Horse Walkers??

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Grey_Eventer

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today when i was at the yard i saw someone making their horses trot round a 5 horse walker.... surely this is not what WALKERS are meant to be used for? i was shocked to see when i came back that they had turned it up more and the smaller of the two horses was cantering/trotting to keep going round.... i know that neither of these horses are ridden, and when ridden- about 4 times a year, are jumped or galloped, well over the excercise that they are capable of, but i dont want to say anything as i dont think that it is my place to.... but surely you shouldnt be making a horse canter/trot round a walker???
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personally I don't like to see horses going faster than a walk on them, mainly because of the risk that they might slip (especially as many have concrete surfaces), and then if they fell the risk of panic and injury is quite high.
 
i would say on a 5 horse walker no. but when we move to a new place i am lookin at getting a 25 m diameter 1 and these are made with wider tracks and proper surfaces so a safe canter is obtained fine. still no replacement for proper fitness workj tho
 
There are walkers out there that are designed so you can use them for trot and even canter although I wouldn't say a standard 5 horse walker was one of them. Lots of lazy horses will trot on them though when they are turned up to walk faster
 
I wouldn't use one to canter, too unsafe IMO, but I'm pretty sure the one we have at work says walkers of a certain diameter can be used for slow trot work. I personally dislike the idea as obviously more speed makes slips and accidents more likely - I don't like the thought of a horse tripping/slipping, going down, the partition going over it and the next horse being forced to trample it
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Of course, most walkers have safety mechanisms that stop the machine if the partition comes up against too much force, but I don't even like the thought of risking it!
What's wrong with lungeing (or even riding) for trot and canter work??!
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My horse slow trots on my walker, BUT it does have a SAND walk way and is pretty wide. not an isue with him. I walk him for 10 mins both ways then turn it up for a further 15 mins both ways at slow trot. I cant ride him at the moment due to my bad back but he still goes of jumping some week ends with his show rider.I do lung but I feel to much is worse for him.
 
I worked on a massive rehab yard and we trotted the horses on the 6 horse horsewalker, these were ones that had been recently castrated and were not in ridden work or too dangerous to lunge. We had an 8 horse horsewalker on the Endurance yard attached to the rehab lot that they cantered on.
 
i wasnt too worried about trotting on walkers its just ours is a small/standard sized 5 horse one, which isnt very wide at all.... it does have rubber flooring but can still get slippy.... oh well i cant do anything! also it wasnt a slow trot it was as if they were out hunting trot!
 
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