KT Tape for Joint Stability in Horses

KT tape, or Kinesiology tape, is well known to help improve joint stability in horses. If you’re wondering about how kinesiology tape works for horses, you can check out my blog post here.

We’ll talk about kinesiology tape (often referred to as KT tape, kinesiotape, or just tape) and how we can use it to improve horse joint stability.

How we know that KT tape can help improve joint stability in horses

Three studies looked at how KT tape improves joint stability, both post-injury and for injury prevention.

These studies found that for injury prevention, the tape was just as effective as lace-up ankle braces, which are done on human ankles. 

I’ll let you know about the horse version of this research as soon as it is out, but for right now I CAN confidently say that there’s a darn good chance the tape is supportive for horses if we have continued studies confirming one another.

Why? Because tape is effective because of its communication with mechanoreceptors and the nervous system, NOT because its mechanical force or power over soft tissue. Learn more about this in my blog post “How Does Kinesiology Tape Work on Horses?”

We’re working with the brain way more than we’re working with the muscles. These articles discuss that too. 

Let’s break down the research about kinesiology tape and stability

Tape improves joint position sense and minimizes risk of sprain with fatigue.

The conclusion here: ankle tape can improve joint position sense at the fatigue session when joint position sense becomes worse. As a result, ankle tape may be useful to prevent ankle sprain during playing sports. We suggest athletes and individuals apply taping before high-load activity.

Study #1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29316902/

Tape is just as effective as ankle braces in rehabbing sprained ankles.

Study details: performed with 193 participants over 6 months. 

The most important finding of current study was that there is no difference in outcome 6 months after treatment with tape, semi-rigid brace and a lace-up brace.

This means that tape is EQUALLY effective in protecting and rehabbing ankle sprains as bracing, but the tape doesn’t limit range of motion. 

Study #2: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26044353/

Tape is just as effective as proprioceptive neuromuscular training in improving balance performance in modern dancers. 

Conclusion: Our findings suggest that both neuromuscular training and KT application were effective at improving balance performance for modern dancers.

Study #3: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30204821/

Overall, we can see that KT tape, kinesiology tape, is effective at improving stability.