Baby's New Boots

Silent Velcro. That is what the horse world is waiting for, according to Joya.

Now that we are trailering up to Tigoni on a semi-regular basis, and we've got some out-of-town horse shows on the horizon, I have bought Joya a beautiful set of green shipping wraps. Her old set were too big and would flop down around her legs like baggy bad-boy jeans. She didn't like the look, she didn't like the feel.

The new ones fit great, and are stiff enough to sort of stand up all by themselves, which eliminates that unsightly wrinkle around the hocks. Why do they fit so well? YARDS of Velcro divided into lots and lots of strips.

Opening them. Putting them on. Taking them off. By the time you're done, you've subjected your horse to that horrible ripping-the-skin-off-the-cat Velcro sound effect a few dozen times. The first time we suited Joya up in her new gear, she looked down with a sort of horrified fascination, trembling lightly all over. When we took them off, the look changed to one of barely concealed terror. Maybe she thought we were waxing her legs?

That said, she bravely held her ground, and wore her new boots with pride the next day when we rode out to Tigoni.

With all the fuss over Joya's boots, we were slow to realize that Beauty, who is a bit of an old lady in the trailer, leaning into every little turn, had rubbed a bare spot on her tail from sort of leaning back and sitting on the chain when we were driving the curvy bits.

Fortunately, Gabe in Tigoni found an old polo wrap and a bit of tie, and he sprayed the raw spot with blue stuff then packaged her tail quite neatly for the ride home. Now we have dug out some old tail wraps from under the rest of the oddments in the tack basket and are having them repaired.