Re: RC: leg wraps

[CMKSAGEHIL@aol.com]

In a message dated 4/27/00 3:21:32 AM Pacific Daylight Time, 
rides2far@juno.com writes:

<<  I know some very successful riders
 who do paint the horses legs with something and wrap them, and I wouldn't
 mind knowing what it is just in case I ever feel I've got a horse who
 needs it, but for now I'm happy to be lazy. >>

Personally, I think it gets back to treating each horse as an individual 
again.  I've personally had ONE horse that needed her legs wrapped--she had a 
tendency to stock up post ride (even with walking--unless one wanted to walk 
her continuously, and quite frankly after a hard ride, I think they need some 
rest, too!) and just putting her in wraps until she got home the next morning 
seemed to make a big difference.  But--if I had "routinely" wrapped, I would 
never have known that this was her specific problem, either.  Just an 
observation--she was an older broodmare when she started at this (13) and by 
the time I campaigned a hard year with her (6 years later--18 rides and 17 
Top Tens in one season) the problem HAD diminished from simply conditioning 
and miles, but never did entirely resolve.  So I continued to wrap her.

I think it is a big mistake to do things just because so-and-so who is a 
front runner does them--one has to find out WHY so-and-so does them, and 
whether it is a sufficiently good generic reason to justify the procedure or 
simply something they do to take care of a particular problem with a 
particular horse.  I'm kinda like Val on this one--I want to see what is 
going on, and then take care of it accordingly.

Heidi