with minor wounds that aren't affecting movement, is rarely an issue, in 35 years and counting. _Not_ exercising your horses also carries health risks... and they generally far outweigh the risks of exercising with minor wounds. We're not talking about a horrific float injury here where a horse has torn a fist-sized chunk out of their thigh - that's a different matter... and not 10c piece sized...

Re stitches, granulation is often sufficient for smallish wounds (stitches are good when there are flaps). And indeed, it is the only thing that can heal big, serious wounds like the one I described above - where the main issue is to keep the wound clean, and to keep the flies away. That horse was still in her paddock, exercising herself as she wished - and not on stall rest, which is overrated, and often brings on complications like colic. Horses need to move, not be wrapped in cotton wool. The wound healed very well - thanks to keeping it clean and free of flies. And no, in its initial stages, it was not a wound suitable for clear spray bandage. It had dressings applied.

A picture would be helpful, @Ninetolove!


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