KM-R
Active Member
Just interested to see what everyone else does after finishing the XC phase! I'm coming back into eventing after a ten-year break from competitive riding, and want to be getting things spot-on right for my gelding, who hasn't done this before. We're not doing serious tracks: yesterday was his first little ODE, but I want to get the process right for him from the start.
So yesterday we whipped tack off, flung a few buckets of water over his back, one friend scraped while I got his boots off, and another friend did a visual check for cuts/lumps/bumps. Then cold water leg boots and a light cooler on, and lots of walking ASAP. Then as he cooled took the cooler off in stages (opened first at the front, then turned back a bit and a bit more etc) and removed the cooling boots and replaced with leg cooling gel, and a bit more walking and some hand grazing before heading for home, where he turned out just fine.
Obvious disclaimers about having the horse and rider fit and ready to go beforehand making the post-xc process much easier apply - but what do others do?
So yesterday we whipped tack off, flung a few buckets of water over his back, one friend scraped while I got his boots off, and another friend did a visual check for cuts/lumps/bumps. Then cold water leg boots and a light cooler on, and lots of walking ASAP. Then as he cooled took the cooler off in stages (opened first at the front, then turned back a bit and a bit more etc) and removed the cooling boots and replaced with leg cooling gel, and a bit more walking and some hand grazing before heading for home, where he turned out just fine.
Obvious disclaimers about having the horse and rider fit and ready to go beforehand making the post-xc process much easier apply - but what do others do?