Stop Your Horse From Chewing Wraps and Bandages
Some horses seem to have a flair for the dramatic and will eat their wraps. One solution is not to wrap your horse’s legs, but that’s not always possible. When it’s medically necessary, your horse needs to keep their chompers to themself. You have many options to stop your horse from chewing bandages and wraps.
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Topical treatments
Hot sauce
I have never met a horse that liked hot sauce, and this condiment can be a handy deterrent for horses that eat things – wraps, fencing, and other horses’s tails. You can try using some hot sauce on the outer layer of wraps, but there are downsides.
Hot sauce’s ingredients often contain capsaicin, which will test positive at horse shows. And hot sauces are just messy. Hot sauce can also burn the skin, which is likely if your horse rubs the wraps before trying to chew them.
Other topical treatments have various ingredients that deter chewing. You can find sprays, thick goops, gels, aerosols, and pourable liquids. If that’s a concern, you can check the ingredients and compare them to your show organization’s prohibited substance list.
The spice!
Soap
Strong soaps can also be a deterrent and may even streamline your horse laundry process. Particularly stinky bar soaps, like Irish Spring, seem to work best.
Other options to stop your horse from chewing wraps
Special bandaging
You can find anti-lick bandaging where the deterrent is in the wrapping. There are several brands to choose from, and many are similar to Vetrap™ and even come in fun colors.
The wrapping should not touch the skin if the no-chew bandaging contains spicy ingredients, which it likely will. This wrap will need to be the outer layer.
Neck cradle
These cosplay-looking accessories prevent your horse from bending and lowering their necks too far. Some neck-length wooden dowels are fastened over the neck with leather straps.
You will need to relocate your horse’s food and water to a higher level when using neck cradles.
Specialty muzzles
There is a muzzle that is more like a cage. While intended for cribbers, horses can eat and drink normally but are restricted from grabbing fencing and other cribbable surfaces. While this is an option, the most clever horses could grab part of a bandage.
Whinny Wellies
Intended to protect bandages and leg wraps from wet weather and dirt, Whinny Wellies may help deter the chew-monster. You can try topical treatments on the Wellies, thus keeping the bandaging cleaner. They are quite sturdy, but a determined wrap-removing horse may be able to do it.
At any rate, they are fantastic for covering bandages to keep them clean and dry.
Wellies keep your horse’s legs clean, dry, and protected.
Keep your horse busy
When possible, adding distractions to your horse’s life can help deter wrap and bandage chewing.
The two most obvious ways are to use slow feeders and horse toys. Horses love to eat. That’s it. Food, but make it a puzzle.
Keeping your horse’s mind and body focused on other things helps, too. Exercise, play, and turnout all keep horses engaged. If your horse is on stall rest, you could hand graze, work on clicker training, and have extended grooming sessions.
Read this for more on standing wraps
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