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Originally Posted by oracle80
I believe Round pen answered that, forgive me please Round pen if I'm mistaken and it wasn't you.
I think Round pen said that the trainers were using no stick cooking spray to keep it from sticking to the horses legs and feet.
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They are using cooking spray - it works pretty well actually. I'm pretty sure they came up with the idea in the winter. Supposedly, they weren't gonna have to bathe the horses b/c the poly wasn't dirt, but it was sticking to them anyway. Necessity is the mother of invention.
There is truth to the rumor of hoof problems. Perhaps it would be more accurate to say "foot" problems. Horses are carrying heat in their feet where they hadn't before poly. I heard an interesting theory that it's carpet burn. We all got a few of those in college. The more you think about the make-up of poly, the more the theory makes sense-after all-it has carpet fibers in it.
I also think the carpet burn theory might explain some horses not taking to poly. It might be "burning" their feet. Might also help explain why training on the surface and racing on the surface are two entirely different things.
Another thing in this general area, and Oracle or anyone who's talked to trainers could verify this, the trainers really don't know how to shoe the horses for this surface. In this area its all trial and error. Worst part is, you can't establish a trainer pattern because each horse is so different on the stuff, no one trainer has figured it out for each individual horse.