"Bobby's been vandalized!": RockTape Review

I've had kinesio tape in mind for Bobby for quite awhile. I'd seen it on other top equine athletes in the past, and I'm always interested and willing to test out a new health fad. With Bobby's history of a chronically weak hind end that needs a lot of work to stay strong, but can also get sore with how much work it needs, I was mostly interested to test it out along his haunches and hip.

starting with the cheeks

Riding Warehouse had a twenty percent of sale on RockTape one day so I jumped at the chance to get a small roll to test it out. I watched a few youtube tutorials and read over their website. It didn't look particularly difficult to apply and with a good base knowledge of what muscles ran where, I went out to the barn to play with it.

Turns out it's actually a lot more difficult to apply than it appears. You have to figure out the correct tension to apply it without pulling it so tightly that it becomes uncomfortable. You also have to make sure you really rub it aggressively to activate the glue well, while not rubbing it so much that you pull the tape right off. I had the hardest time getting the bottom of the tape to stay down, and I have a feeling that's mostly me not getting the tension right.

bobby has a lot of issues, what can i say?

I applied it to Bobby the first time right after he'd been body clipped so I thought for sure that gave it the best chance to stay on. When the kids went to bring him in that night, they went rushing to BM and exclaimed, "Bobby's been vandalized!" So BM had to explain that no one had crept into the paddock and slapped stickers onto my horse, and that instead it was just me trying another silly experiment.

The tape stayed on so-so, although probably pretty well considering he was turned out, but in the end I didn't really notice a difference in my ride. I brought the tape home and doctored Hubby's weak wrist with it, and he said he definitely felt a difference with the tape on.

one day later

The tape sat around for awhile until I got to the barn one day and Bobby had a massive knot along his spine towards his lower back. Figuring it wouldn't hurt, I pulled it back out and taped over the knot. It stayed on better this time as I felt like I had a little better handle on it after sticking it to Hubby a few times.

day of application

Two days later I pulled it off while waiting for the massage therapist to arrive, and I was legitimately surprised to find that the knot was gone. He was still sore in the area, but that rock hard cement block that had laid along his back was completely dissipated. Color me impressed.

two days later

I've tried using it once more on his weird right front leg, but I couldn't get a good handle on the angle while trying to get the tension right. Most of the tape was gone the next morning and his leg was still it's normal chunky size.

I'd love to have someone who was actually trained in using the tape to come out and work on Bobby. I do think it's an effective use of therapy, especially when combined with massage work, but for me it's not worth buying another roll to use myself simply because I don't know enough about applying it to make it worth the money.

Check out Cathryn's guest post here for more info!