I purchased some merchandise in a lot and whomever it belonged to must have been old school. In it were some old school style flannels, the kind you tear by hand with the frayed edges and the soft inside, smooth outside that you use with masking tape. Also some pillow wraps, which I get.
However, there was a set of felt wraps, like pillow wraps only felt. Like thick 1/4 inch felt, all rolled up like wraps. This I haven’t seen before. Has anyone seen or still uses felt wraps?
I have never seen those! I’ll bet they were World War I’s answer to polo wraps. If they are wool and felted, they can’t shrink down anymore. I’d try 'em out.
These are like a pillow wrap only made out of felt. I think they came from an HJ barn
How dense are they? If they fit reasonably neatly between knee and fetlock I wonder if they were used under another wrap for impact protection. Same idea as porter boots.
Back in the late 70’s, early 80’s we sometimes used them as padding in standing bandages at the track. Other types of padding used included synthetic sheepskin and homemade ones of sheet cotton wrapped in cheesecloth. Of course all of these were finished by flannel wraps secured by special safety pins.
I did have a set of those in the early 90s but I never used them.
Looks like older style standing wraps. I have a neat pair of leather brushing boots that are lined with wool/felt lining. I believe they are europro. I buy a lot of old junk on eBay 😀
We used those in Europe, except ours were black felt, not white.
They fitted very well because they molded around any leg and we had cotton flannel type bandages that went over them.
They were standard for starting colts and for jumping, so if a horse hit itself or a pole, it didn’t sting or even cut them.
Not sure what we use after that is much better for the horse, other than easier to take care of the material for us.
At the track in the US we used the pillow kind, not the felt ones.
I missed the felt ones as they were more neat under the wraps.
Back in the 80s in the U.K. we used wool wraps for travel, over gamgee (cotton batting covered in gauze) or Fybagee (felt and foam: https://fybagrate.co.uk/equestrian-felt/ )
You’d also put fybagee under exercise bandages (highly elastic synthetic wraps) for cross country or polo. They had cotton tapes to hold them on (not Velcro) and you sewed the ends to make sure they didn’t come undone. Maybe put electrical tape on top too. Nightmare to do right: too loose and they fell down, too tight and they wrecked tendons. Then you chucked on your clickety-clackety petal bell boots, skull cap with a chin cup, and useless white foam back protector and away you went!
I remember when travel boots, Velcro and those plastic waffle Ulster boots with the buckles became popular. Game changer! You didn’t have to have half a day and an amateur degree in physics and home economics to protect legs and you could spend the extra three and a half hours at a show fretting over why your overgirth didn’t match your hat silk or your damned hand tied stock tie you had to wear under your sweater for XC…
We sold those in the mid nineties for standing wraps and shipping.
Oh, I see?
Those are still cool. You know how the EuroDressages are using those (very expensive), thin, channeled Cavalor “cottons” under white bandages or polos? And they have the wrap sticking up in (a sloppy-looking way) to cover the knee (but also to cover the pastern), and then they put white bells on the front to make the horse look all white from the ground to up above the knee in the front legs that makes the horse look more uphill and more extravagant in front? Yeah, I’d try using your felts underneath some white bandages for a cheaper more honest version of the same.
I think it would be really interesting to try to create a slimmer version of the cotton-and-bandage wrap for working. I love the idea that the felt melds to the leg in a way that’s just a touch better than No Bows.
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