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Re: [RC] Professional's choice boots - Zephyr Arabians----------------------------------------------------------- From: Chris Paus <paus@xxxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: [RC] Professional's choice boots My mentor who is classically dressage trained, taught me to look at it like this: The way to build tendon and ligament strength is to use the legs enough to stress, but not so much as to do damage. If those body parts are overly protected, they are not going to gain the strength they need. It's why so many show horses go lame after being in a stall 23/7 and taken out one hour a day to be worked in a deep sand arena. I agree with this. For years I used polo wraps or splint boots when I rode. I thought not doing so was the height of folly as that's what I had been trained to think. But, I'd occationally be "bad" (that's how I always thought of it) because on long trail rides I wouldn't use them due to sand/dirt/water build-up. And, when I got involved in NATRC I stopped using them for trail rides, but continued to use wraps or boots in the arena -- again, because my training had told me that arena work subjected the horse's legs to torque and interference that they needed protection from... Then, I had a job where I was required to wear a back brace. After only a few wearings, I found that my back really hurt when I took that sucker off. That's about when I stopped wrapping my horse's legs. I've still got polo wraps & splint boots around and occationally find a use for them -- during dressage lessons I do use the polos, but that's more because it's "expected" than anything else (and I'll admit I think they look nice) & I have one gelding who used to knock himself all the time so I'd put splint boots on him, but he actually seems to have stopped after I stopped booting him & I'll use the polos over standing bandages sometimes when trailering and sometimes after an endurance ride (don't ask me to explain why I do these two things "sometimes" or why I decide to do or not do them at any given moment; I think it's that old ingrained training rearing it's head) -- but not often... ~Nicole Zephyr Arabians http://www.zephyrarabians.com KattWmn Web Design http://www.kattwmn.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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