The European Princess Thoroughbred

every princess sparkles!! 

Does anyone else remember when I did a Teach Me Tuesday on those funky dressage wraps a few months back? Blog reader Liidia explained that they are designed to spread pressure very evenly and eliminate any possible pressure spots. It's apparently a European thing, but it seems to be catching on here.

Fascinating.

Of course, I promptly bought a set.

Now before you're all "OMG SB YOU ARE THE WORST" (which I am, but that's immaterial), know that I sucked it up and bought knock offs. Of course everyone wants the Eskadron liners, but they're $50 for a set and that's a lot to spend on something you don't know how to use.

So instead, I bought the Roma knock offs, which are not nearly as cool, but can be had for $20 shipped. (And yes, that is a link to horseloverz, and no, I do not recommend buying from them. I did it and I regret it.)

ew

At any rate. I got my knock offs, ran out to the barn, put them on, and yeah...

There is obviously a technique to this that I needed help with. Let's face it: those look like bad standing bandages, and that's super insulting to someone who actually wraps GOOD standing bandages.

Ouch. Mega embarrassing.

Needless to say, I took them off, stuck them in my trunk, and pretended they didn't exist until I could talk a fancy friend into coming out to teach me how to use them.

kind of a princess

Before we can go farther, let me explain something: Courage is SUPER weird about his back legs. He used to completely shut down and not be able to move if he had hind boots on. The one time I tried putting full-height XC boots on his back legs, I had to take them off because he kicked the wall so hard I thought he'd hurt himself.

justification for an extensive wrap collection

When I wrap his hind legs (in polos to ride--lord knows you can't leave this animal alone with hind bandages), he wrap-dances so hard that I have to warn spectators to stay back so they don't get kicked. When I put his hind Back on Track polos on, his hooves come nearly belly high. It's bad.

After the first ten or so steps, he's capable of walking like a normal horse again, but he does this every.single.time. I wrap his hind legs. Oh, and he's so narrow behind that I wrap/boot his hind legs for every.single.ride to prevent turning them into hamburger.

note added thickness of liners

With that in mind, my friend came out to teach me how to use the liners. As per the usual, we wrapped him in his stall. As per the usual, I warned her to stand WELL BACK as I lead him off so no one got clobbered.

As per the usual, I leg him forward with a wary eye on his hind legs.

AND OMG.

YOU GUYS.

drumroll please....

HE WALKED OFF LIKE A TOTALLY NORMAL HORSE.

For serious. Not even a hint of wrap dance. Just stepped forward, tracking up, calm and smooth as can be.

I never thought I'd see the day. For real.

so fancy

We went ahead and rode him, and he felt absolutely fabulous (which is starting to be his normal, omg), but about every three minutes, I just started laughing.

Who knew my little cheapie OTTB was secretly a European princess horse.