I didn’t say you had to agree with or like how I boot my horse, but that is what I choose to do. No, I’m not out there Eventing at the high levels or practicing Grand Prix dressage and need expensive boots that have the best science behind them. I use the SMB elites which have VenTech technology allowing heat to escape. The compression that polo wraps give compared to boots help the swelling go down with movement of riding. The Eventing world’s views are completely different than the minimalistic world of hunters. With that in mind, ANY boot or wraps can cause more harm than good if fitted or put on/wrapped incorrectly.
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@MDKCongo I don’t know if bringing up factual inaccuracies is the same as a difference of opinion.
Boots, (SMBs or otherwise) do not provide support. They protect against strikes and overreaches, and that is no small thing when it comes to lower legs. But pointing out they do not provide support is not a difference of opinion, it’s the difference between fact and fallacy.
They are not my cup of tea for a variety of reasons, primarily that there are so many options that are less hot , heavy and cumbersome, but provide equal protection against interference, but that is my preference. You are entitled to a different preference.
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My young warmblood frequently smacked the hell out of himself during a very trying five-year-old summer. He lived in bell boots to keep his shoes, and I always longed or rode him in open front Eskadrons and ankle boots behind.
Hes much better, so now it’s dressage boots in front, nothing behind.
If the session is a longe over caveletti day, we are back in The original gear.
Polos are for “dressing up”, great for videos and clinics. They are decoration, like wearing a tie.
i personally hate the SMB’s or any of those neoprene leg-logs. Terrible heat and water insulators, and the supensory support is highly suspect for me until I see some legitimate studies. None of the upper level eventers that I’ve seen use them.
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Wow, thanks for the link! That was an incredible amount of damage done. I’m not sure about the amount of potential damage done by heat trapped by boots/wraps, but it may be a better trade-off compared to the risk of hitting themselves…!
You know what horses spend their working lives in a gallop and don’t wear boots and never have? Racehorses. And yes, they do suffer injuries, but ones like the scalpel initiated catastrophic injury in that video? I’m sure it’s happened (never say never) but you know it’s beyond rare, so rare that I suspect most people haven’t heard of such a thing much less seen it.
The video, while cool in an yucky sort of way, seems… unauthentic as far as real life goes at best and at worst, peddling a specific view designed to sell something.
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First things first, I grew up eventing. It’s where I learned all of my horsemanship skills and knowledge of SMB boots and their detriment to lower legs.
Point 1:
What I am trying to say is that coating yourself in neoprene and then doing strenuous exercise isn’t fun - it’s why people now get it in bands they put around their stomachs to burn fat more quickly (or so the instagram ads say).
The extra ventilation is a hoax. Those things are still dripping when removed. At least with equities (which I agree hold a lot of heat, especially older models), the front of the limb is exposed as well as the fetlock. SMB’s cover the whole thing.
Heat has been proven in multiple studies to kill off soft tissue cells - so why add to it? (Source https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8f15/0ea480edca142260d01f419f80d2e7e7fb29.pdf)
Point 2:
SMB’s are just as expensive as anything else on the market. I knew kids who evented in Woof boots up to Training level -which would be a better choice for protecting on XC than SMB’s.
https://www.doversaddlery.com/arma-air-mtn-x-cntry-frnt-bt/p/X1-04057/ - these are cheap and even have padding on the front for hitting jumps with the front of the leg!
So saying that something that will help your horse be sounder longer is more expensive is just phooey and we all know it.
Point 3:
Polo wraps provide no compression. Whatsoever. They don’t have enough elasticity to provide adequate compression. A standing wrap will because you wrap it tighter than you’d wrap a polo.
((( If compression is something you’re after - Eskadron Climetex bandages are great! )))
That’s a very old school of thought that has been disproven. Like an above poster said, they’re like putting on a tie. Good for a little scrape or so but anything else not really.
I’d implore you to do an experiment. Measure and photograph your horse’s swollen limbs prior to your ride and then after. One day use polos and one day go bear legged. Document your ride and timing so you can repeat the same ride. See if the swelling goes down significantly more with the wraps.
I’d bet my hat and lucky socks that the wraps don’t change anything.
If you’re going to have opinions, at least find some science and discourse to back them up. After being in the hunters and jumpers for a while, I’ve found that a lot of what I left the eventing world with was pretty dang wrong. A lot of it was right, too, but you should absolutely follow the trends of leg protection from jumpers. They know what’s up.
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I grew up in pony club, so horse management and care is my top priority. No, my horse is not performing horribly because I’m using SMBs. No, it’s not abuse that I put them on my horses legs. I prefer the 360 degree coverage compared to other boots. I only ride in SMBs mainly about 1-2 times a month. It’s not a death threat to my horse. I’ve talked with lots of vets and national examiners and they haven’t criticized me for how I choose to boot my horse. I’m more concerned with the injuries he could get rather than how I boot him.
