Horsewalker advice

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partypremier

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Just bought a used horsewalker & wondered if anyone knew the weight of one.
It is a four horse with full height mesh surround. Guessing I may need to hire a lorry to pick it up, but we do have a large trailer. Any ideas??
Also what surface is preferred. I know concrete is good for hardening legs but the cost of shoes is s o high now, I was thinking of rubber paving, but have heard that they do not last if you have road nails fitted to horse's shoes.
Any thoughts welcome.
 
We picked up our 5 horse 17m walker in a 510 trailer pulled behind a discovery with no problems but a friend had to hire a lorry to pick up a covered 5 horse walker with all the trimmings.

I personally hate to see concrete on a walker and have never heard of the rubber bricks wearing down. One friend has had the paving down for 5 years and only the pattern has worn away but it's still level and she uses it everyday. Someone else I know has just put down rubber stable mats and that also does the trick although sometimes they need to be pulled back into place. Again it's used daily.
 
Thanks for your help. We have a dropside trailer & van so fingers crossed!! I know someone who uses woodchip as a walker floor on concrete & they rake the track & change it every few years. But they always have to hose horses legs down each time as they get mucky!! might try the paving bricks.
 
We have rubber down. However rubber isn't ideal. Due to the horses being on a constant circle they would naturally have a slight turn in their hoof, concrete allows this, rubber doesn't as it holds the hoof. Therefore it puts more pressure on the legs.

For me the ideal surface would be a good, well maintained arena surface.
 
sammylou93 said:
We picked up our 5 horse 17m walker in a 510 trailer pulled behind a discovery with no problems but a friend had to hire a lorry to pick up a covered 5 horse walker with all the trimmings.

I personally hate to see concrete on a walker and have never heard of the rubber bricks wearing down. One friend has had the paving down for 5 years and only the pattern has worn away but it's still level and she uses it everyday. Someone else I know has just put down rubber stable mats and that also does the trick although sometimes they need to be pulled back into place. Again it's used daily.
Click to expand...

In my last job we had to change the rubber bricks every few years but then the walkers were used for 5 + lots a day every day so that 5 lots of up to 1 hour with 6 horses sometimes trotting you would expect the rubber to wear out!

We tried a surface, a sand with binder (can't remember which but we had Martin Collins to do it) and it was a total nightmare. The horses were filthy and the sand irritated their legs as they were all booted up. The first walker I ever used had wood chip and that was not too bad as long as you raked it in atleast once a week to prevent a path being worn. I would love to have access to a walker again, especially a covered one!
 
partypremier said:
Just bought a used horsewalker & wondered if anyone knew the weight of one.
It is a four horse with full height mesh surround. Guessing I may need to hire a lorry to pick it up, but we do have a large trailer. Any ideas??
Also what surface is preferred. I know concrete is good for hardening legs but the cost of shoes is s o high now, I was thinking of rubber paving, but have heard that they do not last if you have road nails fitted to horse's shoes.
Any thoughts welcome.
Click to expand...
Concrete is ideal for laming horses, a rubber surface is required, blocks are best but more expensive.
 
Would never use rubber as a surface as it doesn't allow any foot slip so puts excessive force through the joints.
 
My sister's yard have just put down rubber mats (the normal bubbly ones) in their second hand walker, they were cut like big jigsaw peices and they went down within about 2 hours, just plopped into place and no cutting. :confused: When we had the brown ones (like block paving) put in ours, it was a nightmare, loads of work, took 3 days, glueing and cutting and on top of that she paid about 40% less than we did :eek: and after 18 months (4 horse walker used for about 2 hours a day) they are starting to wear out in the middle and they are supposed to be the "high density" ones :mad:
 
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