At the beginning of this year, the FEI announced stricter rules for the use of leg protection. (You can read the rules here ) So-called 'pressure points' are no longer allowed and the FEI also imposed rules on which fasteners are permitted. In this way the FEI not only wants to ensure more fairness, but also more horse welfare. We wondered if these new rules would also influence the breeding of the future, so we consulted Jan Snellen.
About Jan Snellen
Jan Snellen was around 12 years old when he was riding his bike past a meadow where an older woman was loading hay. He decided to help her, because he had always been intrigued by horses and farmers. Later it turned out that he was helping Marij Vos. She was the wife of Piet Vos, himself a former Olympic show jumper. The first horse contact was made. As a 16-year-old boy, Jan ended up at Frans van Herten and there the passion for leather began. "At one point I had a longeing cavesson that was broken," Jan explains. "The instructor had no time to fix it and the guy who runned the equestrian shop had just had a brain haemorrhage so he could not do any repairs at that time. The instructor motivated me to try it myself and then Piet, the man from the equestrian shop, lent me his stuff and helped me. He felt that I had a feeling for it and encouraged me to do it more often. It went a bit with ups and downs: I didn't do anything for a while, then I started again, ... Until I started to make leather halters with copper buckles and copper nameplates. Nobody had that yet, so I had to make a lot of them(laughs)! But to be honest horses and riding attracted me more ... In the meantime I was riding horses for Jan Tops and at one point we decided to copy John Whitaker tendon boots. I made sure that they were made well and Jan made sure that I could sell them, because he often went to national and international competitions. Albert Voorn became a customer in 1988, and that's when I started to pay attention to the smallest details (laughs). Anyone who knows Albert knows that everything has to be very precise, but I have learned a lot from that him! And, by the way, he is still a customer to this day, so he must be satisfied... "
Dorina (Franke Sloothaak)
"In 1992 I received a telephone call from Theo Molenaers. Dorina, the horse of Franke Sloothaak, had tapped herself at a competition and thereby damaged a vein. This caused Franke to be dissatisfied with the tendon boots on the market, and he asked if I did not wanted to help with the development of a new protector for Dorina. I traveled to Damme in Germany and together we drew out a model that I subsequently made. A few weeks later the model was ready and I sent it to Sloothaak by post. A few days later he was on my doorstep. He had some adjustments but otherwise it was good. I then decided to ask Franke if I could put his signature on it, because Franke was already a real celebrity back then. And before I knew it, the Franke Sloothaak protector was born. These leg protectors, for example, had loose inserts of wool, something that was totally new at the time. Franke became World Champion in 1994, so you can imagine that these leg protectors really took off..."
The first hindleg protectors
"E.T. from Hugo Simon competed in Vienna with big Hipporto's, those were synthetic boots that you had to warm up in warm water to get them in good shape and then when they cooled they became hard again," Jan explains. "Jan Tops overheard that E.T. jumped much better with them and so I had to adjust them and add lead. That was a very annoying job, because I had to heat them up every time, straighten them, adjust them, etc. So I just decided to make long leather hind boots (which then looked just like front boots in length) according to the same model, but then with lead in them. At a certain moment I sell such a model to Marcel Cleeren, the father of Kristof Cleeren. Marcel then calls me to say that his horse is reacting far too much on these boots, and asks if I can make them smaller. I did that and that is how the first hind leg protectors were created ... And you know, until about 3 years ago, the FEI never even imposed a rule on the length of the leg protectors! "
Mass production
"I have never distributed my boots to the masses," Jan continues. "Because I always thought it was very important that they were in capable hands. But a few years ago, companies started sponsoring top riders, after which they also started marketing the same products at the regular shops. I always blamed them for that, because it made sure that the amateur wanted to ride with the same tendon protection as, for example, Jeroen Dubbeldam ... I don't have to explain the rest to you, because at competitions you will regularly find someone in the 90 cm jumping with closed back boots. Those are boots that are totally unsuitable for them ... I think that is a shame, because even for ponies they sell sets of front leg protection combined with long closed back boots. Isn't it more important that children first learn to sit neatly on their pony?"
Influence of sport and breeding
In the meantime, you know more about the evolution of leg protection, but does this new FEI regulation mean that breeding also has to take a different path? "I don't think so," says Jan. "The past has always shown that it is very difficult to influence the foreleg with leg protection. It is not impossible, but not all horses are very sensitive on their forelegs, making it even more apparent that improving the foreleg technique is really an important point for breeding. The hindleg, on the other hand, is much easier to influence. There are quite a few tendons on the hindleg that are sensitive, so a boot can exert some influence. The so-called pressure points, are gradually being abolished, but this does not mean that the leg can no longer be influenced. It is still permitted to attach up to 500 grams per leg to the horse in terms of protection. For example, I have riders who want a back boot of exactly 365 grams, because their horse responds best to this. It is a matter of feeling and management to see how your horse reacts best. Some horses react very extremely, such as Carlos Lopez's Admara in the World Cup final. He just had regulatory back boots on... In my experience it is quite possible to help a well-trained show jumper to improve his hind leg technique, because that's how you should see it. It is a way to teach them how to use their body better." Yet there are horses that do not or hardly respond to leg protection? "That's right, but if someone calls me that they are jumping with 'Dodas' (as Jan calls them), and the horse does not respond to it, I first ask whit what bit they are riding. Anatomically, the horse has his tendons going from his hind leg, over his buttock, over the back to the neck. If you throw in a very sharp bit, then the horse will fix his neck and back which makes him no longer feel any signals that are indicated from behind. So indeed, it is quite possible that a horse does not react on his back boots. Conversely, a horse can also be dulled by its leg protection by using it too often or improperly. But that brings us back to the essence: there is no single tool that can replace horsemanship... ", Jan concludes.
