I’ve always been a polo wrap person. But this article put things in perspective, and is making my reconsider my polos. While I’m considering ditching the boots all together, I’m also a little hesitant.
What are some of your favorite breathable, or light, type boots?
This is something that’s been known for a while, but always glad to hear of it from a new source.
I ditched boots entirely in the school. The only time I will put boots on the horse is if we are competing with studs - and if I do that, it’s WOOF boots. I do still use bellboots if we are doing hunter paces - I had a nasty quarter grab a few years back that I think a bell boot could have helped.
Even over 50-60 years ago, we used to, every time we rode, winter or summer, wrapped legs or not, school horse or race stable, immediately run several minutes of cold water on the legs.
That was like cleaning feet out, every horse we worked with had feet cleaned out before and after being handled and legs cooled with running cold water before being put away.
We used to do that to cool down and “help keep their legs tight”.
I have not seen that be standard practice in the US, more occasional one, other than maybe at the track.
Interesting that shows that was a good basic practice.
Arma air motion boots hands down. 90+ degrees here and my horse’s legs are completely dry when I remove these boots.
I can see the virtue in cold hosing legs but in reality getting a “typical” TB’s feet wet more that absolutely necessary is just not going to be a thing, atleast for me.
If it’s hot, I ditch the boots and polos.
I always jump in some type of brushing boots. I’ve ditched open fronts all together. My horse has stung himself hard enough on poles to create some swelling/pain that I would rather protect his front legs.
Anyone have any input on the Incrediwear wraps? They seem cooler than polos and cost a lot more… think the lining side might have some cotton? because after washing three times there are still faint stains.
After several minutes of hosing all legs, legs are dry in a few more minutes.
Don’t think that is enough to change a horse’s hoof quality.
At the track, all were TBs, some with hoof problems that were not made worse by watering from knees and hock down to finish cooling off.
Many blood vessels go thru there also.
I wouldn’t recommend them for someone unless they have very, very good wrapping skills and even still, there’s a bit of a learning curve but I use saratoga’s come summer. I also come from older school eventing days of using saratogas and porter boots though 
I use Saratoga wraps also, though I think that with the silicone strips, they probably retain heat more than some alternatives. Fortunately, icing legs after exercise has many benefits to the horse and probably helps to offset some of this.
I have to use Equifit bandage liners and Saratoga wraps on one of my horses. I know they hear his legs up more than I’d like but the compression they provide is more important. I ice his legs after each ride.
The rest of the horses get open front Eskadron sheepskin boots. I’ve found the pull heat away from the legs pretty well and they usually have no sweat underneath.
@StormyDay
Do you know if there are any studies that show whether natural sheepskin boots are cooler than the neoprene, perforated neoprene, PVU type boots?
I worry a lot about overheating my mare’s legs, but the scuffs on her boots also show me that she does indeed need to be wearing something, at least while jumping.
Curious about these too… I’ve been eying them for years but have never found enough feedback on them to make me bite the bullet. They’re not cheap so I’d hope they held up over time!
I use the “alternative SMB” boots from the study, which are Equilibrium Stretch and Flex. I love them, but they don’t provide a lot of strike protection, just light brushing protection. When I take them off, I can see dry spots on the legs underneath the little dots versus a totally wet leg under other boots.
I think a blogger years ago evaluated different boots and wraps using a thermometer underneath and I recall that natural sheepskin followed by synthetic fleece were the coolest, definitely cooler than neoprene. But, this was before all of the vented boots.
I’ve used neoprene & perforated neoprene but both stay pretty hot unfortunately even with light dressage work.
I don’t think there has been one for horse boots. I do know that there have been studies for other things with it though, and it’s known for its temperature regulating properties.
There’s quite a few studies showing that sheepskin pulls excess heat away from the body faster than many other materials. I know it’s recommended that babies sit on sheepskin covers in the summer to keep them from overheating.
Supposedly, the Incrediwear wraps, can be wet before they are used providing up to 60 minutes of cold. Never tried it. The horse they are used on is prone to mud fever/scratches but maybe they get more cold than wet?
Just found loads of human products for people made by Incrediwear.
Now that’s really interesting. I had no idea. I guess I could see sheepskin being very breathable.
I have used the Incrediwear wraps a bit. Put on dry I suspect they are cooler than a regular polo, but certainly not cool like naked.
Wet with cold water, if you wring them out well enough, they aren’t dripping and sloppy - you’d probably be fine on a sensitive heeled horse. I feel the leg surface is cooled a bit, and when we were using them on a specific area of heat (splint) I did notice the wrap itself felt warm on that spot, so something is happening? We didn’t use them cold/wet in work, just standing as an alternative to icing or hosing. So all that said… I dunno… still on the fence about them.
Spin off based on this thread though… does anyone know of any actual research into the cooling effects of cold hosing versus icing (and bonus for comparing different types of ice boots!) ?
My horse had an SDFT injury, so I have been down a rabbit hole on boots. Has anyone tried these HUSK boots? Pricey - but so are Equifits - and diagnosing and rehabbbing an injury even more so!
Study appears to have been done using one horse that was exercised at the walk for ten minutes, at an ambient temperature of 8 C (46 F) so YMMV. Considerably.
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