It’s hard to find protection for the short thick cannon bones on an Irish Draught. Much as I hate polos they are pretty much one size fits all.
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Not too many others out there have 7-9 inches of cannon to wrap! I’m dreading trying to find boots for my girls when it comes time - the older mare is being started now and is IDSH so not quite as heavy, but my yearling is full ID and she is already stout. I hope they just don’t need more than bells. My first IDSH had a lot of blood and had lighter bone so it was much easier, but my older mare had more bone than him as an adult when she was only two.
Plus… polos come in pretty colors and such.
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Had my girl pull a front suspensory with shipping boots when she bolted from the trailer and got away from me, running in a foot of snow with her foot then slipping on the shipping boot when it slipped down under her foot. Haven’t used shipping boots since (and that was 9 years ago).
Use polos for schooling because my favorite boots are no longer made. From my experience, every boot warms up the leg about the same as my polos. Boots are great for when one has multiple horses to ride and no groom to tack up horses; I prefer polos and don’t see much difference between those and boots.
On show grounds, only use polos when schooling. For most test warm-ups, don’t have someone to pull boots or polos so have to warm-up without them anyway.
I can see a real problem at the show grounds if a horse tends to stock up and they won’t allow wraps for in the stall. Most liniments which would help with a stocking up leg contain banned substances.
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Even good shipping boots don’t work well if you do not put effort into tightening the velcro straps properly.
And yes. I’ve dealt with hind wrap haters.
These are the type of boot to which I’m referring. It takes muscle and practice to get them right. They’re expensive but so are vet bills. AND I’ve been doing this since the days of making pillow wraps with sheet cotton. 
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How long will it be before an unwrapped horse steps on itself during an award ceremony and loses its first place due to elimination for visible blood? 
Hopefully bell boots will be allowed.
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Started looking for studies on this: this one looked at skin temperature after 20 minutes of work and 180 minutes after (with the boot or wrap still on)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0737080621001210#
The only thing I could say from this is: the legs all got hot and stayed hot and don’t leave wraps and boots on after working.
This one mentions that the skin temperature of legs with polos were hotter than boots. But it didn’t say to not use wraps, it said to ensure proper limb cooling after work.
This one is from 2014x and researchers specifically said that it was too early to make recommendations.
Edited to remove my completely idiot confusion of European countries. I got PEMF done the other day and I blame that for my brain fog.
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Sophie is an RIDSH, A tad under 16 hands with 8 7/8 inches of bone.
It’s also difficult to get bell boots to fit
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The Netherlands aren’t Denmark. This is national rule, not FEI
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Tightening the straps doesn’t make shipping boots fit the way wraps do.
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I don’t care for wraps, but they do have their place aside from being matchy accessories from time to time.
It’s just a bit “funny” to me that out of all of the welfare issues that they could rule on, this was at the top of the list.
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I felt the same way about the whisker rule.
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Whoops! My bad.
I’m not big into wraps, but this rule seems pretty ridiculous. Improperly applied boots can do all the same things mentioned, are they next to go?
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I have never seen anyone wrap this way. With the wraps, the bridle, and the way her foot is in the stirrup this has got to be some sort of photo shoot with people who’ve never seen a horse before. I don’t think this is indicative of the way people wrap.
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I think the entire climatex trend is really stupid, but this one really made me laugh hence the screenshots.
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The huge underwrap looks ridiculous. You wonder how a horse can move its leg at all, especially when they extend up over the knee. I would think it causes more problems with the material bunching up behind the knee as it tries to bend.
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Helgstrand is not Dutch. He is Danish.
edit: someone got to the joke first.
They actually make a climatex type extended bandage with a coated end to serve as the bell boot. Equiline Bandage Pads Xaviar | FUNDIS Equestrian (fundis-equestrian.com)
After a decade on the track I can’t stop cringing whenever I see more than a 1/4" of wrap outside the bandage line so those would send me right over the edge… But they would solve my “no bell boots fit this pony” problem! 
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