Hello,
Lately ive been thinking about using polos on my horse’s front legs. Manily because i want my boots to last some time and not use them everyday. The problem is that Ive heard many people talking about downside of polos, they said that they will hurt horse’s tendons or cause the swelling. Ive been shown how to put them on correctly but im still afraid that the horse isn’t used to them and they’ll cause problems… Any advice?
I prefer polos over boots because they keep the horses legs tighter and I never have issues with windpuffs. If you’ve only been “shown” how to put them on once or twice, I would refrain from doing it yourself until you are more accustomed to putting them on. If they aren’t put on correctly, they will certainly cause issues like bowed tendons and such. But when put on correctly, horses don’t react any differently than with boots.
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Anything wrapped incorrectly can damage the legs - that’s not limited to polos.
If a horse is used to boots, there’s no reason to think he’ll be upset over polos.
Does your horse NEED leg protection? As in, does he wing and interfere?
Good quality boots should last a very long time. With polos you have the added issue of washing them on a regular basis.
Keep in mind that anything like this, whether boots or polos, causes some extra heat, and retains heat, which is not something we want on legs. It’s one thing if interference issues are the worse of the 2 evils. But if it’s for looks, then it’s best to go without.
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You still have to keep in the inside of boots clean too. I prefer polos because I think it’s easier to throw them into the wash than to scrub boots. If I needed something stronger for interference (like a hard shell open front boot), then I’d use that, but I’m only using polos to protect against minor occasional interference, generally.
