Why do horses’ legs swell after exercise and standing in?

In this article we will look at what happens during exercise to the circulatory system and why if a horse is stabled even after a long cool down, there is a significant chance that legs will end up being filled. We explore ways that can help prevent this swelling with stablechaps for horses.

Exercise induced swelling of legs, the reasons:

During exercise the body needs as much oxygen being sent to the muscles as possible so it creates vasodilation of the blood vessels. This is a widening and relaxing of the blood vessels, to get as much blood and therefore oxygen around the body as possible. The muscles and tissues also accumulate fluid and will swell as more blood is pumped through the oxygen hungry muscles. When you stop exercise the blood vessels do not constrict. Heart rate may also remain elevated over resting levels. The combination of a higher heart rate and overall, a lower volume of blood circulating the body after exercise and the significant fluid leakage from the blood into the surrounding issues induces post-exercise hypotension. This is basically a drop in blood pressure, the longer and harder the exercise the greater the drop.  This is natural and a well-known phenomenon in humans lasting for many hours after intense exercise. Other influencing factors are the muscles are no longer active and are not providing active pumping of blood back to the heart, known as an inactive muscle pump⁴². On top of this if recovery is done standing still, gravity plays a part in pooling blood into the lower legs.

All in all when you have exercised your horse just before being stabled you may notice generalised puffiness of the legs usually bilaterally, i.e. both front legs swell or both back legs swell, not just one leg. This may occur in training or at a competition, anytime the horse is stabled for a time after exercise.

So how can we help prevent those puffy horse legs?

Whilst they may not be lame and the horse should walk the swelling off, having swollen legs causes pain and discomfort. Also, if continually left to swell this in itself will cause damage and inflammation of the lower leg, and they will be more prone to swelling in the future, or worst case, Cellulitis.

Compression is well known to stop swelling and we can stable bandage over padded gamgee. Or there are easier application methods such as stablechaps for horses as an alternative compression therapy.

The benefits of compression with Stablechaps for horses.

• Helps push blood back towards the heart by decreasing the diameter of the veins and increasing blood flow. Stablechaps will provide adequate compression therapy to prevent swelling.
• Stablechaps with their light pressure on the horses’ legs, stops fluid leaking out into surrounding tissues. This will mean less swelling.
• One of the more important facts from human studies is, that using compression garments, like stablechaps for horses, for several hours after exercise increases blood flow. This:
  • enhances recovery of exercise performance
  • improves ratings of soreness and recovery

So if standing in after hard exercise does lead to puffy legs, or it may not, but if the use of compression garments is becoming widely used in exercise for recovery in humans, does it makes sense to help your horse recuperate as well?

Look at the stablechaps for horses shop for more information on sizes.