I have ridden my horse without polo wraps and no the swelling did not decrease, hence why I have started using polo wraps. The swelling wouldn’t be there in a horse that has 12 hours of turnout daily, therefore just movement alone isn’t going to cut it. Yes, he has been looked at by a vet multiple times for ongoing problems.
Almost every upper level rider of any discipline I look upon uses polo wraps…
I don’t care what my opinions are compared to yours, but once again my opinions don’t have to be agreed upon. Last time I checked, an opinion doesn’t have to be fact. I simply gave my response to the question, not to receive backlash that I’m completely incorrect and I should be ashamed of my wrongdoing.
Boot a horse however you choose.
Thanks
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I’m rather firmly in the no boot camp. Properly fitted good rubber pull-on bells if shod, but otherwise I tend not to. Exceptions: lunging or super green (first 20-30 rides) I would, because risk of a knock is obviously very high. I also minimize the amount of time lunging because overall it’s hard on legs. If I had an older horse that started to interfere with age , 100% would. But otherwise…
I, personally, would not buy a horse that interferred enough to actually require boots. Personal preference. Suspended extravagant mover/ jumper but brushes? Pass.
Without boots, a horse is much more careful about where he’s putting his legs. In boots, he realizes bumps don’t hurt, that brushing yourself doesn’t hurt. They get lazy. I want a horse who is conscious and careful of where he places his legs. Spooky and prone to blow ups and random flailing? I choose not to buy that type of horse.
The horse’s general comfort but even more importantly the overheating of soft tissue is also better without boots, as others have already discussed.
that said… I am not doing conformation hunters. I’m not riding horses of such value that a knock can take 10k off it. If you do need or choose to boot, my opinion is to use the least surface area coverage as needed ie open fronts, ankle if they only interfere low.
Additionally, minimize the time in the boots. You can swaddle in SMBs if you want, but 20 or 40 minutes is different than 2 hours. I’ve seen a horse turned out in the original style SMBs for all day turnout. The results were a poached tendon and months of rehab.
Whichever you choose, being sure the leg (and anything you put on it) is clean is important. That you have felt and seen the leg for issues before riding is an essential tenant of good horsemanship. People who just slap on polos or boots without first running a quick and careful hand over the leg may be in for a surprise if they don’t know if there’s an area of heat brewing under there.
Look at picturs of top 100 milers… no leg boots is very common, even in rocky terrain. Some only use leg boots for specific parts of a course. Stripping boots at holds so legs can cool if they do boot. I did a quick look at googled Tevis pictures and there were plenty of naked legs scaling Cougar Rock.
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Wow can you provide some examples? Even better, pictures? I am straining to think of any upper level ANYBODY who still uses polo wraps. Especially just the plain ol’ kind.
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As I child in the 90’s I used polo wraps because they were colorful and fun.
As an adult with significantly more horsemanship knowledge under my belt, I only use polo wraps about once a month to assess my horse’s trot. He has some strange chrome that makes it very hard to gauge if his trot is even so I take a monthly video as reference for when his next coffin joint injection should be.
I much prefer light weight, breathable boots or better yet, nothing at all.
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I disagree. See my post on the first page. I witnessed a friend jump over a small 3’ vertical, at home, good footing, and he did a funky trip on landing, nearly severed the tendons in his front left when he hit them with his hind. A year of stall rest and he’s sound to flat. It was career ending. The vet himself said that they were lucky, but a good hard boot likely would have saved his career.
I’ve also witnessed horses step on themselves and damage their heel bulbs upon landing. These usually just require a few days of stall rest and they’re fine, but a couple inches difference and that could be a tendon injury.
Watch a slow motion video of a horse landing from a jump, if they don’t get those front legs out of the way, the back legs are coming right for them. Then watch a slomo of a horse galloping. I’d say the jumping horse is at higher risk of an interference injury.
Spend enough time working as a groom and you realize that injuries are common.
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Grooming? High performance horses or surgical facility/post operative layup? Check and check.
Don’t get me wrong, I agree, boots can prevent or greatly ameliorate strike injuries. Nevertheless, horses have somehow managed to go through a fairly long evolutionary period without that being a statistically significant source of injury, all n=1 instances notwithstanding.
That video grabs your attention way faster than a video over time showing the slow damage done by unfit horses stalled 20 hours a day but expected to perform at high levels, but let’s not kid ourselves which one is more likely to finish off a horse’s career. So yeah, it could happen but I’m not going to go through life acting like that is anything other than a freak accident that is extremely rare.
