Equine First Aid kits

I'd like to make it clear that I'm not a veterinarian, and my intention is not to be giving veterinary advice. I've had horses all my life, worked with and for vets, and I've been a trainer and farrier for many years. So the following is intended to be simple and helpful advice for you and your horse, based on my own years of experience as both a horse-owner and a horse professional.

When it comes to first aid for our horses, rather too many of us don't have any real idea how to help our injured horse in a crisis situation. It's not really that much different, honestly, than providing first aid to ourselves or to a friend when injured.

One simple thing you can do, and really should practice until you become proficient, is learn to wrap your horse's legs with a variety of bandaging material: fleece bandages, polo wraps, elastic bandages, and vet-wrap. Get your trainer or a horsey friend to demonstrate, then practice when you're not under pressure. Simple skills like wrapping your horse's legs are much easier to acquire before you actually need to perform under stress. You'll want to find that careful balance between a bandage that's tight enough to remain secure, but not so tight as to cause circulation restriction. Try using a variety of under-wrapping material, like the traditional quilted legwraps made for use under bandages, or simple rolled cotton.

Even if you've put together a first aid kit for your barn, you may not have put together a first aid kit to carry when you ride, yet. A bit of time and a few bucks can save you a lot of discomfort and worry, later on down the trail.

You can spend quite a lot on a big first aid kit, pre-packed, from various companies. It's going to have a lot of stuff you never use, though, and too little of the stuff you use regularly. So you might be better off talking to your vet, and visiting your local feed/farm-supply store, and assembling a kit of your own, designed to meet the individual needs of your own barn and horse.

Most of what you need, you likely already have. Some antibiotic ointment, legwraps, vet-wrap, non-stick telfa pads, an EZ boot, rolled gauze, rolled cotton, and a good antibiotic scrub like nolvasan or betadine.

Most of the horse injury situations you're likely to encounter on the trail will be lacerations, scrapes, punctures, and sprains or strains. A bit of antibiotic ointment, a non-stick bandage pad, and an elastic leg-wrap or a roll of vet-wrap carried in your saddle will come in handy for either you or your pony, in the case of that sort of minor injury. Of course, if you have a cell phone, that's going to be invaluable in the case of a more serious injury to either of you.
When you get home, clean the affected area and consider whether or not the wound needs stitches, or if it's a deep puncture, antibiotics. In either of those cases, you'll need to call your vet.

Next time I'll talk about how to assess an injury and know when you absolutely need to call your vet.