Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

I have a [probably stupid] question about poultice.

How does it work? <sheepish>

I mean, I know the idea is, slap it on, wrap it in
paper (I'm assuming to stop it glopping everywhere?),
then wrap the whole caboodle with quilts and polo wraps.

The pressure from the polo wraps stops any filling,
right? The quilts stop you bowing the tendon from
wrapping too tight... and the poultice, er, draws out
heat?

How?

It seems to me, that if you wrap the legs up tight
in all those layers, you're keeping all that heat
in, no? But the poultice draws it out... by osmosis?
sucky mud? What?

And I'm also hazy on when/why one might use it (of
course I understand the basics, but...thinking aloud
here...)

I've heard two schools of thought:

"I always poultice and wrap after a hard ride to
prevent any filling"

and

"I never wrap after a hard ride, as I want to know
if there is any filling"

At what stage do you accept that if you do a hard
ride, some horse's legs will fill and you should
probably poultice/wrap regardless?

Is it personal preference? Or does it depend on the
horse? How does one judge if any filling is significant -
or just what that particular horse does - or just what
most horses do...? Will horses with old injuries always
fill?

If you do wrap, how long for? Does it depend on the distance
you rode? the conditioning of the horse? the way a particular
horse's legs react to stress?

If you wrap, do you always poultice?

Or do some people poultice and not wrap? Why?

Confused


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Lucy Chaplin Trumbull
elsie AT foothill DOT net
Repotted english person in Sierra Foothills, California
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