talking tactics
Essential first aid items to take with you when travelling away from home
something is amiss. To learn about stethoscopes I made this video https://www.facebook. com/pg/orangefoxevent/ videos/?ref=page_internal.
If you think your horse is colicing, it doesn’t matter if it is mild or not, you should consider it to be an emergency. Usually when colic becomes serious it can be too late and it is much better to have your vet out for an assessment than leave it until he can do nothing to help. There are so many different types of colic (colic is defined as abdominal pain) including an entrapment, impaction, displacement and twisted gut. Some are mild and some serious but all show the horse as having bad abdominal pain so it is important to prioritise calling the vet in my opinion.
First aid kit when on the road. I am sure most of us have an enormous first aid kit at home. Living with a vet I probably have a kit of which most people would be very envious, but out in the lorry or trailer I’m restricted to essentials only and it can be difficult to decide what to leave or take. In my time competing I have had a few first aid things to deal with. Usually and mostly scrapes and bangs, either from a stud injury, or a horse catching himself when travelling, so the most
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important thing for me is some saline, swabs and a bit of hydrogel to keep the wound moist. The usual bandage materials are also essential. Vetrap has a multitude of uses and I wish I had been its inventor!
So my lorry first aid kit has the following equipment in it: Torch – a head torch to help see in awkward places Scissors: Always useful! If you can, a small set of clippers is useful for removing hair from around a wound. Forceps: Artery forceps have a multitude of uses! From removing thorns, to holding a swab, to dabbing a wound Stethoscope – for obvious reasons, but if you can’t take your horse’s pulse, you can still get a heart rate (do not try this if they are rolling, as it isn’t wise to put your self in danger!) Thermometer – again for obvious reasons! Gloves – to keep your hands from getting too contaminated. Gloves are not a substitute to good hand hygiene and I recommend everyone to learn how to wash their hands properly. Gloves should only be used to reduce contamination and to facilitate your efforts to clean your hands effectively at the end, as they will be protected from a lot of grime. Animalintex for poulticing a foot.
Wound dressings; I have two
Caroline Mosley is pictured with Dwina de Cavron at a recent British Eventing fixture. The pair are aiming for a CIC1* and later in the season, the CCI1* at Blair Castle
varieties – melolin and allevyn. Melolin is not very absorbent, more like the dressing in a plaster whereas allevyn is highly absorbent (like a sanitary towel!). We use them for different wounds. Bandage material – soffban, vetrap and conforming bandage (10cm). I do also carry gamgee and stable bandages. Syringes for lavaging a wound Duct tape – essential to help keep a foot poultice on! Towel and hand rub/wash Tubigrip to hold ice on a limb. This is great pulled on and doubled over; you can ice a difficult area such as the carpus by putting ice into the folded bandage.
An instant ice pack is also useful if you can’t get hold of ice and need it in a hurry! Saline for wound lavage; preferably carry a litre as the small pods aren’t so useful.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, but is the minimum kit that you want to carry around with you. I tend to bung in some plasters for me too and then it’s pretty much a human and horse kit!
For some competitions such as Trec and Endurance you will
have to carry a basic kit with you when out in the countryside (you can find details of what to carry online). The only addition we like to carry is a folding hoofpick and also some baler twine just in case you need to tie something up! Trec does also require you to carry shoe- removing items at a higher level, but they are optional at the lower levels, although we do also have these in the truck. They’re a bit bulky but I feel it’s useful to have the ability to remove a shoe, so worth considering as optional items too!
To be honest I could go on with a humungous list of optional items to take with you, but the essentials really are the items that you will wish you had hold of when out and about. You may also find that you will give bits of it out at shows to help other riders. In fact that reminds me, I must do a stock take of my kit and get it fully replenished!
I hope you don’t need to use a kit, but if you are about to put one together, I hope you find this useful.
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