He was absolutely foolish today! He got turnout in the morning for several hours when the owners were doing stalls, and got brought in shortly before I got there. I got there and turned him out without his blanket on (so he could have a good roll) and he still ran around like a silly colt! Oh and no off movement of any sort, I even went in and trotted him after his antics to make sure. So were going to start walking/trotting him on the lungeline next weekend for 5 min or so to start working up his strength again.
The local tack store had a sale so I got Lucas more multi-vitamin and joint supplement, as well as a new saddle pad and new polo wraps. :)
Does anyone have any input towards boots or Polo's for when I put Lucas back into work? He has interfered with himself before so I always work him in bell boots, and either polo's or hard shelled open front jumping boots. So what do you guys think of these options
1) SMB boots (I usually only use these for trailering, would he start relying on the support too much?)
2) Polo wraps
3) Hard shelled, open front jumper boots
4) Exercise wraps (not my personal favorite but was suggested on one website)
Does anyone else have any ideas?
5 comments:
I use SMBIIs - as long as temperatures are not too hot, they provide good interference protection as well as some suspensory support. If the interference problem is lower - feet and pasterns - bell boots might be in order. IMO, polos provide minimal interference protection and little support.
I use polo wraps and bell boots and have for my twenty some years. Haven't had any kind of leg injury during that time and I do lots of lateral work where horses are clunking on themselves when they're first learning so they've done their job on all accounts for me.
I know from my time working in a tack store, the rep for SMB told me that boots are only effective if they are put on exactly so and must only be worn by one horse so they can shape to that horse's leg. Between that and getting sand inside that caused rubs, that was it for me and any kind of molded support.
Thank you, both of you. :) I do work him in bell boots all of the time now, so they were a given. Im thinking about using the SMBII for now, atlest for the first bit, Kate have you had any problems with horses legs becoming dependent on the SMB's? Ive been sticking with the polos due to my worries on that...
Never had any problem with horses becoming dependent on SMBs. But just polos and bell boots may work well too, if you're not doing anything too extreme.
I ride Lilly in bells and SMB boots. She's terrible about stepping all over herself and I've had really good luck when she's wearing these.
There's all kinds of pros and cons to SMBs, but I like them the best. I just have to make sure her legs are cool after I take them off. Course, lot of good it does me when she tears a ligament playing in the pasture...
:)
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