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Like stated above, look at any schooling or warm up ring of a big event. They are everywhere.
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I can post more photos if need be, but I’m not blind. Pictures include Boyd Martin, Lynn Symansky, Doug Payne, Liz Halliday Sharp and Buck Davidson just to name a few.
@MDKCongo your photo links are broken so I can’t comment on those but @winter those pics are so far away I can’t really tell. I see lots of boots and some black wraps. I have seen people using the polos discussed on here like BoT wraps, Equifit and others that wick moisture/breathable options. But plain ol’ polos? Nope. Maybe there is a communication disconnect and you aren’t talking about plain polo wrap?
Talking about a plain old polo. See them ringside ALL the time at the international Grand prix level. Sometimes with underwraps, sometimes on their own. The one picture is Scott Brash in plain old polos. I’d say he’s an ’ upper level somebody’. And BOT polos are just regular polos. They are fleece like any other. Agreed, that some do wear the eskadron ‘climatex’ polos and other similiars that you mention but just as many are in plain old polos.
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Noelle Floyd just published a mini master class with Max Corcoran on booting horses. She talked about their use of polos and yes, they were the plain old polos.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9PnFtxAW2G/
I feel like Karen O’Connor’s groom is an upper level somebody as well. FWIW I was just trying horses at upper level barns in Wellington and the ones just being hacked while i was riding were almost all in plain polos.
Coming from fancy jumper (and eventer) land to working ranch horses… I stopped booting for the most part.
My favorite boots for everyday riding are those Heidi eurpro boots! Amazing. I have 4 sets, including a felt lined leather pair.
We always rode in open front boots/or polos. Horses always got turned out in boots.
I use to use polos but they got super icky, attracted cheet grass, burrows etc. I stick to brushing boots in any. I have 4 that live outside 24/7. Without shoes.
I think there’s some disconnect going on here about polos. I know a lot of people who slap polos on the horse to do a quick 30 minute stretch out in the mornings or on days off, or to warm up for a dressage test just in case the horse decides to brush or spook at something. They offer very little protection otherwise, and I will say once again, zero support.
These horses aren’t going into a 1.45 class in polos, nor are they going to show jump at an event with them on. We see BNT or Riders doing it because they’re easy to clean, cheap, and most barns have a bunch. We use polos on schooling days, too. But NOT as support, NOT as good protection, and NOT as a way to bring swelling down.
If you’re bringing swelling down with a polo wrap, I’d be scared at how tight you’re wrapping it…
The eskadron climatex bandages have an elastic top portion so they can be perceived as providing a semblance of support, sort of like an ace bandage. But only when wrapped correctly.
As for BoT and other bandages - BoT have a fleece outer but the inside portion or a normal fabric. They are used to help increase blood flow and help the leg gain circulation quicker - helping with swelling. These I see do good. I enjoy them but only in short bursts and not as protection when jumping or as support.
I don’t care what my opinions are compared to yours, but once again my opinions don’t have to be agreed upon. Last time I checked, an opinion doesn’t have to be fact.
I would hope that when presented with data on how detrimental something could be to a horse as a fact you’d want to change your tune, but that’s that, I guess. Personally, I want my opinions based in fact, and based in something that’s overall good for the longevity of my partners - especially in the lower leg as injuries there are career ending.
Brushing boots and XC specific boots would give you the same sort of protection with less probability of overheating, but you do you. I just hope you seriously ice your horses legs after to help bring that core temp down.
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I’m an eventer, and I almost never boot my horses’ legs. To be honest, I am lazy and I already have loads of other horse laundry to do without adding daily boots on 2-3 horses to the mix. All of my shod horses do live in rubber pull on bell boots, which are only removed for dressage at shows. It keeps my farrier happy.
I ALWAYS boot when I stud; generally just Woof boots.
Regardless of shoe/stud status, I always boot when I do XC. For schooling, I usually just use Woof boots. For shows, I have a few sets of Professional’s Choice boots with the soft-but-hardens-on-impact tendon guards. They are the same as the Majyk Equipes, only ~$10 cheaper/pair.
Sometimes when I get a wild hair and feel extra motivated I school with boots when I normally wouldn’t. There is little rhyme or reason to this. I would also say there’s a 50% chance I’ll put something on my horses for a lesson. And I usually show jump at shows with at least open fronts, if not also ankle boots.
I do own some old fashioned polos and I do like them. If a horse has a mild bonk or some minor swelling that I would like to go down, they’re great for that. The fleece plus riding provides a sweating effect without me having to do a proper seran wrap overnight standing wrap. Sometimes I’ll also put butecort underneath them if I’m really trying to sweat it down.
Thank you for articulating what I was attempting to say much better than I was able to!
