May 2018

It has been a crazy few months and there has been a bit of water go under the bridge since my last website blog. In March I was in Canberra for a green horse course and then a private course outside of Sydney. The green horse course in Canberra was well received and there is another in October. During April & May I have had quite a large young horse intake. There is a home course this weekend, again the focus will be on green horses. The image to the left is from the green horse course in Canberra.

Then for the first week in June I will be in Western Australia at Jenny & George Jackson’s Horsemanship First facility, at Serpentine. The courses at Serpentine are always good with lots of variety and I look forward to catching up with everyone in Western Australia.

Over the next few months I have an article coming out in Horse Deals Magazine, I am not sure which month as yet. At the end of June I will be back in the U.K. I look forward to catching up with everyone over there.

I have also added an article below that my local vet Bruce Howlett of  Stabler & Howlett in Australia put together on wound care. Please note that this is of a general nature and may not fit all circumstances.

While I hope that no one needs the below, horses do find ways to injure themselves and perhaps the below is helpful in some way.

First Aid for Equine Leg Wounds

3 Priorities

1. Prevent excess blood loss. Surprisingly few wounds have dangerous blood loss, however if a wound is bleeding profusely apply a firm compression bandage of cotton wool and vetrap above the wound and leave in place for 20minutes. Seek urgent Veterinary advice if bleeding persists.
2. Decontaminate the wound. Wounds can be cleaned with clean running water and dabbing with moist gauze swabs. Take photos once the wound is clean.
3. Protect the wound from deterioration/allow healing to commence. Fill the wound with Intrasite Gel, dress with a nonadherent dressing like MediSteriPad or Melolin, bandage with a thick layer of cotton wool overlayed with Elastoplast and Vetrap. Seek Veterinary advice and send the photos to your Vet.

Common Mistakes

1.Failing to cover the wound – leads to drying of the damaged skin making repair and healing more difficult.

2. Bandaging too tightly- this is the most common error, cuts off blood supply so retards healing by killing tissue, in extreme cases can lead to laminitis/founder due to lack of circulation to and from the hoof. Bandages on horses’ legs need to include a THICK layer of cotton wool to provide even pressure over the wound surface.
3. Delaying seeking Veterinary advice – it is amazing what we can do to help repair fresh wounds as opposed to old wounds. The difference can be months in healing time.

Wound Kit

10cm x 10mtr Vetrap x 2

7.5mtr Elastoplast x 2

Cotton Wool Roll

Gauze swabs

Intrasite Gel x 2

MediSteriPad 10x 20cm