Boots on horses: limb protection or hyperflexion training aids in the showjumping horse

Showjumping riders regularly employ various schooling strategies to control the horse's jump stride kinematics (JSK). Strategies include plyometric training regimes with fences of different heights and widths set at specific distances. Gymnastic grids teach the horse to jump cleanly. Rapping, once used almost routinely, is no longer in vogue. However, the use of performance enhancing (PE) boots on the distal hind limbs to alter equine JSK has become popular. There are two broad categories of PE boots: weighted and pressure. Some riders use so-called weighted boots on the horses' hind limbs during training and in competition to improve the jump stride. The application of so-called pressure boots may be little more than an adaptation of this technique. It appears that the PE boots induce hyperflexion of the hind limbs and incline the horse to jump fences cleanly. In the absence of scientific appraisal, it is unclear if such boots are acceptable and innovative training aids within equitation.