Mechanical walker

[Mid]

Was riding past this amazingly posh house and stables today... They had a mechanical walker, with a beautiful bay trotting round inside... I've never seen one of these in action before :3

Sorry for the random post xD Just wanted to know if any of you have one at your yard?

 

[amage]

yes we have one. they are fantastic. every thing in our place goes on it every day as well as getting ridden/lunged and/or out to field

 

[Irishcobs]

We have one at work. Wouldn't have then troting in it though.

 

[vicijp]

Horrid things.
People tend to overuse them, in place of proper management and work. I have never come across anyone who uses them for what they were designed, rehabilitation.

 

[gemma1992]

I think a stables near me has one. (like a lunging pen thing with arms pushing horse round) I've only seen the horses walking in it

 

[jess_asterix]

my trainer has one and hers go on it nearly everyday as well as being ridden and also a friend of my dads who has a lot of trotters uses his, and they trot round on that

 

[Iestyn]

We have one at outr yard. Used it for the first time today - even though we've had access to one's in the past. However I have always been slightly dubious about their use and we're only using it as our boy is on the back end of box rest and is coming back into walk work gradually and we're not allowed to ride him yet.

It won't be used long term by us. It's keeping him occupied whilst he's in and recovering, but as soon as he's back in ridden work that'll be it. Wouldn't like to see horses trotting on it though - a bit strenuous if it's repetitive I would think.

 

[Weezy]

Use mine a couple of times a week - if I am mucking out before riding I will chuck on (10 mins) then tack on and off we go

Use when we cannot use the fields - so horse has been in all day (I ride in the AMs) in the afternoon I will put on for 20 mins for a leg stretch

The top yard puts everything on EVERY day - I dont, but thats my choice!

ETS - you should NEVER use them for trot work IMHO

 

[Seahorse]

We have one at my yard and I've given up putting Axey on it as he stops it! Its not electrified and he just stops and eats the grass in the middle with the thing pushing his backside and manages to stop the entire thing from moving

He drives me mad so I've had to tie him to the front of it and it drags him along although the other day he managed to stop it that way too, and wouldn't move even when I yelled at him. He makes me so angry that I've given up putting him on it.
If it was electrified he wouldn't be able to do it, but its quite old

 

[vicijp]

Fix some gorse onto the back partition.

 

[eventingdiva]

Dressage yard uses one, its normally got horses on all morning (not the same horses!)
Its set to a speed where they have to walk quickly (and the pony normally as to keep jogging or he gets too slow). Not my choice but there we go.
Horrible metal thing, hate it when we put a lunitic on it. Mind you we had a power cut not so long a go and the horses stood like a rock for a reasonable amount of time until we realised it had stopped!

x

 

[Tinkerbee]

my friend has one and is handy, we put the horses on it while mucking out

 

[Seahorse]

What a brilliant idea, thanks I'll try that