First, please do excuse my English, but this technical stuff sometimes is
tough to explain. I think wrapping legs after a ride is just one of
these typical human behaviorisms of "pampering" everything you got and
maybe not getting enough in taking care of your horse. As you
statet right, it does not provide the significant support as is
often claimed. After rides (and once again I am not only talking
about Endurance, but any kind of tougher ride -dressage, jumping, 3
day eventing-), if there is a creek around, I prefer to lead
them in there and let them stand in there. The flowing water
provides a wonderful kind of massage and cools the legs. Sometimes
you don't have any access to a creek, then I prefer to hose
(spelling?) the legs down. And if there is no creek and no hose,
my last joice will be wet wraps (polo wraps, or "Bandagen"). On
these wet wraps I always keep a close look, because they tend to
get a little stiff and smaller as they dry off and I don't want
to cut blood pressure of. But they seem to take any heat out of
the legs (nice cooling), you can always 're'wet them...
Other than that I use leg wraps on uninjured horses only while
trailering.
As I said wrapping uninjured horses is only one way of pampering
your horse. There are people out there who seem to have a
thousand gadgets around their horse: 5 different blankets for
five different kinds of weather, this ointment for this, something
for that,.....I think a horse that has the opportunity to walk
around after a ride in a fenced off area around the trailer or
gets walked a couple of times is well able to take care of itself.
Katja Laubin, Germany