Planning on venturing out with your horse but concerned about how to bandage his tail? Tail bandages can be tricky if you haven’t done them before so we’ve teamed up with Liz Daniels from the British Grooms Association. She’s been grooming for over 20 years and knows a thing or two when it comes to bandaging. Here she explains how to get tail bandages right.
Tail bandages don’t just help keep your horse’s tail clean, they protect his dock as well, but you have to be careful that you put it on properly.
A loose tail bandage can easily fall off and get wrapped underneath your horse’s legs during travel, whereas an overtight bandage can cause damage to the tail.
To put a bandage on correctly, you must do the following:
- Make sure that your horse’s tail is clean so that the bandage doesn’t rub.
- Start at the top of the tail and bandage down in even loops (a good guide is to bandage down half the width of the bandage at a time).
- Once you reach the bottom of the dock, start working your way back up.
- Tie your knot to the side of the dock so that if you’re travelling your horse, he doesn’t have a pressure point on his dock.
You should be able to easily fit a finger inside the bandage and all the way around his dock. Tight bandages can cause serious rubs and wounds, so always be aware of how tight they are.
Never use a tail bandage for more than a few hours and use a tail guard instead if you’re travelling long distances.
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