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Way to go!!! Giving up boots, wraps is a great idea for any horse/person who does not have an injury.  Every time I think about training my horse, I think about professional football players.  Why doesn't every football player wear a knee brace?????Because they'd be doing more harm than good.   And my BIGGEST pet peeve  Why doesn't every football player ice after a game???  Because icing makes you stiff!!! And should not be done unless you have an injury and have time to let the area warm up prior to moving it again.  Otherwise you can potentially TEAR the muscle.  I hate to see people using ice on their horses legs just prior to popping them in the trailer.  Lineament and/or cool water is great!

 

I think it was Home Depot that got recognition in the American Journal of Physical Therapy for their back program.  It did include the use of back braces, but also included frequent stretching/strengthening without the brace on.  I think that you are suppose to take it off at least hourly and do some exercises without it on.  Now how many of us do that for our horse?

 

Jen

Zephyr Arabians <z_arabs@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:27:10 -0700 (PDT)
From: Zephyr Arabians <z_arabs@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [RC] Professional's choice boots
To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

-----------------------------------------------------------
> From: Chris Paus
> 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

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