Truthful Tuesday

 

Today's confession is more of a pet peeve that I have than a confession... But I suppose you could say my obsessive feelings about this could be something I should be confessing. Anyway. Here's my thing that I can't deal with. Wraps that aren't rolled tightly. (Bandages and/or polos I mean, not like the pillows, though I also roll those up pretty tight.) I'm talking about wraps that are waiting to be used, not wraps on the horse. Though I am also pretty particular about that as well. But for today's conversation, I'm referring to the ones fresh out of the laundry (or recently removed from a horse but ready to go one more time). It drives me bonkers when people roll wraps and they aren't tight. Do you know how much more difficult it is to properly wrap a horse with a poorly rolled wrap?? It takes considerably more time and if the person wrapping the horse isn't especially proficient at it, your definitely opening yourself up more easily to a bandage bow. Yeah I said that. 

At the boarding barn, we can throw our dirty horse laundry in the hamper and it will get washed and dried for us. (Great feature, not many barns I've been at do boarder laundry.) I wash most of my stuff at home because I have control issues, but I wash the horses' standing wraps in the barn laundry just because it's easier. So frequently, someone else rolls them up for me and puts them on the boarder shelf for me to retrieve. It's really great. Honestly. BUT. (There's always a but.) I actually would be just as happy if they folded them up instead. It would be faster for whoever is doing laundry. Because 99% of the time I unroll and re-roll my wraps from the shelf anyway. Because they'll be downright squishy. SQUISHY! You cannot wrap a horse well with a squishy wrap. Can't be done. 

When I was a little kiddo with my second lease horse my trainer Ann taught me how to roll wraps. (And actually wrap the horse too.) My first horse didn't wear wraps hence I didn't learn until the second one. I was I think 9 or 10. I vividly remember her making me re-roll a wrap about a million times until I finally got it tight enough. Literally every time I do laundry and roll wraps I think of her and this lesson. I'm not especially good at very many things, especially when it comes to horses, but I can roll a wrap and wrap a leg with the best of them. And I have Ann to thank for that. (Ann and the many, many tendon injuries I've rehabbed over the years.)

My other preference with rolling wraps is the velcro. I always thought this was just one of those things that only I was crazy about, but then one of my friends mentioned it today while talking to some of the kids about wraps and I was like WHAT?! You think that too??? Here's our preference: When starting to roll a wrap up before use, I like to fold the wrap over so that the velcro isn't stuck to itself but rather just laying atop itself if that makes sense. That way, when you've finished the wrap, the velcro just rolls right around and you don't have to change the pressure on your wrap whilst attempting to unstick the velcro. Lots of people attach the velcro to itself when rolling, so then when you're finishing the wrap on the horse's leg, you end up having to pull it harder to get the velcro detached. Inefficient. And again, if your wrap isn't rolled tightly to start with, and then you're having to pull that velcro apart... I'm just seeing bowed tendons happening all over the place. 

So what say you? Are you as insane about wraps as I am? No? Just me? Okay then. Lol!

Truthful Tuesday

I'm ridiculously behind on laundry. My laundry, the horse's laundry... and don't even think about the Pug's laundry getting done! But that's not really what this post is about. Not exactly...
So since I'm behind on laundry, that meant I had no hind no-bow wraps for Jampy after our awesome jump school on Saturday (more on that tomorrow). So I dug out some old pillow wraps for him to wear instead. They're on the thinner side for pillow wraps so they certainly were up to the job of bubble wrapping my oldish man after a day of jumping big (for us).

Obviously, we used the matching front wraps cause Jampy cares about what he looks like. So here is where I must confess. Those pillow wraps are older than Jamp. And he's 18. This brand doesn't even exist anymore! I have two sets of these pillow wraps. I got them in high school to use for shipping which is the only reason they're still alive. I had a pair for Bud and a pair for Christy. They traveled together so obviously I wanted them to match.

Bud, aka Just Humour Me, my junior hunter, and the only horse to rival Rio for the best horse ever title

Christy, aka Opulence. The most amazing children's jumper to ever walk the earth.

So Bud was a shredder. He was perfect in every single way except for that fact that if it was considered horse clothing, he would eat it. Thus it's a true miracle that those wraps are (gasp) TWENTY YEARS OLD! Since he only wore them for shipping, he never really had much chance to sink his little teeth into them. And Christy generally refused to wear hind wraps, so her set didn't get too much use. But over the years, they've been pulled out to use when the no-bows are all dirty.
I don't know if I'm impressed or depressed that I have twenty year old wraps. On the one hand, that's a feat to keep them in working order so long. On the other hand, how am I old enough to have twenty year old wraps?!

Do you have any items still in rotation that are older than you may have realized? What's the oldest equine product you have still in use?