Has anyone used these? My horse needs to wear polo wraps because he keeps getting some swelling in his medial suspensory branch behind on both legs (vet has ultrasounded both and they look great). Vet suggest polo wraps, and I thought these looked interesting. Looking for some reviews or people’s experience using them.
What are they made of - some kind of embedded ceramic like BoT - or anything?
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Not sure - I just know they help circulation and increased recovery time. I like the fact that you can wet them and they will work as ice packs too. Just wanted to figure out if people like them or not…can’t find much on them.
It doesn’t even look like a real website 
What is this even supposed to MEAN? And the studies?? Huh?
The people site has more of an “explanation”, but I dunno, man. Seems like pseudoscience.
That’s a pretty spendy set of polos. And if you’re buying it for the cooling effect, I’m seriously dubious that it would stay cold longer than a few minutes. There’s just not enough volume to prevent the horse from heating up the small amount of water that would be in the wrap.
BoT would be a safer bet…
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“For maximum effectiveness, place in hot water for 2 minutes before applying.”
??
I guess there might be some cooling to the leg from evaporation, but I don’t see how you would ice.
Would you ever work a horse in wet polo wraps? Seems to me this wouldn’t be a great idea, for the same reason I wouldn’t work out wearing wet leg warmers (or leg warmers at all, LOL, these days).
The medical understanding of icing as a regular treatment is changing (human and horse). But even so, I’ve never heard of anyone ever recommending that you ice while you exercise. The muscles and tendons need to warm up to do their job. So if these wraps are effectively icing or cooling off while you work, that doesn’t sound like a good idea. And if they aren’t effectively cooling off, then why not use regular polo wraps?
Wraps work to keep swelling down by preventing fluid from entering the tissues. They don’t address the cause of the swelling. Since xrays are showing no damage to the ligament, what is causing the swelling? Something is causing strain somewhere, and that should be addressed.
I’ve been dealing with something similar: very mild swelling, but no lameness.
My horse is prone to develop a softness around and above her rear fetlocks. We refer to this as windgalls, but I don’t think they are really in the fetlock joint; they involve the tendons or ligaments entering the fetlock so could be similar to what you have (not sure where yours is showing up, at the fetlock or higher up). My farrier and I recognized that they tended to appear later in the trim cycle, when maresy was starting to wear her hooves a little uneven and pronate.
When I asked our good vet (who is also a trained farrier) for advice, he hauled out a hoof knife and did a trim that was a little more aggressive than my farrier had been doing, and this helped a great deal. This was last year. I noticed this past winter that we have days when her fetlocks are completely clean and tight, and then days when one or both are getting a bit soft again. I’m currently tracking it against workload and footing, to see if that’s a factor. She has never been lame from them, but we think she may prefer not to canter under saddle when the puffs are prominent.
I did for a while last year put on sport boots on the rear, on the theory that they would prevent a bit of the lateral bend from the pronation, but that was before the vet trimmed her feet, which really did help with her tending towards pronation right through the trim cycle. It hasn’t got to the point where anyone has suggested x-raying her yet, though that would be very interesting.
So my suggestion would be to look at hoof balance, and maybe hock balance as well, and see if you can find what is putting stress on the tendons and ligaments in there. Wrapping to keep fluid from accumulating doesn’t fix the stress that is causing the swelling.
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So…I have a query in relation to this (sorry to hi-jack, OP) My mare is in a boarding stable for the winter and has turnout, but at home she is in/out 24/7. She has been stocking up on a hind that had a bad cut on it last year and has some scar tissue. I have PC sports medicine boots for her, and – would they be harmful if left on overnight to help keep down the stocking up?
I looked at the Incrediwear human site, and see that they are selling a variety of compression gear, but not suggesting that anyone work out in wet compression gear!
But that got me thinking about compression gear in general. While I’ve worn my share of tensor bandages, knee braces, and wrist braces over the years for actual injuries, the though of working out in tight gear is not attractive. I was wondering what the research said (as opposed to the manufacturer’s sites) and came on this which made sense:
http://time.com/4002059/compression-…rkout-clothes/
Compression gear started from medical devices, and has become a current trend believed to increase performance overall, but there is no proof of that. There are however some benefits in recovery time to wearing compression gear for up to 24 hours after a workout.
Now, we’ve been wrapping horse’s legs before, after, and during performance for a very long time, certainly much longer than the human compression gear trend! Interestingly, it’s said to increase muscle recovery in humans, but the lower leg of the horse has no muscles, only tendons and ligaments.
I am really curious as to what if anything wrapping legs does in the absence of a medical injury. I came out of a Western riding background where no one wrapped, and my current coach/mentor doesn’t wrap much, and I tend to think that most of the wrapping I see going on is not accomplishing much.
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They don’t recommend you riding while they’re wet…it’s after you ride you hose them and keep them on.
Other poster: I was looking at their instagram and they have pillow wraps, and I don’t see why you couldn’t use the wraps too? People also use the people compression socks on their horses too.
He has HUGE windpuffs behind, like the biggest I’ve ever seen actually. They go down with work typically. He also twists out behind when walking. Vet said it’s not bad, but due to how he’s built a little and he’s weak behind (which we’ve been addressing). So we think that’s where a little of the swelling comes from and the windpuffs contribute too.
Just wanted to revive this thread to see if anyone has actually had a chance to actually test these out? One of my barnmates bought a pair and claims they work (she rides in them like regular polos then hoses them for cooling afterwards). Our other barnmate thinks they’re pseudoscience…
I know this post was a while ago, are you still looking for some info on the product? I recently purchased the wraps and have a review of them as well as the company.
I’d be interested in hearing your review.
I have those. I’d say if you want to use their wraps, they are okay, but the bandages themselves not so much, very hard to evenly apply them to the legs, no matter how you wrap you have gaps.
I have the Incrediwear shoulder sling for myself, used it for a month, but wasn’t impressed.
The wraps are okay however, but I’d say not better or worse than BoT or equivalent, just my personal experience.
